Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-03-27

And as the interests of Capital are, strictly
speaking, the interests of the whole COM
munity, it is worth while to examine this
statement with some care.
1t is to the interest of Capital that COM
merce should be untrammeled that taxa
ton should be as little burdensome as pos
sible; that Congress should be filed with
statesmen instead of demagogues that the
material welfare of the country should be
fostered without the backing of any lobby (;
that government, national, state and mu-
nicipal, should be honestly and efficiently
conducted that the public needs should
be more influential than the sordid aims of
Faction; that the fullest protection should
be obtained for life and property, the
utmost equity in the administration of the
laws, the most universal respect for gov
ernmental authority, the most complete
utilization of Labor, and the amplest and
least restricted field for the employment of
Capital. All this will be freely admitted,
and it will also be admitted that if these
conditions can be secured, national pros
perity and progress must be guaranteed.
These conditions, however, are not to be
had by any dependence upon the strong J"
government hypothesis. To perceive how
this is so it is necessary to realize who they
are who have set up this cry, and what
they stand for. 1t is not doubtful that the
demand for strong" government came
originally from the class known as "ma-
chine politicians. This class includes all
those who have during the past ten years
and more stood resolutely up in the defense
of governmental corruption of the worst
kind; who have hardly and shamelessly
justified or condoned the Whisky Ring,
the Babcock, and Belknap, and Shepherd,
and Delano, and Williams, and other scan
dals; who have resisted reform of the civil
service; who have approved the usurpa-
lions of those ring chiefs who through
organized fraud have secured control of
whole States; who have in season and out
of season supported whatever measures
tended to -centralize governmental power
in few irresponsible hands, and to
to the condition of ciphers. Now we
assert. as matter open to the
plainest demonstration, that any alliance
between Capital and this class must be I'm.
natural and pernicious For the tenden-
cies of this class are not at all towards
good government, but the thing they call
strong government is a government
strong enough to keep bad men in Office, to
defy public opinion, and to shelter those
who batten on corruption. Such a gov
eminent cannot co-exist with free and
fourishing condition of Capital, for how
ever it may pretend to be in sympathy
with the latter it will regard it with sim
gle eye to the opportunities for plumber,
and if it rescues it from other dangers it
will only be that it may appropriate all the
spoil to itself. A corrupt civil service. a
Congress resting on this corruption, the
greed and rapacity of faction everywhere
dominating the public interest, alien hordes
seizing the government of every wealthy
city, and confscating the property of the
taxpayers in order to secure the votes of
the proletariat, = these are among
the natural Accomplishments and out
growths of strong government, and
yet they are bat faint indications of what
must follow if the country is once formally
abandoned to this disastrous experiment.
History indeed abounds with instances
OF similar mistakes made by Capital. In