Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-02-10
rRom zee gzNArg re zee AssgnBLy.

and all concern for the future welfare OF
the State. One Senator made a speech
which showed him to be outrageously and
diggracsfully ignorant on the whole qpes-
tion. Another calmly confessed that he
should vote for the repeal against his own
Judgment, and solely because his oonstitu-
ents, who know nothing Of the facts. are
opposed to being taxed. Other Senators
thought It necessary TO disguise their real
motives by speeches which emphasized
their utter lack Of capacity and sound
judgment. And SO the foregone eonclu-
sion was at length reached, and the re-
peal bill was adopted, but certainly not in
such way as to leave any room for doubt
as to the true reasons Of this vote.
So the bill goes from The Senate to the
House, and we trust that here it will be
met by men of different mettle, and that
it will be defeated. We have labored
very hard to instil into the minds of men,
bers an adequate realization Of the gravity
of this issue. IF our efforts in this direc-
ton prove futile, it is not we but the
people of California who will have cause
to regret the event. we have no further
interest in the question than hundreds of
thousands of citizens. It viii be as easy
for us to leave the Sacramento Valley as
for any residents of 1t. if the worst comes
to the worst. We stand to day for no
personal or sectional consideration what,
ever, bat for the best and highest interests
Of the entire community. Our oppo-
nents have at last been obliged to
fall back upon the thoroughly contempt
bic plea that the enormous tax of one
twentieth of one per cent. was crushing
those who paid it.
The discussion of the question has not
proceeded upon logical or rational princi-
pies, so far as the friends of repeal are con-
cerned. They have failed to prove that
the engineering works determined upon are
in any respect failures. They have failed
to impeach the conduct of the Commits
sioners They have failed to show that it
is not the plain duty of the State to under
take this work. They have been routed
and overthrown wherever they have dared
to make stand. They have against them
the opinions of the only men whose
training and research render them
authorities on the subject. They have
against them the facts of history. They
have against them the laws of Nature.
They have against them the best interests
of the community. And for the position
they have assumed there is but one solitary
excuse-namely, that the people are SO
narrow minded as to grudge an almost
intangible tax for the purpose of saving
half of the State from destruction.
We do not think much of the intelli.
gence of any man who uees this ar
gument as though he thought it valid.
All who except it in fact adopt the
monstrous and imbecile theory that the
stupidity and ignorant prejudice of the
community ought to control its repre-
sentatives, and that the only possibly
respectable conclusions, which are those of
educated men who understand the situa-
ton, are to be thrust aside. This is the
wretched attitude in which the Senate has
placed itself. We trust that the Assem-
bly, will exhibit at once more public spirit
and more common sense. This debris
question is not party one, nor is it q
sectional one, but it is Of almost equal con-
sequence to all parts of the State. Ii tie
Drainage Act is repealed, and the State
Engineers Department is abolished, Cali.
fornia will be stultiied, and popular gov
ernmeat viii be made ridiculous and con-
temptible 1t will be said, and said truly,
that this State, after spending half mill
ion il ascertaining how her rivers could
be restored and her drainage be more salts
facsorily accomplished, had deliberately
resolved to throw away the whole of this
outlay on the threshold of the experiment,
and for no better reason than because
some small-gouIed jmbecies begrudged a
tax Of five cents on the one hundred dol
lars.
On the other hand it has been demon
strated that If the works already begun be
continued and the whole plans be carried
out, the most beneficial results will be OBJ
tanned, and the floods which have hitherto
produced so much damage at brief inter
walls will be obviated That is the DELHI
erately recorded opinion Of Captain Eads,
than whom no better engineer lives to-day.
1t has further been found that the compile
ton of the works designed viii bring I'M
der taxation between 100000 and
$780, 600, 600 of new capital, the introduce
ton of which must tighten the general
burden. Not to carry out these plans is to
invite ruin which will involve the entire
Sacramento valley, and one immediate
effect of which must be to increase the
general burdens of taxation by reducing
the amount of taxable property in the
State.
We do not see how any candid mind can
possibly resist the force of these considera-
tons. There can be no doubt that in this
issue the defense OF popular interests is
intrusted to those who are resisting the
repeal of the Drainage Act, and that those
who urge that repeal stand for nothing
but miserable pawnbroking meanness.
which would ruin any community if SUBJ
mitted to. 1t is only by carrying on the
engineering works began that the habita-
bility of this valley can be maintained, and
those whose present efforts are directed to
preventing the redemption of the valley
will discover before they are done that
men who have their whole future on the
die are resolute, unfinching and particu-
larry formidable antagonists
RELIEF FROM UNJUST TAXATION.
The legislative session is rapidly passing
away, and the prospect of the enactment
of several most necessary laws is becoming
daily more dubious. Among those which