Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-07-21
pEmscocEsm VERSUS STATISTICS.

Demagooues arc never fond Of statistics
Actual facts DO MT harmon ize with their
airdrawn assumptions. 1t is Their
custom f., inyen. stale Of affairs In
order TO siys themselves . ason for eX'
istehce. At the present time they have
set GU. @ per. naje the pe. pie Of California
in the interest OF the Democratic Office
seekers. that this Sac Il greaning under
unexam;led bUritns, j'Posed upon suf
ferinq community BY raiacious railroad
corporations. linus W. W. Foote, who
is evidently ambitious OF being considered |
TIE exemption " bowler o; his party, re-
Gently represented the people as being
oppressed and impoverished and ground |
to the dust by these wicked corporations,
aud atti,udiaized as the political Messiah
wEo WAS to redeem and save them. But
4 touch from the Ithurel spear of statis
tics is sufficient to puncture the inflated
bladder OF Mr.. Foote's rhetoric, and to
demonstrate that in inventing his case to
suit his political needs he has drawn al
together upon his Imagination. For the
truth is that California was never more
prosperous than at this time, aud that the
producing and working classes-those
namely who are represented by Foote as
being specially oppressed by the railroads
are in more fourishing condition than
ever before. OF course it is absolutely
necessary for the purpose OF demsgogism
to make it appear that somebody is very
greatly injured by the railroads, for to
assert that the railroads were oppressors
without assuming that there was an
oppressed class, would be futile. Unfor-
tunately for the L" Anti. Monopoly" posi-
ton, however, there does not happen to be
an unprosperous class in the State to-day.
The farmer, the wool grower, the vine
yardist, the fruit. raiser, the stock. breeder,
all are doing well. all are freeing them
selves from old debts, and all are making
money.
| We DO not propose to follow the exam
pie of the demagogues, and ask the public
to take our unsupported statements for
granted. Fortunately the means of test
ing them are available to everybody, We
will take the report of the State Bank
| Commissioners, issued January, 1882, in
evidence of the truth of our assertions.
/ That report shows that during the past
three years and half over twenty millions
of dollars of debt has been paid off. The
Commissioners, after giving the figures,
! say " Adding liberal allowance for
"loans transferred from the savings banks
to private individuals in the meanwhile,
4" it is still mos. wonderful showing
" certainly over twenty millions of debt
"psid off in three years and half" This
is certainly very remarkable exhibit for
a down-trodden and oppressed community
to be able to make. In fact it does not
consist at all with the melancholy state
ments of W. w. Foote and his fellow
demagogues. But this is not all. The
Commissioners elsewhere in their report
say that the present status OF the banking
institutions of the State, $50 much
"more favorable than it has been for
"some years." indicates the beginning of
"a new era of prosperity" They say
further "The Improvement during the
past year was, moreover, general in its
mature, extending to both the COM
"mercial and savings banks; and it was
confined to no special localities or indi-
"viduals. The tables referred to show
"that the resources OF the commercial
banks of the State increased, during the
"year 1881, over four millions of dollars,
land that nearly two and one half millions
"(S2. $50, 500 of this was due to the gain
ain deposits. The great improvement in
general business is proven by the fact
that the amount of capital locked up in
government bonds, real estate, and cash,
decreased about three millions and half
"(S3, 800, 000l, while that actively and
"more profitably employed in loans on
grain, commercial paper, ETC., increased
| ONSL OLA VI lhab ZIG
+" laboring as well as the farming and
mercantile classes, are also more pros
porous, is apparent from the increase OF
" nearly three millions of dollars 50, $685.
967l in the deposits of savings banks in
"active business during the past year."
They add that the good effect of the
&brifb apl t1-bioh fol
"low in the wake of business depression,
ais also shown in the net decrease of
"S3, 573, 724 in loans secured on mort
"gages." Here, then, we have the proof
that in the last three years and a half, dur
ing which time, if Foote and his fellow
demagogues are to be believed, the people
of California have been groaning under
grievous burdens, they hive contrived to
pay off over twenty millions of debt, to in
crease their savings several millions, and
to branch out more actively than ever in
all manner of business enterprises In one
of these years the lastl they put by three
millions in the savings banks, after clear
ing off old scores and providing for current
expenses. And though the rate of interest
has been lower than ever, tine Commission.
ers state that "the earnings of the com.
"mercial banks have been larger than were
"to have been expected, owing to the i'm
"provement in general business and to the
"great increase in deposits" In short,
according to these thoroughly trustworthy
statistics the condition of the State is in
all ways satisfactory and prosperous. The
people have not suffered oppression. They
have not been ground down by corporate
exactions. They have hourished and
grown richer, and been able to pay their
debts and to save money and to live well
at the same time. The truth is that the
producing class and the laboring class of
California are very much better off than
the same classes in any other country on
the face of the globe, and that the attempt
to show that they are in any way injured
or oppressed by the transportation agen-
cies is knavish piece of political fraud,
and nothing else.
Professor Leone Levi, a European Stats
tician of world divide reputation, in a re-
cent address quoted the following remarks
upon railroads and the people There
twas never a railroad built in the United
estates where the people along its line
60 did not make ten dollars out of it where