Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-07-28

who were conducting useful enterprises.
The depression which hung over California
for four years. and of which we are only
now being relieved, was directly and I'm.
mistakably the work of these public enc
mics, these piratical assailants OF every
thing useful and beneficial.
And had it not been that the base
and malignant efforts of these scoundrels
were partially thwarted, the depression
referred to would have become permanent.
Bu. the beneficent agencies of modern
civilization continued to work on steadily
despite calumny and detraction, and
they too produced the natural results Of
their work. While such vile and venal
sheets as the Chronicle wore bowling
against every corporate enterprise, in.
flaming the poor against the rich, preach
ing communism and taking brides alter.
nately, denouncing that they might the
better blackmail, and seeking to establish
a reign OF terror the railroads were strik.
ing out in all directions, building new
lines. extending old ones, bringing fresh
soil within the area OF cultivation, giving
value to tracts which had been idle since
the Creation, enabling young industries to
obtain footing, creating markets for more
and more products, cheapening transporta-
ton, making life easier and more comfort.
able to thousands, furnishing steady EN-.
ployment to other thousands, building up
the export trade OF the State, and minis
tering at every turn and in hundred
ways to the needs OF commerce and enter.
prise and industry. But for this quiet,
steady and persistent work, the baneful
and sinister agencies represented by the
Chronicle might have brought the State to
ruin might have driven capital and i'm
migration from the shores of the Pacific /;
might have delivered over lliiornia to the
kearneyites and communists and dema-
gogues and knaves who formed the client.
age of that blackmail sheet
But because the forces OF good were
stronger than the forces of evil, the State
recovered from its long depression. Last
year may be taken as the first one of
positive reaction. Last year between
twelve and thirteen millions of dollars
were discussed in San Francisco in pay
ment of dividends alone, while the export
t-oja of thaf c;4y ;,oraosaj tb;r+x, M,
cent. over that Of the preceding year.
But no lot or little Of this reviving prosper
ity was due to the Chronicle or the ele-
ment it stands for. It had no doubt been
punished for its baseness and folly, for
when the whole State was lauguishing it
could not ply its trade OF matchmaking
with any success. For time therefore it
was forced to be decent, and to pretermit
its customary slanderous assaults. In fact
the work of its hands was just then too
conspicuous for it to be able to swagger
and buster as OF yore. So having done
its best to destroy the community that
was blind enough to support it, the venal
sheet waited until its victims should recover
enough to undergo another period OF tor
ment. 1t appears that this year the Cl,ron-
icts thinks the recovery sufficient to justify
another application of the thumbscrew and
the boot. II it cannot force blackmail
from the objects of it's calumny, which is,
as everyone knows, its first and main
purpose, it will do them all the injury pos
sible. 1t is true that hitherto it has done
infinitely more harm to the State than to
the ostensible subjects of its denuncia.
ton, but this does not concern it, for its
only congenial occupation is that of de.
struction.
+ So the two forces work on, side by
side. The base and malignant element
represented by the Chronicle and Examiner
can boast of no work which has not been
harmful to the people. On the other hand
the railroads have been largely instrumental
In every access of prosperity which has
occurred. They have done more than any
other agency to Illustrate the destructive
policy of their opponents. They have been
actively engaged continuously in building
up and strengthening and enriching the
State. In a few years they have literally
created 100000 of values in the San
Joaquin valley alone. During the same
years the Chronicle and its vile allies were
destroying values to the amount of
$50, 900, 900 at the least. Wherever the
railroads go they carry the means of
higher civilization, of greater prosperity,
OF profits unknown before, of expansion
and growth and convenience and CONNER
elal advantages. Wherever the Chronicle
and Examiner 60 they carry falsehood and
SANDER and low and mean notions,
and the seeds Of envy, hatred and all
uncharitableness, and destructive tenden-
cies. These and all such journals are
the enemies of the people and OF progress.
They are and ever have been curses to the
community. Behind their fimsy pretense
of public spirit, the threadbare excuae
for their cowardly and malicious detrac
ton, Turk the demagogue and the black
mailer. The one paper employs its sham
virtue as means of selling its columns at
higher figure the other, owned by
man whose wealth is one colossal indict-
ment against his character, is doing the
dirty work for as knavish gang of polit.
ical hucksters as ever swore away their
souls for the hope of office. We cannot do
better than to put these two pictures be-
fore the public for leisure!y comparison.
They will have to make their choice
finally between the constructive and the
destructive agencies. Let them, for their
own sakes, review the situation carefully,
and ask themselves whether they are in
need of a renewal of the old conflict whose
depressing influences they are bat Just
shaking off, and which brought the State
to SO low condition only the other day
THEN AND NOW.
When General Stoneman was Chairman
of the Railroad Commission, in 1873, he
wrote a report in which the following EN-
phatic objection to any interference with
the rates Of freights and fares is to be found
" The general objection to laws which fix