Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1885-03-11

determined. We, sir, are a legislative body. Ii
is not our business, II is not our duty nor ought
il to be our privilege, to take the determination
of that case now pending in the Courts from
the tribunals of the State. No more is il oul
illness to do that than it is the business of any
ordinate branch of the government Il
another branch. As well might the
Supreme Court, by Court-made law declare
statutes concerning the water rights of thi,
state, as we to forestall Court decision by i'll
Producing and passing bill declaring what is
and always has been the law OF California as tC
u matter pending in a judicial tribunal
Sir, the Senator from Los Angeles. i'll an clio
quent appeal, stated that the people of the State
are appealing 10 this Legislature to pass this
legislation Did he mean that the people OF the
state ore appealing or did he mean that gentle.
men who seem To be losing Il case in the Su
preme Court of the State are interested in fore
ing this Legislature 10 foreStall the decision o.
the highest tribunal by determining what is and
always has been the common law OF California
The Senator says that appeals are going up al
over the country with regard 10 This matter. Il
there were such appeals, sir, it would be q mat
ter for the careful consideration of this Senate
But are there such appeals? Not q Convention
has been held-marK what l say-tlat has
recommended this bill. At Riverside in San
Bernardino county, a Convention was held and
another ut Fresno. And the Fresno Convention
appointed committee which drafted three ol
more bills. Those bills are before this Legisla
ture. But there is no question of taking those
!
What other method is there OF appealing &c
the Legislature OF the State How else do the
people OF state make known to Legislature
their wishes with regard to such matters? BY
petition, the constitutional right guaranteed 10
the people Of the State. And all this pressure
and hurrah about this Senate Chamber as e
passing these hil!s SINNERS itself down to one
petition to the Legislature which now hold in
my hand. Tfcre has been presented TO this Sen.
ate or Legislature but petition for the enact
ment of this law: and upon that petition are
Just &c names, ali of them written in pencil eX,
etpt one, and that the signature OF the man nc
wrote the petition.
These are the appeals from the people Of the
State" TOR the passage of BIZ No. 40 This is
the only appeal to this Legislature to pass that
measure.
Let me read it in the face of the Senator who
says the people of the state appeal to this
Senate to save them from destruction We, the
people of MERGED county, i'll mass meeting -
(and now, written i'll pencil, interllned: " Mon
day, February -, 1880 - ask and demand OF
our Senator and Assemblyman, and of the pres
ent Legislature, 10 pass Senate Bill No. 30 and
Assembly Bill No. 40" Signed by 40 names, all
of which appear upon the same page with the
petition, IS of whom did not even take interest
enough in the matter 10 go and get pen and ink
with which to attach their names 10 petition
to this Senate And this, sir, is the monster
appeal from the people of this State" that We
should pass Assembly Bill No. 40. And there
is not another scrap OF petition upon this mat
ter before this s. nate.
If il be said that there are petitions for legis-
leuon with regard to water rights | answer
that there are TWO other petitions which ask
that the bills framed by the committee of the
Fresno Convention be passed and upon them
there are less than 800 names In those peti-
tons they state how much property they own
they do not pretend to give Us assessment val
ueS but one OF them, according to its own
terms, represents 600 of property, aud
the other $50, 600 which makes 81, 100000. Less
than 250 names are attached TO all the petitions
presented to this Legislature, and less than
y, 900, 900 are represented by the men who pre-
sent them. Why, sir. in my own county we
have expended over Sl2 G0,0o0 in the diversion
of water alone, and not one petition has come
to me from my people. But letter after letter
from the best of MY constituents has come 10
me, asking that no one sided os unequal law, or
law not giving the same water rights 10 all OF
the people of The state without reference to the
character of industry, whether farming or min
ing, be supported by their Representatives or
senators, or given their adhesion to under any
circumstances.
