Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1884-08-14
A GENEROUS WELCOME TO 4 NEW
CONVERT,

AT last we have the pleasure of welcom-
ing the San Francisco Chronicle to the ranks
of high-toned conservatism, in which the
RECORD UNION has always been found
faithfully battling. The period which has
elapsed since 1850 will be known in history
as the railroad-building period of America.
In that time nearly eighty thousand miles
of railroad have been constructed in this
country. Over six billions of money has
been invested in them. Vast, even ggan-
tic, corporations have arisen-indeed, so
vast and so extensive have been the opera
tions of these colossal corporations that in
n very recent period our estimable San
Francisco contemporary felt much appre-
hension, and doubtless sincere alarm, at
the encroachment of this new and over
Shadowing power. We have admonlshed
1t many times with gentle persuasion, and
Ofttimes, we are now ready to state regret
fully, with harsher admomtion, for the OBJ
Vious errors into which it had fallen.
When it declared as it had done on many
occasions, the country to be under the iron
heel of grinding monopolies, the entire
laboring classes of the country reduced to
servitude amounting TO slavery, the rich
becoming richer, and the poor constantly
and continuously poorer, we have sought
to lead it from its cranky pessimism to a
broader and more enlightened optimism.
and at last enjoy the comforting pleasure of
having succeeded.
Discussing the progress of the laboring
classes during the great railroad building
era of this country in its issue of Monday,
the Chronicle says: "On the whole the
condition Of the laboring class has vastly
improved since 1850 Their wages are
more than double. Their necessary ex-
penses have not increased appreciably
Their political power rules the country and
nearly all the States. They are better edu-
Gated, better clad. better housed: and the
fact that 2,S76, ASS of them had last year the
enormous amount of S202I ,S56,737 depos-
tied in saving banks, to say nothing Of the
home stocking, and investments in the
stocks OF railway. gas and water COM
panies, houses, lots and farms, shows that
they have shared fully with the rich in the
general accumulation of property and cash
The strike is but a proof of their power
and independence; and the tramp is an
American phenomenon in no way arguing
against the general good condition of the
honest workingman."
At last the rule of the corporation is over.
AT last king monopoly has been deposed
and even the strike" is a proof of the
power and independence Of the working
class. From the low depths of degradation
and poverty in which our contemporary
but recently contemplated them. the wages
of the laboring men are more than double;
their necessary expenses have not increased
appreciably, and, above all, instead of
the tyrannical rule of monopolies, the
political power Of the laboring man
rules the country and nearly ali the States
What happy awakening this must be
from the recent dilemma of our contem-
porary. But recently the poor were be
coming poorer, the rich richer, erstwhile
the monopolicS governed the country.
RELOCATING the laborins man to saualor.
want, poverty, misery, and crime. But in
the new light which has dawned upon the
recurring reason Of our contemporary, the
laborer is better fed, better clad, better
housed, than ever before in the history of
America.
We congratulate our contemporary upon
its return to more sober commonsense
view of what is happening around it, and to
n recurrence of one of those lucid intervals
which is in such refreshing contrast to its
recent insane rawlings