The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1880-12-17
THE CURSE OF CALIFORNIA.

THE CURSE OF CALIFORNIA.
For years California has been rent
with discussions amounting almost to
revolution. In the political upheavals
which have taken place, the worst class
es have been thrown To the front. The
tranquil masses" have been in large
measure OVERFLOW cred in governmental
affairs. Such Adventures as Kalloch
and Kearncy have held sway. The new
constitution adopted couple of years
ago was a surprise TO the people OF the
country in its wild and communistic
provisions. Bishop Simpson, the elo-
quent Methodist divine, has lately finish
ed an extended trip to the Pacific coast,
and is credited with saying something
that furnishes hint at the cause tor all
| the trouble which California has suffer
ed. He says, that the lands, the rail
roads, the steamships, and the capital of
California, arc still in very few hands /;
that the people are poor, and that 1t
possesses fewer homes for worklngmen
than any other part of the country.
Those who have lived in California
know that this is true statement of the
facts IN regard TO that state.
The great distress in business matters
which has prevailed in that state is very
largely owing to the fact the land and
capital has been in the hands of a
few men who have cared little and
done less for tho public good. The land
owners have refused to sell their lands,
and the capitalists to employ their capi'
tai in any way beneficial to the masses
and the masses becoming disguised, and
having the voting power, passed com
munistic constitution for the state, which
has had the effect TO drive capital out Of
it. The trouble of single ownership o.
vast tracts of land still remains and is
, liable to result in still more disastrous
effects than the state has yes exper
fenced.
3 A California writer says: ''On uncul
tivated tracts of land in the new stat
{ of California may he seen the blackeneC
E chimneys of homes from which settler
E have been driven by force of laws which
t ignore natural right, and great siretche
! of land which might be populous ar
, desolate, because the recognition of e.
elusive ownership has put it in the pow
e err of one human creature TO forbid hi
4 fellows from using it," When we cor
: slider these facts it is not singular, bt
: cause il is not unnatural, that commur
1 ism and Kearneyism should becOm
popular, and the controlling politica
force Fortunes and land possessions sue
9 as have existed in California, are nOthin
+ but feudalism revived, such q system a
$ has nearly ruined Ireland and Eng
= land, and will, il continued, ruin an
l country, Such state of things Is sure I
r result in revolution, and it will he brougl
v about quicker here than in the oil
!. countries, because here the people hav
: the intelligence and power, and know i
" and they will not wait so long as the pa
;, tient plodders who lived under the syi
tenn until they came to have some sol
d of stupid regard for it. The peOpl
,. have the ballot, which is power. and the
II will finally wipe il out as they woul
l. any other unjust oppression. Let u
: hope, however, that the folly of the pre-
u ent system in that state will be see
II and remedied before worse results tina
& any the state has yet suffered sha
2, !