Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-05-15
rHs SEASON OF POLITICAL BueABoos

Tagging interest to the stale and worn out
humbug which is served out to it and
takes sides on fictitious Issues with all the
enthusiasm of boys. The most curious
feature Of the campaign, however, is the
unfailing success which attends the dole
tul representations put forward by each
party against the other. In the first place,
tremendous crisis is invariably supposed
to exist. The public is informed that the
country is in the most terrible danger.
Unless the people awake to the gravity of
the situation they will be enslaved. This
enslavement is always the principal
point. First the people are to be plum
dered, and then enslaved. That is the
regular programme. But there is after all
a silver lining to the sable cloud. If
only the intelligent voters will arouse
themselves and vote for the great Millen.
NAL Party's candidates, all the dangers
which impend will be dissipated, rents,
taxes and dry goods bills will be lowered
80 per cent, and everything will be serene
and lovely.
The extravaganza of the representations
Of course varies in intensity. There is
less gloom and ferocity about them in
"off" years. But when full State
ticket is to be elected the politicians and
the party press feel that an awful responsi-
bility devolves upon them, and they pro-
coed to paint the evils of the existing stu
alton in the most lurid colors. And not
withstsnding the fact that no real changes
are at all likely to result from the successes
Of either party Notwithstanding the fact
that the same kind of things have been
said hundred times before by the poll.
ticians before election, only to be forgotten
by them with convenient rapidity after
election notwithstanding the fact that
the actual conditions belle and render
preposterous all the wild stories about
oppression and desperation and plumber
and fraud and ..hle rest Of it /; notwithssand.
ing the TACT that the people are prosperous,
/ chat they have very little to complain Of,
and that in any event they can expect
nothing from the ofice-seekers; thousands
allow themselves to be cajoled year after
year with the same old familiar bugaboos,
and even work themselves up to state Of
frantic excitement before the campaign j:
over.
1t is no wonder that divine philosophy
should be so little regarded by the masses
of men, for they evidently lack the ca
pacity to profit by experience, and though
tho sprinss s.ay BE sc. before their eyes
yet they will walk deliberately into them
There is lamentable waste of energy in {
political campaign. The people who are il
sober earnest at such times exhaust them
selves the most. The professional poll
ticians have learned, like veteran actors, Il
simulate an emotion which they do not feel
They know that they are playing farce
but the poor amateur sweats and fumel
and RACES around, and it takes years II
teach him that for the most part the only
sincerity at these times is found among tn,
simple dupes who have nothing to gain nj
matter what the outcome may be. Ant
unfortunately at the present moment there
is such dearth of living issues in this State
that the professionals, who must have {
programme of some sort, are hard put tt
it to find one, and SO threaten us with {
more than usually artificial and hollow per
Torrance. We know beforehand that they
will all be yearning to save the dear people
from something or somebody, and that i
necessary they will invent the dangerl
which it is their mission to avert. They
are quite capable of so much creative WORK
as this, though we do not credit them witt
enough Imagination to give us pleasing
variety.
At these times, however, the calendar j,
sure to be loaded down with very queer
assortment of new saints. Demagogues,
whose whole lives have been one greedy
hunt after Office; matchmaking news
papers that have never done an honest
stroke of work during their existence
crafty adventures who are trying to steal
the property of their neighbors prosper
Gus scoundrels whose every dollar has
been won by rascallY devices all these
and many more will take hold Of the
political wires and pull them in their own
interests, and all these will pose in the
seductive attitude of " Friends of the
People" When poor Little Nell, of the
"Old Curiosity Shop" was travelling with
the Punch exhibitors, Short and Codlins,
and they thought something could be made
out of the acquaintance, these honest art
lists each tried to persuade the child thathe,
and not his partner, was her friend. God
Inns is the friend, not Short" remarked
the former, and this is what the poGti,
clans are eternally saying to the public.
But when the poor public has made its
choice between the rivals it is sure to find
that the fine promises of the campaign
period have been forgotten, and that
they never were intended to be
kept. The truth lis that there is
no need for humbugging professions
at this time, or for any professions, at all.
There are no national issues, and very few
State ones. No matter what men are put
up for election, the result is likely to be
very much the same, and all that is really
desirable is that personal honesty and
capacity should be secured for the several
offices. But such simplicity would never
suit the professionals, and SO we shall no
doubt have bowling, declamatory, vo-
ciferous, though not halcyon, period, in
which bugaboos will be plentiful, in which
blackmailing organs will scream them
selves hoarse, and in which, after due
excitation, the public will become warmed
up, and forgetting all its experience in the
past, plunge eagerly into the fray, solemnly
believing that there is something very
much more serious at stake than a matter
of rotation in office. In due course will
come the subsequent disillusioniziug, and
then we shall be ready to begin the whole
programme over again.