Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-10-26

| which has no natural end. 1t is indeed in
the very nature of such policy that it
should proceed from bad to worse. It
tends to perpetuate itself, and to become
more destructive to the community and to
good morals continually. For whereas
the demagogues of to-day demand twenty
per cent reduction, it follows inevitably
that the demagogues of tomorrow must
go further, and demand thirty per cent.
reduction. There is no natural limit to
this kind of rivalry. When men have
once persuaded themselves that they are
free to promise away the property of their
neighbors, there is no reason why they
should stop until their neighbors have been
stripped bare; and when they have thus
completely despoiled one class, there is no
reason why they should not fall upon an
other. And inssmuch as the lavish prom.
ises now being made are utterly incapable
of being redeemed; since indeed those
who made them never have had the
slightest intention of trying to redeem
them it also follows that those who next
come before the public for their suffrages
will have to bid still higher, to lie more
boldly, to employ more unmeasured denun.
citation, in order to get what they want.
Again, since whenever men find them.
selves personally responsible for their &C.
tions they are compelled to become more
cautious and conservative, it follows that
those who ara about to be put in office will
discover the impossibility of fulfilling their
campaign pledges. Their failure to fulfill
to new set of greedy demagogues, who
will seek public favor by denouncing them,
and so the politics of the State must con-
tinue to reyolye in vicious circle, becom.
ing more corrupt and demoralized every
year, until all honesty and truth are fairly
banished from our public affairs, and they
are monopolized by the very worst class of
knaves. This is the sequel to calm con-
temptation of which we invite the voters
of the State. There is no ilaw in the chain
of sequence. A contest of demagogism
once set up, and supported by the voting
masses, cannot possibly result in any other
condition of things than that which we
have outlined here. So long in fact as
demagogues are allowed to force the rail.
road GS16ti6p into politics, and to make of
it tn Lnant issue, 8, long will they
continue Is employ this device, for their
own profit, and to the in! ury of the COM
monwealth.
But, it may be thought, since both sides
are this year guilty of the same imposi.
lions, there remains no way of furnishing
them, or of indicating that the public of
California do not approvelof their methods.
Yet this is a mistake. It is true that ur.
der the circumstances the people cannot
express their Dissatisfaction with the
emphasis desirable, but they can manifest
their real sentiments by placing the seal
of rebuke upon the boldest and least un.
scrupulous of the dema gogues in the field.
The Republican State programme this year
| is plainly and unequivocslly a programme
of hypocrisy, fraud and sham. The plat
form adopted by the State Convention was
deliberately framed with the single pur.
pose of surprising the Democrats in the pre-
tense of hostility to the railroad. 1t is
thoroughly unprincipled policy which is
being followed by the leaders of that party.
They are posing as ansi-railroad' men,
not because they believe what they say,
but because they want to surpass the
Democrats in their professions. 1. is very
certain that if the San Jose Convention
had not adopted an anti-railroad platform,
that issue would never have been heard of
at Sacramento. The onus of the mos.
brazen and barefaced demagogism there.
fore rests upon the Republicans.
OF course, too, every statement they make
on this head is tantamount to an admission
that the Democrats were right, and were
also the pioneers in the anti-railroad field.
And since these things are SO it is clear
that Republican success would be dis
tinct encouragement to the rivalry in fraud
aud mendscity at present being carried on,
to the disgust and humiliation of every
thinking man. And whatever views men
may hold about the railroad question, no
really intelligent person can expect any
reform from the kind of movement Low
going on. 1t is in no sense an exaggeration
to say that corporate interests are really
less endangered by such blind and false
attacks than by any other kind of assault.
For it is not by reckless stump-speeches,
or deliberately untrue journalistic writings,
that important public benefits are ever
obtained. The sole aim and object of these
noisy demonstrations is the aggrandizement
OF individuals, and when that has been
secured the demonstration will cease. The
true way to put and keep the railroad out
of politics is not to give premiums to
demsgogues, but to reject aud repudiate
them altogether. By electing as Railroad
| Commissioners men whose characters are
their bonds, and who neither require nor
| will give reckless pledges; by rebuking
candidates who insult the popular intelli-
gence by their fulsome and hypocritical
practices; by teaching parties that profuse
professions are not the best recommends.
tons to popular confidence; by electing
honest and upright men to the Legislature !;
| and by trusting to the results of deliberate
| and impartial investigation for the removal
of abuses; the disease which now sffiicts
our State politics may be cured, and a bet.
ter condition of things brought about.
But the first step in such an amelioration
must consist in the administration of an
emphatic rebuke to the rampant and il.