Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-09-01

the conclusion LhaG Inc CanuiUaISS iOT OL1ce |
all round are among the wickedeat men in
the community. Indeed there would seem
to be very little room for choice among !
them in respect of total deprayity, though |
it may appear to the wholly unprecedented
mind that some of the accusations preferred |
are not a little irrelevant. Thus we per-
ceive that nominee for the Mayoralty is
fiercely assailed on the ground that he en-
ploys Chinese, or that if he does not en-
ploy them himself another man to whom
he has leased ranch, employs them.
Many of the objections however are more
serious. Thus candidate for Sheriff is
objected to on the ground that he gets
drunk, and assaults and batters people,
and uses profane language. These are
certainly not super-fastidious grounds OF
objection, though of course it remains to
be shown that they are true.
All, or nearly all the candidates appear
to be certain that all their opponents are
rasealz. This is sad, because if there is an
average amount Of accuracy about the PIE
vailing belief it would seem quite impossi-
bic for San francisco to elect good men to
Office. But there can hardly be SO general
an acceptance Of this sinister belief as q
casual reading of the local journals might
indicate, for it is further reported that the
ticket which has received on the whole the
largest share of abuse is most likely to be
cuccesaful. If this is the case it follows
either that the majority of the San Fran
cisco voters prefer rogues in the municipal
government, Or that they do not accept the
journalistic view of the candidates. Ex-
perience, which is followed with profit in
almost everything but politics, has indeed
quite conclusively demonstrated that
abusive campaigns are very seldom effective
ones. No doubt there is great deal Of
prejudice and ignorance abroad, but there
is also powerful tendency among the ma
jority of men to revolt from indiscriminAte
this tendency that a great many really
unfit candidates have been elected merely
as 8 protest against the violence of the
attacks upon them. II is therefore a
mistake to suppose that a resort to fierce
and vituporative language argues knowl-
edge of the influences which move men.
A thoroughly-abused candidate often finds
himself better helped by his most bitter
enemies than he can be byhis friends. Bat
when journals ard men get into politics
they are apt to forget all this, and to i'm
agine that the best way to make q winning
fight is to assal their opponents as hotly
as possible.
And too much abuse deadens the public
sensibiiity, moreover. Where the press is
in the habit Of denouncing all candidates
whom it dIsapproves, and seeking to brand
them with infamy, it soon becomes easy
for really bad men to get into office. The
reason for this is plain. The public come
to understand that three. fourths OF the
press abuse is mere froth and foam, and
that Il does not argue any real demerit
in the objects of It. Therefore, if the press
attack men who are IN fact unfit, the public
conclude that the old game is being played
again, and attach no Importance to the de-
nunciation. 1t is the story Of the boy who
cried "Welf wolf !" when there was no
wolf, in short. When abuse is the constant
fate of all who have not received the
approval of this or that journal, the infu-
ence of the press declines, and when the
people have learned by experiment that it
is possible to ignore journalistic advice al
together, they are apt to act upon this dis.
coverY for some time to come. at present
in San Francisco there is no concord or con-
sissency among the journals. Party lines
are hardly recognizable, though it is clear
that the Democrats and Workingmen In
tend to vote together with very few excep-
tons. The papers, however, have taken
sides upon more abstruse considerations.
There Is supposed to be Spring Valley
demon lurking somewhere, and guiding the
whirlwind in quite a Providential sort OF
way, and this supernatural and malignant
intangible influence has much to do with
the position of some Of the papers.
Beneath the din and fury of the jour
naistic war the voting cohorts appear 10
be organizing with very little regard TO the
nature of the monitions so freely admin
istered. The merits OF Blake and Howe,
and Cowdery and Hammond, and Desmond
and Ssdgwick, as discussed on the streets,
seem to have little Or nothing in common
with the views taken by the pspcrs. There
are in fact two fights going on, and the
real one is not that which seems to be
represented in the public prints. No
doubt the zeal and enthusiasm Of the able
editors viii increase from this onward to
the close Of the campaign, and when they
have said their say, and hurled their last
denunciation, the voters will 90 to the
polls and make it apparent that public
opinion is after all very little influenced by
red-hot journalism. AS, according to the
local press, all the candidates are equally
bad, Of course it does not signify much
which of them are elected but If the pub |
lie really believed the stories told about |
these candidates it ought to surprise no one
if Vigilance Committee were organized |
for the purpose of hanging or banishing the
whole OF them. As the characters given
TO them are understood to be for the most |
part fictitious, however, the probability is
that San Francisco viii have about as good |
or bad a government as usual, no matter
which side polls the most votes. The hope
that any reforms in municipal government
can come out Of the present contest, how
ever it terminates, is of course rot to be 7
entertained for moment.
INDIANS or WHITE mEg7
Ii is now iptimated that There "a 5o,,ht 1