Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-03-19

lSHOIdHbiy. lHC WOiShinS Va sSo'iiioay 10
one of the very last things thought of by the
public generally, and unfortunately those
who seek to serve themselves by fattering
the masses are under strong temptations
to encourage whatever prejudices are prev
alent, no matter at whose cost. In the
case of the anti-monopoly movement it is
very certain that nearly the whole agita-
ton rests upon misrepresentation. Certain
claptrap statements have been made by
demagogues regarding railroad corpora
tions, and these statements have been
accepted as true without the least in
quiry, and in short time have come
to be quoted as automatic. Take for
example another of Judge Blacks fragrant
blunders. Several years ago fiippant and
ill-inforrned writer upon railroad manage
ment stated as fact that four trunk-road
managers could meet in hotel parlor at
New York, and by clapping five cents a
GENITAL on the grain rate could make diff
ference of forty-five or fifty millions to the
producers. This statement has been re.
peated ten thousand times, but it's utter
absurdity has never been exposed until now,
when Mr.. Fink strips it bare in moment
by showing that the writer cited had taken
the whole wheat crop of the country as a
basis for his estimate, whereas the four
trunk-road managers could not, by putting
five cents per Genital on the wheat that ac-
tually passed over their lines, have made
a difference exceeding $1,000, 900 to the
producers. But Judge Black followed
those who had gone before him in accept
ing this story without inquiry, and if such
man as he is liable to be misled in this
way, what can be expected from the ma.
jority
Almost the whole case against the rail.
roads is in fact composed of equally fra
gle and Enthusiastically materials It is a
fabric of falsehood. prejudice, credulity
and malice. Our readers know how often
in this State the most formidable. seeming
charges of the same kind have melted
away upon serious investigation, and how
often few words from railroad official
have exposed the fallacies lurking under
popular conceptions. In the East. how
ever, there appears to have been even less
disposition to serious inquiry than there
was even here. The business men and
lawyers and people of New York seem to
have plunged headlong into the fight with
even more precipitancy and perverseness
than the Western Changers exhibited some
years ago, and the widest nonsense is being
accepted and paraded as justification for
the most radical and tyrannical legislation.
This is very serious state of affairs. and
when we reflect upon the example which
the United States Supreme Court has set
the people in this connection, we cannot but
fear for the future. For it is plain to all
who choose to perceive it that the later
rulings of that Court have all tended to the
introduction of excuses for majority op-
preston of the most comprehensive and
outrageous character. Nothing preserves
society in any event but mutual confidence.
Destroy that by throwing the weight of
the Courts upon the side of dishonesty and
chicane, and the result is anarchy, but
when to this demolition OF the confidence
which cements society is added the stimu-
lation of majority tyranny by reckless and
persistent misrepresentation, it is difficult
to see where the evil viii stop. In such
case the very absence of limitation to the
powers of the majority must in no long
time prove fatal to the republic.
When the people form false and injuri.
BUS views, as at present, and when they are
not only to believe that
their safety demands hostile action
against corporations, but that their |
sovereignty places them above the
of observing contracts faith
ully, it is plain that they are en-
ooldened to exercise their power not only
With great severity, but with total disre.
,ard of moral considerations. 1t is under
UGH influences that communities and |
lations have been led to repudiate their
ust debts, and even to insult and iniure
heir creditors. 1t was under such in
luences that the Grecian Republics werein-
'olved in hopeless social quarrels from the
War to the conquest
# their country by Rome. It was
Inder such influences that the people
f those republics gradually proceeded
rom imposts to contiscations, from
rom confiscations to lawless plunderings,
rom lawless plunderings to bloody con-
ests, and thence to those awful culmina.
ions of internecine strife which are illus.
rated by the case Of Miletus, where, when
II other devices had been exhausted, the
factions seized and cruelty
laughtered one another's children.
To such excuses is humanity liable
,hen the checks and balances of civiliza-
ion are Withdrawn, and no man can doubt
hat the tendency of Judicial Interpretation
4 this country at present is towards their
limitation. 1t is impossible to teach the
eople to regard dishonesty in their cor.
crate capacity as permissible, without
laking them individually depraved. And
nce the stability of democratic repub-
C depends even more upon the integrity
han upon the intelligence of the majority,
) follows that dishonest majority can
My produce anarchy and ruin and general
ollapse. The tyranny of the majority
Tas never SO menacing as to-day, because
) is becoming more and more an irrespon-
ible power, divorced from moral influences.
THE MEMPHIS DECISION.
The decision Of the Supreme Court of
10 TTp,4ad SHa4os r., 4ha Nf.r,,,b,s oa.e L.. |