Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-01-06


% worked well together, and they never
"will. The sooner our countrymen in
California comprehend the fact, and adj
81 just their legislation in harmony with it,
90 the sooner they will work their way out
" of the slough of despond into which they
" have permitted themselves by sheer in
90 difference to the bad influences around
60 them to be precipitated." 1t is clear
that /" there is but one way out of the
60 trouble, and that is 70 undo the suicidal
Legislation that is mainly responsible
for it. y
These comments are so far based on facts
that no Californian possessing Competent
familiarity with the existing condition Of
things will venture to question their Apo
STIFFNESS. 1t is undeniable that the new
Constitution has had the most seriously
damaging effects upon public confidence,
enterprise and business. No one made any
money last year in this State, and most
men lost money. That the general depres-
sion was directly attributable to the fears
which the communistic and hostile meas
ures embodied in the Constitution excited,
is certain. That these fears can be removed
without in some way mitigating the evils
which the Constitution entails, cannot be
believed. There are those who think it
advisable to pretend certain reverence for
the Constitution, merely because it has
been adopted, and who talk as though the
fact of its adoption had in some mysterious
way purged it of all mischievous proper
ties. But the truth is that its adoption
was the most disastrous blunder eyer COM
mitted by community, and that to pre-
tend it is not now what it has always been
is to abandon the only means of relief from
its pernicious propositions. If the Legisla-
ture now in session is to 60 on and carry
into full effect the crude and injurious
measures outlined in the organic law, the
people had better make up their minds
that their last state will be worse than
their first, and they must prepare to wit
ness such an emigration of capital before
next summer as will leave the State bare
and poverty-stricken. Politicians, there
fore, will do well to reflect upon the impli-
cations of their course this winter. They
must realize that it is not, as usual, a
mere question of the political consequences
of this or that measure which is involved,
but question of the material
well-being of the whole community. No
people can hope to prosper under such a
regime as the new Constitution proposes.
The mere apprehension of that regime has
already driven millions of capital out OF
the State, has compelled banks to go into
liquidation, has brought ruin upon manu-
featuring enterprises, has prevented in.
vestment, and has paralyzed the natural
and healthy growth of the whole region.
Now there can be no prosperity for politi-
clans or any one else in the absence of a
fiourishing commerce and unchecked pro.
ductive industry, and moreover if the work
of this session is followed by bad results
the unthinking are very apt to charge
their tribulations upon the present Legis-
lature, instead of upon the trainers of the
Constitution.
What has happened already, however,
ought to serve as guide for the future.
1t is evident that the tendency of last
years legislation has been to scare capital
out of the State. 1t is certain that laws
which drive out capital must be bad laws.
1t is idle to expect that foreign capital can
be had to replace that which has been lost,
or that the people who remain here are any
likslier than those who have left to find
advantageous employment for their money.
a state of things (which discourages invest
| ments must be an ianhealthy state of things,
and unhealthy not Ierely for the capital
list, but for every class down to the field
hand. A brand has been set upon Califor-
MA before all the world. 1t has been pro-
claimed that in this State deliberate
effort has been made TO punish sue
cessfnl industry, to conGseate capital,
to tax enterprise and thrift out of
existence. No State, whatever its natural
resources. can long survive SO suicidal a
policy. Such laws are in the nature OF
throttling bandages fastened about its
Throat, and they will kill it beyond resur-
reetion if they are not loosened or re.
moved. This is the problem before the
Legislature. 1t has the destiny of the
State in its hands. Whether this shall be
a prosperous or disastrous year depends
far more upon its action than upon the
amount of the rainfall or the area sswn in
wheat. There are thousands of enterpr;s.
ing and substantial men, whose business
transactions. habits AID affiliations attach
them deeply to California, who are watch.
ing the Legislature anxiously, and who,
despite their predictions, will follow
the retiring movement of capital if moth.
ing is done to counterfeit the fatuous pro.
gramme OF the trainers of the Constitution.
1t IL not therefore juncture where honest
and public spirited men can afford to NAV |
the part OF trimmers. No such conoes-
sions to depasogism, ignorance and com,