Where the appeals from the people7 Sir
it Is Very easy to create something which, if il is
not mconshine looks .wfully like it-eSpecially
in these days OF electric lights, But when gentle
men talk to me abOut appeals from the people, |
do not WANT them to turn on this Legislature
30 names and 100000 as the basis OF throw
ing aside all other legislation to take up this
particular legislation. 1t may be, sir, that d
particular constituency in this state, or d por-
ton OF that constituency, Will lie gratifed by
seeing its representative making contest here
III regard TO this question and changing the
statute 50 as to win case now in Court, but
that Is not the proposition for me.
nave stated ali the names upon all ofthese ap-
peals-one MS TO the bill under consideration and
TWO as 10 the other bills not under consideration
Why, there is an equal number of remonstrants
from that very same section against the passage
OF these very same laws, or any other laws,
until the Courts have got dene with the ques-
ton, so that we may first know whether new
laws are necessary at all, and if they are neces-
sary, be guided by the decision of the highest
tribunal AS to what is needed in the way OF
changes in the existing statute.
Sir, | suppose there are not many members OF
the Legislature who do not know how easy it is
to create q pressure upon q legislative body
upon ZONE measure by giving it false name.
And the attempt to raise in this State the issue
as to whether there shall be irrigation or not,
and then 10 say If q man favors certain bills he
is in favor of irrigation, but if he does not he is
opposed to it, is u false issue which parties are
striving and seeking to lug into this business.
Docs the State demand it? The Chamber Of
Commerce OF San Francisco was requested to
act upon this matter. A meeting was held, and
the Chamber OF Commerce appointed commit
tee on 1t: that committee rcpOrted, and no action
was taken, yet there is an effort here to crowd
the representatives of that city into support Of
these measures II it had been crying meas
ure, if il had been measure affecting the in
tereSts of trade. commerce and production in
this State, do you believe that most sensitive
body TO those interests in our chief metropolis
would not have recognized the fact? As well
might you say that the school boy does not feel
or dread whipping as to say that the Chamber
of Commerce of san Francisco does not feel and
know the interests of production, trade and
commerce in this State.
Sir, the true facts about the case are these
That by one means or another, which the Sena-
tor from Mono at previous session of this Legis-
lature so bitterly spoke against when resolu-
ton was here to IndorSe Aaron a. Sargent S
course (the measure which he then so tiercely
attacked being one introduced and supported in
Congress by Mr.. Sargent) certain men i'll some
counties OF southern California took up a large
tract of desert lands. The law that gave them
the right TO take up that land required that
bitches should be constructed for the purpose
Of irrigating it, and they started in
the streams for that purpose Men
who owned the land adjoining the river also
took water from the same stream that they did,
to irrigate their own land. They bought the
land from the Government of the United States
under the law which the very Senator who
now laughs mean the Senator from Mono
characterized before this Senate as infamous;
and having gotten the land by means which he
characterized as infamous, at two bits an acre,
they now seek to get the water, which will make
it worth perhaps hundred OF dollars an acre.
Do they go TO the men who own the water and
say, I'VE desire to buy your waterr No.
They seek d cheaper mode. They seek q
shorter road. They do not seek for barter and
sale, the honest way travelled by all civilized
people from the beginning unto this day, but
they come 10 the Legislature and say, Pas
laws which take from those who own and make
them poor, to give us who do not own and make
us rich" Both parties take the water; both
parties use il. The case is in Court to determine
which has the right TO use It. So far the Court
has decided that one party under the law of the
land is entitled to the water. The other party
appeals TO the Legislature TO reverse the deCis.
ion of the Court before the case has been finally
decided. Has such proposition par
allel in the history of judicial and
legislative proceedings? And if 1t have parallel
where is the history of it written? Where is the
precedent for the Legislature assembled taking
from the Court the question of who owns the
water upon Kings river, and decide it by de-
claring what is and always has been the law OF
the State OF California Moreover, | say that
those TO whom the Court has awarded the water
have offered to the other party who want
water. three !ourths of the entire volume of the
stream, without money and without price
ercly not to be dragged into an endless litiga
~.
But pass on. II has been suggested here by
some member that there should be an extra SEES
sion OF the Legislature upon this question
Should there be? Sir. if the case of Lux &
Miller W. Haggin 4 Tevis-if that be the correct
nomenclature of the title of the case-be de
eided III favor of the diversionists, what need
of change in the law ? And if il be decided
IN favor of the ri parianists then the question OF
common honesty. in taking from one man What