Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1884-11-26
A LOCAL AGITATION.

The interior press has been for weeks
particularly hostile to Sacramento, and
calling for all sorts of punishment, because
of the act of or municipal authorities in
compromising with that which the State
laws declare to be criminal. We have
striven to impress our contemporaries with
the truth-that the act does not represent
truly the best thought or citizenship of
the place, nor any considerable number of
our people The protests of the Citizens
Association, of organized religious bodies
and of the press, should be sufficient evi-
dence of the fact. Our Trustees have now
taken another step, which is Just as widely
condemned as unwise, in licensing "stud-
horse poker and dice games. The people
OF the city have but one remedy left them,
and that is to rise in their might and put
on record their disapproval in such en-
phatic language that the people of the
State cannot mistake their sentiments on
the subject. That they will do this and
avail themselves of any possible legal rem
edies, we have no hesitancy in forecasting,
for we do not think we mistake the public
pulse. Regarding the defense of the Off
cials, il is fallacious. In brief, they hold
that it is impossible to convict in gaming
cases; that juries will not render verdicts
of guilty; that gaming is no where wholly
suppressed; that the State itself, through
the agency of the State Agricultural So
ciety, fosters a species of gaming; that
prior to licensing banking games the
police and peace officers were bribed to
blindness to it. and the secrecyin which the
practice was conducted was a screen for
those who desired 10 play Whereas, now
that gaming is open it has decreased, and
many who played before do not do 50
now, and thus protection is afforded the
young; and lastly, that the sum before paid
to corrupt officers no longer reaches them,
but goes into the city funds TO do some
good in supporting the city government.
This fairly states the whole defense and
there is no hesitancy in giving it, because
the answer to it is so apparent, sweeping
and incontroyertible. Outside of and in
dependent of neral considerations, it
simply is this: Whether gaming was
suppressed or not, the licensing of it is Of
fetal Endorsement of that condemned by
law, and therefore indefensible The
complaint is not now that gG.ning existed,
but that official sanction and protection is
given il in the face of ] State law.
While "stud-horsc poker" yesterday
placed on the license list, is not prohibited
by State law, it is as dangerous and allur-
ing a game as those under legal condemna-
ton. The city cannot afford, under any
pleas or considerations, to regulate it short
of a regulation that will suppress. Re
garding the plea that to attempt to enforce
the laws will be as futile in the future as
in the past and therefore there is justifca-
tion for regulation, it is to be said that if
individual officers were bribed, if jurors
violated their oaths if witnesses were
suborned, at least the people of the city
were not partieeps criHlmis. They had
measure Of responsibility imposed upon
them, it is true by the election of officials
who chose officers susceptible of bribery,
and that in time they viii awaken 10 the
full Importance Of this responsibility and
sweep out of existence the rings, bosses
and cliques through which such officials
were chosen, no one can doubt. The whole
matter now so agitating this community
emphasizes anew that for which we have
long contended, that municipal affairs
should be divorced from politics; that city
business should he conducted on business
principles, and that in city government
political domination should be secondary
matter, and municipal rectitude and econ
oa,y the first and chief considerations.
As matters now are, the city legislative
officials and the mas Of the citizens stand
arayed against each other II, in the con
test, the latter permit defeat to finally set
tie down upon them, they will deserve all
the pains and penalties that the press from
one end OF the State to the other is invok-
ing upon the devoted Capital City, and
one-third of which would, if applied, crush
us as trade center, obliterate our claims
to decent recognition, deprive us of the
seal Of State Government and ali State in
stitut;ons, and reduce us to the condition
Of a crossroads settlement,
WORTHY OF CONSIDERATION.
We called attention a few DAYS ago TO