Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1885-02-16


ordered to be built. None, or at least few,
of these have been paid in full, and many
of them not at ALL Some of them, by
reason of non-payment, have been reduced
to absolute want, and wrecked in business
and in life. The non-payment was due to
the fact that the Act authorizing the work
was held by the Supreme Court to be I'M
constitutional-and that it was unconsti-
tutional, and an illegal Act, is to be
admitted and put out of all question,
for the sake of the whole argu-
ment. But it remains that those who
invested and labored under the Act up to
| the time of the ruling Of the Court, had
every reason to believe it to be a lawful
Act; had every reason to repose upon the
Act Of legislation, and every possible rea-
son to believe that the State contracting a
debt with them would pay it.
These claimants then, have no legal
claims against the State; they have, we
believe, never made any such pretense
their claims are equitable only. But equity
appeals more forcibly to the sense OF
honesty than lawful right ever can. 1t
resolves itself, therefore, simply into the
question whether the State Ct California
will plead the baby act against the appeals
of these claimants. There is nothing else
| in it.
We have not examined any brief OF
these claimants; our knowledge of the
matter is that of common history in this
community, and that puts no blush
| upon these people; our idea of the
whole matter is just such as the
logic of fair dealing suggests. But
if there are any jobs in the heart OF
! these claims, it is the easiest of tasks to
provide for their uncovering. An equit-
able claim, least of all others. is equal to
secreting a fraud. The payment of such
claims certainly can be guarded against the
faintest semblance of dishonesty. But ii
happens that the equitable debts referred
to were all contracted under then effect
i've law that guarded the work very care
fully. 1t was matter of lowest bid''
down to the very quick The three men
given administrative charge are widely
known throughout the State, and their
integrity, We venture to assert, has never
been questioned. That they severely ex-
ecuted the trusts given them by the State
and with strictest regard to truth honest
performance and wise economy, We have
yet to hear any man deny. Now, il
under these conditions, there were
swindling contractors" as the San Jose
Herald asserts or Jobs, as the Bulletin and
Call intimate, the people Of this section Of
California wonld be placed under mighty
obligations to those journals by the disclos-
ure. Some of the chief contractors were
among the most respected and esteemed
citizens of Marysyille, whose good name
and high character have never beer
smirched. Some of them were Bear River
farmers, who took their teams from their
pillow and labored on works believed to be
wisely constructed for defense of their
homes, and which construction the best EN-
gineering skill OF the day had advised
Some of the men unpaid are respected cit
liens Of Sacramento, where their good name
stands unquestioned before all men. But
if it might be admitted, with truth, that
some swindling contractors have been paid
it Will occur to the reasonable man that it
is no reason why the honest, unpaid claim
shall be rejected. To hold to the contrary
is to advance an inhuman style Of logic.
1t is the easiest thing in the world to
call people "swindling contractors" but a
very different thing indeed to specify the
charges. Now we will venture a wager
that the papers dealing in the sob" shib-
boleth do not know of swindling contract
in the whole matter of the debris dam con-
struction, and that they never did know OF
one. That they cannot name contractor
on the work whom they are prepared to
call swindler That they cannot spec
| ify, even vaguely, where any
Swindling work was done, or where any
work was not done ultimately according to
the specifications approved by the engi-
neers; or that the specifications were
cheats, or the engineers dishonest that
they cannot specify dollar stolen, or that
a dollar or thing of value was stolen, or
where a dollar was stolen, or how or by
what means-ever so vaguely swindle
was perpetrated in dollars, goods or things
of value
Go over this matter as one may, look at
il in all lights, and it resolves itself into
this: The equities are all with the claim
ants the law is with the State; the oppo-
sition is first, cold and pulseless law, and
secondly, blind, unreasoning, sweeping vi
Imperative charges, in support of which
not single specification is laid or scintilla
of proof offered. We submit in all fair
ness to our contemporaries if it is becom-
ing the profession of journalism to thus
indulge in libelous congratulations and de-
nounce as cheating and swindling that,
concerning which not 4 single specifca-
ton is made In all fairness we submit If
it is manly to charge citizens with being
swindlers and cheats, and refuse to so
frame the indictment that the defendants
can reply. If the journalism of the State
proposes to be honest with the public it
Will cease this wholesale vilifying, or come
down to detail of charge, even if it cannot
! cite the proofs.
THE Vallejo Chronicle says: =" The COM
pletion of the Southern Pacific has given
| the Arizona trade to the more enterprising
merchants of the East. BY the reductions
of freight, the drummers for Chicago. St
Louis and Cincinnati have been able TO I'M
dprseu tbt, Calitornians in Colorado and