Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-09-04

dangerous elements are at the disposal OF
demagogues They can be made to respond
to any war-cry whatever. They are easily
led against the elements which stand for
law and order. Possessing nothing them
selves, and incapable of accommodating, they
are the natural enemies of steady thriftand
patient industry. Supporting and sup
ported by the myriad foul doggeries of the
great city, these classes sink from bad to
worse, cultivating their communism
by filthy feeding and lodging and
rapidly growing into chronic and
hopeless anarchists and incendiaries,
such as the suburbs of Belleville poured
out into the streets of Mortified
Paris a decade since, when the local
government had given way to mob VIC.
lence. Great seaports, again, attract an
abnormally large proportion OF foreigners.
The population of San Francisco is II we are
not mistaken the most mixed OF any city in
the world Its foreign element already not
only outnumbers but outvotes its native
element The latter is in danger of being
swamped by the alien horde, and 1t APP
pears that in few years San francisco
will be American only in name. The
foreign clements furnish by far the largest
contingent to the army OF the demagogues.
1t is scarcely to be doubted that the
materials already exist there for the imi-
tation of the Tweed Ring. And if the
new charter is adopted it will thenceforth
always be possible for such crimes to be
perpetrated. For Of all the lessons taught
by municipal government during the last
hall century, the most important and the
plainest Is that great cities ought never to
be taken from under the influence and
control of the State at large. Had not
the State of New York possessed such con.
troll over the city OF New York, and had
not the difficulty Of tampering with the
State Legislature been an effective OBJ
stacle at critical times, the Tweed Ring
frauds would have bankrupted the
municipality downright. In this State it
is well known that the Legislature mas on
several occasions stood between the me-
tropolis and organized plunderers. Again
and again have the latter come up here
with their carefully matured plans Of rob
berry, and though they have not seldom
succeeded in securing the San Francisco
delegation, again and again have they been
baffied and defeated by the sturdy honesty
of the country members. The tendency
of urban growth is az we have shown, to-
wards the increase OF the venal elements
in politics. The elements which desire
good government must therefore depend
more than ever upon the assistance OF the
State in emergencies. But the new Con-
stitution cuts San Francisco off from all
help She is to be a law to herself. The
Legislature cannot interfere with her con-
Germs. Her people must fight their own
battles unaided, and must encounter their
thieves and rowdies as best they may.
That such scheme should have been
adopted under the existing conditions
justifes the sharpest suspicion OF the hon
esty of those who advocated the isolation
of the city, for it is perfectly evident that
the arrangement plays directly into the
hands OF the dangerous classes.
The truth is that the city stands in need
Of the country, and that without the
country influence to act az a balance weight
il cannot prosper. The population of the
country deteriorates less rapidly than that
of the city, in the first place. It is upon
the streets of the seaport that the first
waves OF promiscuous immigration are
dung, and these waves are being contin-
ually renewed. a large proportion of this
foreign matter goes no further, but settles
down on the spot to swell the percentage
o; ignorant and perverted suffrage, and to
handicap the conservative elements still
more. 10 shut up the city within itself Is
therefore to doom it to government by its
dangerous and unfit classes, and it seems
to US that this is the fight to which San
Francisco is sentenced by her new charter, or
rather by the arrangements which the new
Constitution has madefor her The theory
upon which she has been granted sepa-
rate government is a very pretty one IN the
abstract, but unfortunately it has scarcely
any relation to existing conditions. Every
election that has taken place there duriag
the past ten years has shown steady in
crease in the foreign and capricious and
Enthusiastically vote. There is no ground
whatever for anticipating any compeDsat-
ing growth in the vote of the conservative
classes. On the contrary, it is evident
that they are diminishing rather than in
creasing, and in fact the tendencies of the
government of late years nave been such
as to drive cut many desirable citizens.
And it does not matter much what kind of
charter is adopted so long as this isola-
ton of the city continues, for it should be
apparent that the proletarian vote must in
the end debauch and break down any
scheme that can be devised, since this vote
promises the offices to the greatest rascals
and demagogues, and excludes seli-respect
ing men from politics. Hitherto the State
has saved the city, but hereafter this can
not happen. When in the natural course
of events a set of knaves get possession of
the government Of San Francisco, the peo-
pie will have to endure their abuses quietly,
for the Legislature viii be incapable of in
terferepce. In the past there was always
possibility of defeating bad municipal
legislation, or of carrying benefcent re.
forms, by an appeal to the State. Under
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