Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1883-06-28
CAUSES OF IERIFATrov.

Close observers of the various agitations
that have worked disastrous effects in the
economy of California have not been de.
ceived as to the potent causes. The press
Of California has occupied a very peculiar
relation to public affairs. With few
honorable exceptions here and there, stand.
ing out like refreshing green spots in q
desert OF yenality, the press is responsible
for about all the unnecessary and unwar-
rsnted irritation experienced in California
in the adjustment of capital to the condi-
tions under which investments have been
made, and especially as to capital invested
in railroad building and operation. The
statement will probably excite the ami
mostly of the class referred to, but that
will be additional evidence of q truth well
established. In the case OF the railroad
crusade, it must be admitted that is a mat
terof history. Ward.strikers, manipulators
Of conventions, and all of the class that
make politics a business, have coined the
antirailrosd agitation into money. They
have never had the interests of the people
at heart, although in their name they as.
sumo to speak and act. They have, by
devices well understood, worked III"
the present agitation, just as in the past
they have engineered similar assaults upon
other enterprises. One of their chief aids,
If not the chief, has been large portion
of the country press, whose Office seems to
be to foster menacing sentiment against
corporations engaged in prosecuting
industries that have done, and do
more now, than any other agen-
oies to develop the resources of
the country. AS a consequence the lat
ter have been forced to defend. and
to avail themselves of the class of people
who control the course of legislation, that
the right might not be crushed out. These
who have been intimately related to any
association for establishing desirable in
dustries, for manufacturing, for mining,
for navigation, for developing special
capacities of the soil, for facilitating trans.
portation, for experimental industries, for
inducing immigration, for the construction
of great public works, ETC., know this to
be true. Capital is driven at the first step
to take care of the assailants whose motive
is personal ACKNOWLEDGMENT, and to make
peace with the powers that direct legisla.
ton and nominate men for Office. 1t is a
part of the history of the State
that delegates to conventions have
come down from counties where
a strong hostile sentiment has hem
worked up" against any particular en-.
terprise, and have coined that hos.
tility into money. For years, AID dating
back to time prior to the era of railroad
building, large portion of the press of
this State has been engaged, possibly at
times unwittingly, in manufacturing goods
for market in which the usual element
in politics controls the price lists. While
no prominent corporate enterprises have
escaped, none have been SO persistently az.
e4aiSA anu ASiSSo w uelS1u tHSIiSuI against
these agencies as transportation companies,
and no agitation has been so industriously
worked in the interests of the low po-
itical elements as that directed against
railroad companies snd their shareholders
1t is time the people should awake to a
full realization of these facts, and should
lootr L,ra,& &, -
of the crusades against capital aid indus
try in California. There sre journals in
the State that have been and sre conscien-
tious and salfrespecting, that hhve COZ
sidered the facts. formed cool Judgment
have had the courage of their convictions,
have dared to express their ho1est