Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-07-03

oulluers nave acquired wealth Is CITED
against them as crime. The demagogues
who seek to employ the common envy at
success for their selfish ends never hint at
the other side of the question. They con.
veniently forget that the Pacific Railroads
were built under national auspices and
guarantees; that the country offered large
bonuses to those who would undertake the
work that when corporations were organ.
lied Congress made contract with them,
under which they were to have certain
privileges and aids, in consideration for
| services to be rendered that the compa.
MES have fulfilled their undertakings faith.
fully; that they have given ample consid.
Grafton for all that they received and that
the wealth the railroad builders now enjoy
Is honestly earned. All this is ignored,
and the most wild and vague assertions of
oppression and "extortion are put
forward to cloak and justify the raid to be
made upon the railroads. The same
charges have been made repeatedly in the
past, but when specific instances were
called for theywere never forthcoming orif
statements were made which at first sight
seemed to vindicate the charges, investiga-.
ton almost invariably proved them to be
Misrepresentation or misconceptions. But
from the politico- communistic point of
view the railroads can do nothing right.
The service they render is ignored, and
their earnings are represented as mere
plumber. When they make ordinary bust.
ness contracts with shippers, such as mer.
chants make every day With one another,
they are accused of "coercing" the bust
ness community. Because they decline to
submit quietly when they are assessed
twenty or thirty per cent. higher than any
other property owners in the State, they
are charged with trying to evade their just
taxes. And this reckless and malignant
Misrepresentation is kept up until at last
everybody thinks them fair game, and
proposition to reduce their earnings 20 per
cent. without the least inquiry secures
large minority of votes in Democratic
State Convention.
Now it is by such methods that communi.
ties are educated to communistic doctrines.
For it is impossible thus to single out a
great interest and to discuss and deal with
it as though it had no rights, without
weakening in the average mind the sense
OF right and wrong, and without making
it more difficult to guard and protect prop
erty rights of every kind. Our Democratic
politicians do not think of this They
know that they themselves do not mean
half they say. They know that they are
only incorporating. And they think that
other people are as insincere as themselves.
But there is always large element in
every community which is Just ignorant
enough to believe that what politicians as
sert may be true, and which, being COM
posed mostly of the "Have Nots," cher.
ishes natural enmity against the /" HAYES.
And if, because one party has taken the
communistic position, the politicians of the
other think they must adopt the same
course, only In more pronounced
way, the whole community is thereby com.
mitted to war upoh part of its men,
bers, and war which is calculated to pro-
duce the most disastrous effects upon the
interests of all concerned. If the charges
preferred against the railroads were founded
on fact, it is very certain that the people of
California would long ago have risen in rev.
olution rather than submit to the oppres-
sions of the corporations. But the truth
is that these charges are like those South.
ern outrages which used to crop out SO
thickly whenever campaign approached,
but which never were heard of save when
politics were on the carpet. 1t is only in
campaigns that the anti-monopoly sen.
timent appears. When nobody is to be
elected the railroads elicit no hostility, and
the press finds no cause of complaint
against them.
The most imhecile and at the same time
knavish pretense about these assault,
however, is the pretense that they are in
tended ''to drive the railroads out of
politics. For it is an unquestionable
fact that the railroads never would have
been in politics but for these attacks
upon them. Because the demsgogues have
for years sought to elevate themselves by
abusing the corporations, and by foment.
ing i'll feeling against them, and legislating
against them, they have been literally COM
PEELED in self-defense to concern themselves
with matters foreign to their business.
The demagogues at present know very well |
that the way to take the railroads out of |
politics is to accord them justice and fair
dealing. They have never asked for any
thing more than this, and this they have
a perfect right to demand. 1t is because
political demagogues declare themselves
ready to do rank injustice to the railroads,
that the latter have been obliged to have |
to do with politics. Treat them as all |
other commercial interests are treated, give
them the equal protection of the laws,
credit them with the good they d. keep
the hounds off them, and they will very
soon cease to be seen or felt in politics. 1t is
thus that the railroad question will sooner
or later have to be settled, for it never
can be adjusted through the medium
of can't Monopoly movements, which are
all shams and frauds, based in hypocrisy
and self-seeking, fostering ignorant malevo.
Ience, and in every case leading up to such
nonstrous propositions that the prevailing
sense of justice of the entire community is
to reject them. If the Republi-
IAN party is to win the State election this
,ear it must put aside all notion Of follow
ng in the wake of the Democracy. 1t
must take course of its own, founded in
ustice, free from communism, appealing
10 the fair play of the people, and not try
ng to bolster itself up with hypocritical
.ttempts to out-Herod the Democratic
Ierod. Let the Democrats have their
uti-Monopoly issue all to themselves. If
hey will undertake to make their battle
lpon the basis of facts, on that line, the
RECORD UNION will meet them more than
lalf way, and will pledge itself so to de-
nolish their platform before the day of
election that their candidates will be left in
The air.