Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-04-10
The pEMocRA7s AsD TEE CHINESE
QUESTION.

course realize that if ten-year bill is
passed and the President signs it, their
party on this coast will be deprived of the
one issue upon which they think it possible
to carry the Pacific States. The situation
therefore affords a crucial test of their
sincerity, and as they act now their future
standing with the people of this coast will
be determined. We do not look forward
with any feeling of hopeful expectation to
the possibility thst they may put partisan
considerations above the interests of this
section. We sincerely trust that they will
have sense enough to perceive that they
cannot employ obstructive tactics at this
juncture without entirely losing whatever
advantage the Presidents veto has given
them. 1t would be fatal blunder for
them to imagine that they could fix the
responsibility for the failure of all legisla-
ton upon their opponents, under the cir
cumstances. The people of the Pacific
Coast are not blind. They are quite capa-
bic of piercing through all such subserfugea
as some of the Democrats are disposed to
employ. II the enactment of ten year
bill is made impossible through Democratic
fhbustering or other parliamentary trick.
cry, the blame for the result will assuredly
be placed where it belongs, and it will at
the same time be recognized that the OBJ
structionists believed in the willingness OF
the President to sign the ten-year bill.
For if they held that he was certain to
veto any bill that might be passed, it is
obvious that their best policy, from par.
tisan standpoint, would be to push through
the ten.year bill as quickly as possible
and let it go to him. If his vetoes help
them, the more vetoes he issues the better
must their prospects be. But if they are
afraid he will sign the ten-year bill, AMI
for that reason try to prevent it's passage,
they will make it evident that they do not
really wish to stop Chinese immigration,
but that all they are seeking is political
capital. Nor will it serve them to fall back
upon LuGlI ItCOIu III 6uCu q CdoCs Lucy
cannot atone for obstructive tactics by
showing that there was time when they
were willing to help this coast. We have
no use for friends who are only friendly
when their assistance can do US no good,
and who turn round and betray US the mo-
ment it seems to them more polite to do
SO than to continue in their former course.
Moreover, their resort to obstructive tao
tics now would cast doubt upon the SINGER
ity of their previous action. It would
naturally be suspected that they only voted
for the twenty-year bill because they had
reason to believe that it would be vetoed.
We do not care who helps us, SO long
as we are helped, but we shall not owe
any gratitude to those who under any
pretext whatever desert us in time of
need. The Democrats no doubt may lose
something by assisting our representatives
to pass a ten.year bill, but they will
lose very much more by defeating such
measure. Judging from their traditional
tendency to commit blunders at the most
critical juncture, however, we fear that
the present indications cannot be con.
strued favorably. The Democratic mana.
gers are just superficial and narrow enough
to conclude that il is their best policy to
keep things in statu quo. They are likely
to think that by SO doing they will keep
the feeling against the President at fever
heat all through the coming campaign,
and that consequently the Pacific States
will defeat the Republican party. But the
Pacific States in that case would have no
motive for preferring the Democratic
party. They wopld consider that they had
been ill.used and betrayed by both parties,
and neither having any advantage over the
other in respect to the principal issue,
the choice of the voters would be made
upon other grounds.
The Democracy cannot afford to make
contest in this way. Eliminate the Chi
nese question, and the two parties are not
on an exact equality. Under such condi-
tions the Republican party would have
the preferences, and since the more the
people reflect upon the relative ability OF
the national organizations to help them, the
more they must perceive the superior
power of the Republican party, such an
arrangement would probably involve the
collapse of the political edifee which the
Democrats think they have erected re
skillfully. OF course, we do not lose sight
OF the fact that the Pacific coast will be in
a melancholy position if it can place no de-
pendenee Rpon either of the great parties.
But even if the worst should happen, there
would be more and stronger reasons forI
supporting the Republican than the
Democratic party. What is most dis
heartening in this whole business, is the
insincerity of all the politicians. They
are willing enough to adopt sounding plat.
forms when votes are to be caught, but
when the performance of their promises is
demanded they at once make it apparent
that they never had any intention of keep
ing those promises unless it could be done
without committing them seriously to the
doctrines they pretended to adopt. This
serves to show that we cannot probably
expect satisfactory adjustment of the
Chinese question until Eastern opinion has
been educated up to comprehension of
that issue in all its bearings. No doubt
this is disheartening, but we have become
engaged in a contest which we cannot, if
we would, abandon, and however tedious
the struggle may be, we are compelled to
go on with it, simply because it is ques-
ton OF life or death to Anglo.Saxon civil
ization in the Pacific States.
THE McGARRAHAN CLAIM.