Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1883-06-27

the shipper, and really against the carrier.
1t is not constitutional judgment, for its
dictators have appealed from the Constitu.
ton of the people to coercion. Thus the
public abandons its safe moorings when it
permits these presumptuous pilots to direct
It's course it cuts loose from the Constitu-
ton, and the friends of that instrument
desert it and consent to regulation by mob
force And, of course. this precedent may
be made the ground for similar assaults
upon other governmental departments.
We say mob force, for mob may be
clamorous, feverish throng upon the high
way, or an organized band within politi-
cal party, widely distributed and led by
demagogues with definite object to be at.
tanned by mob methods. If mob violence
may produce this effect then, where shall
the limits of its power be placed? Actu-
ated by passion, prejudice, political ambi,
ton and selfish desire, it may 60 on regu-
lating until the essence Of all property
value has been wholly absorbed, and con-
fscation entirely accomplished. The GEN.
trail idea of liberty ia the right to live, pos
cess and enjoy possessions, under such wise
restraints as are necessary to secure those
rights to all. But deprive the citizen of
one of these, and all that remains is value
less. Confscation is deprivation of all
that moves men to acquire and to con-
| tribute by their industry to the strength
and greatness of the State, and is, in fact,
the heart and horrid front of communism.
Upon the first stage of this decadence
California enters when she consents TO
| even the earliest form of confscation, and
takes the first step toward the subversion
OF republican institutions. Force is de-
feasible only when clearly right, and when
right, as learned political economist pats
it, it need not be dreaded. But in the
present case right has not bsen the con
sideration rather the radical and selfish
demand o; the man who is TO be benefited
by the spohation of his neighbor. His ad-
vooate Is the demagogue who puts him,
for dsmagogical purposes, in the place of
the constitutional tribunal, and himself
judges Of what is best for him to pay for a
given service performed by another.
As consequence there is no restraint
upon him, save such as the admonitions of
mercy may induce him to concede to his
victim. There is some consolation, how
ever, ia the memorable truth as formulated
by Seelye, "when force and fear are used
uuFighteously, be it by an unrighteous
government, or an unrighteous opposition
TO government, their agents are sure to in.
cur the doom OF their victims" Spencer
holds that minority is bound securely
when ary assumed majority can convert a
project into the semblanee of law, and in
such cases there are no limits to possible
trespasses on human liberty. Something
of this kind would appear to have been &C.
complished in California.
We have then arrived at communistic
stage where force is to dictate to govern.
mental departments. We have thus turned
our backs upon the established truth as
Amos points out, that the main discoveries
or conclusion OF economical science during
the last hundred years have been adverse
to State interference with the laws of
production and wealth, and the princi-
pies OF trade and commerce. We have
entered upon revolution by which
all the barriers are to be broken down thst
guard certain property rights. It is none
the less anarchieal because it is not accom-
piished with q clash of arms. The danger
now lies in the fact that the leaders and
followers in such revolutions seldom long
agree. The latter, as Amos phrases it,
very soon proceed beyond the original
scheme Of the former and change the com.
pIexion and object OF the revolution, and
latent anarchical elements come to the sur.
face and develop in all their extremes.
In California just now the step toward
confsoation of corporate property has been
taken by coeroive methods; close upon it's
heels follows the socialist and the red
flag, and all the infamous and inoendiary
doctrines it signifies. What will be tie
outcome
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