Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-11-03
THE NEED OF RATIONAL POLITICS.

GUOpESu Ao-tGSiOuos buO consequences
could not be satisfactory. What the peo-
| pie of California should have done after
tie new Constitution was adopted it is
easy enough to see now. They should
have secured the election as Railroad Com
missioners of three men whose characters
were entirely trustworthy. Not men of
the kind whe thrust themselves forward
and bid for votes by declaring themselves
"reliable enemies of the railroads but
men whose probity, fairness and intelli-
gence had been thoroughly established in
private life. Then these Commissioners
should have been left to perform the du.
ties for which they were appointed. They
would have proceeded to investigate the
whole transportation question. They
would have taken testimony, heard CON-
plants as to alleged abuses, instituted
inquiries and comparisons, and by the
time the next Legislature met they would
have been prepared to offer recommends.
tions which, being based upon ascertained
facts, would have stood analysis and criti.
cism, and would have furnished the foun-
dation for definitive legislation. Had this
rational course been followed the railroad
question would have been taken out of
politics altogether.
Instead of this, however, the Railroad
Commissioners were at once assumed to be
necessarily hostile to the railroads, and
with characteristic faulty the demagogues
insisted upon choosing no other kind of
men. Aud no sooner were they chosen
than they were made targets for abuse All
their actions were misrepresented. They
were charged with having sold cut TO the
corporations because they did not act
without the necessary information. If
they manifested caution and disposition
to act fairly they were denounced as venal.
If they acted hastily and naturally made
mistakes, they were still accused of play
ing into the hands of the companies. And
so it has gone on, until in the present cam
paign the main issue is declared to be the
choosing of Railroad Commissioners and
other State officers who shall be pledged
not to do justice to the corporations under
any circumstances. Now every thinking
man knows that candidates who will take
such pledges are untrustwerthy. 1t IS as
| Infamous a thing for Railroad Commits
sioner to promise that he will reduce fares
and freights twenty per cent, or any other
percentage, as it would be for judicial
candidate to pledge himself to decide cases
certain way if he was elected. This
monssrous demand, however, has been
made in the present campaign, and it has
been responded to. The consequence is
that the worst set of demagegues and i'm
posters ever in politics on this coast is now
before the people.
Every one sees and knows that there has
never been SO shamelessly dishonest cam.
paign in California, hut everybody does not
realize that the campaign is purely what
its methods have made it, and that no
other kind of campaign could possibly have
resulted from these methods. Now the
question is whether the people want any
more Of this sort of thing Even if they
were all as rabidly anti.rsilrosd as tine
present candidates pretend to be, they
ought to have sense enough to perceive
that this is not the way to obtain what
they want. If there is to be real fight
with the railroads, the people must be
| rap cd ~ Sha;r L.
their weakest men. But able men will
not come forward in campaigns such as this.
They have too much self.respect to take
dishonoring pledges. They cannot be in.
duced to play the demagogue. The very
| qualities which recommend them for re.
sponsible positions prevent them from seek
ing those positions in the ways at present
in vogue. So long as the people encourage
demagcgism they will continue TO beat the
air in this regard. Whoever sincerely be.
lieves that there are issues between the
people and the railroads which need ad.
justment, ought to be in favor of choosing
thestrongest men to do the work. Hitherto,
however, only puny impostors have been
in the field f; fellows who can rant and
mouth on the stump, but who if elected
think only how to sell themselves to the
greatest advantage. This has been TIE
outcome of all the demagogic movements
In the past, and it is a perfectly safe pre-.
diction that the same results will follow in
the future.
The fact is that what is needed is rational
politics. All this windy defamation,
all this frothy denunciation of the rail.
roads, all this claptrap affectation of re-
garding them as "enemies," is puerile,
futile, and unworthy of grown men. Sur.
pose that merchants were to conduct their
business after such grotesque and,
! theatrical fashion Yet the questions con-
cerned are mainly sober business cues.
tions ; matters of fact, matters of complex
interests, matters of competition, matters
which can only be settled by cool and dis
passionate reasoning. No great CONNER.
cial problem can or ever will be solved
! through the medium of wild and irrespon-
sible stump speeches. No useful additions
to the literature of any such subject have
ever been made in that way. What is
needed is business ability, combined with
the judicial habit and complete impartial.
ity. But nothing of that kind is to be found
IN such campaigns as the present. On
the contrary, everything is mere sound
and fury; it is :" like tale told by an
"idiot, signifSing nothing" The people
then must make up their minds to choose
| their agents more wisely hereafter. I'm.
fortunately they are this year debarred
from that. All they can do is to make it
understood that they will not reward
demagogi.m any longer, and that they are
determined, once for al, to pat down the
vicious political methods which both par.
ties have been relying upon.
REFzRsIsG to the jollitY following co lation at
political meeting up country, and the dullness that
preceded it while the speaking was going on, the
Grass Valley Tidings says: pleasure, this year,
| has come more often and geniaiy with collatious