Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1885-03-09
OUR DUTY AS CITIZENS.
Some Pointed Remarks upon the Subject
by Rev. E. r. Ollie.

Dllle announced the following passages OF
scripture, upon which he based his re-
marks:
Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship
with thee, which frameth mischief by law p
| Psa. KEW, %.
Woe unto them which justify the wicked for
reward.-lsa. V, %, %.
Woe TO him that buildeth town with blood,
and Stablisheth city by quiy-Hab. H.. y.
Render therefore unto Caesar the things which
are Caesars, and unto God the things which are
God s.-Mat. xii, u.
| After speaking of the duties of the citi-
zen as voter and as public officer, Mr..
Ollie closed his remarks by saying:
Last Of all, desire to speak of the Chris
tan citizen in his relation to the laws of
the land in which he lives. Need l say
that the good citizen is ever pattern of
! obedience TO law? The law may be one for
! bidding acts which are proper per sc, but
prohibited temporarily or arbitrarily by
! law, such as driving over bridge faster
than walk, or shooting game or catching
| tlSh ont OF season, or carrying concealed
| weapons. These acts are not in themselves
vicious, and the laws forbidding them are
in q sense arbitrary enactments but the
good citizen respects them sacredly, for
they are laws presumably founded on jus
tice and right. Let the rising generation
| be taught reverence for law as law, and not
! that every man and every community has
a right to nulify the statutes at will. Every
citizen has right, by all legitimate means
! to try to change existing laws which he
| considers oppressive but the most trivial
enactment, while it stands on the statute
books mrepealed, is clothed with all
the majesty and sanctity of law, and he
who, in public or private capacity, strives
1 lnf,y e. - =, !
| government, and is so far arrayed side by
side with every criminal iii the land.
In the recent discussion of the licensing
of gambling in this city, false issue has
| been raised, viz: The expectancy or mex
pedienCy of licensing crime and vice as a
matter of municipal policy The real issue
is not that al all, and cannot be till the
State law against gambling is. repealed
Some things are lawful that are not expe-
dent but nothing is eXpedient that is not
| lawful. While that statute remains in the
code. the only question is, is it right and is
it public policy for a municipality To null
| lify State law? Is it right for the city of
Sacramento to do what she Furnishes Grim
! inals daily in her Police Court for doing
setting at defiance the laws of the land?
! Is it right for an individual or a corpora
ton to do that which, if all followed their
example would inaugurate reign Of IA
| pine, lawlessness and anarchy? That is
| the question which the citizens of Sacra-
mento are called upon to decide to-d day
! with the eyes of our young men, of the
! nation, and Of Almighty God upon them.
| When license is made lawful will be time
enough TO discuss its expediency. Upon
| that question, however indulge me for
| few moments.
We are told with wearisome iteration
that it is impossible to suppress gambling
and therefore it is better to license it and
derive a revenue from it.
In the first place | assert that it is as
! possible to suppress gambling as a public
! vice as it is to suppress opium smoking or
| cOck-fighting as public vices. The Trustees
estimate that there will be permanently
| twenty-five gambling games in Sacramento
more in proportion to the population than
| in any other city in the State. | have per-
| sOnally known of more victims of this vice
| in Sacramento in six months than in six
| years residence in San rancisco and Oak
| land. Doubtless the recent agitation, the
vigilance of employers and the hard
| times has decreased the number of gamb-
ling games here; no thanks, certainly, to
/ the license ordinance, which has made our
! city Botany Bay, a rendezvous for the
gamblers driven from other places. The
extent to which license restricts (?) gam
| able to pay $50 GOO in license fees annually.
| One game pays 500 annually, and that is
! only II per cent of its profits.
| Like my Brother Rice, | will not admit
! that gambling cannot be suppressed OF at
least as much repressed here a. in any city in
the Union, until one honest effort has been
made to suppress it. When we had an
| ordinance against gambling that ordinance
was repealed at the request of The gamblers
Of this city, for the OK knoweth his owner
and the ass his masters crib" Five wears
later petition, signed by the leading bust
ness men, for the re-enactment of that ordi-
nance was treated with contempt by our
city government, rs everything is that is
not Matched in the saloons
But, said one OF our City Trustees to
me- " the police We're all corrupted and
bribed, and the poor tleeced gamblers came
to the council and said they could hardly
make an honest living And so these
horny-handed toilers begged to be pro-
city fathers thought it was a kind of
hogging game for the police to get all
the "swag,' and SO they took measures 10 |
get sdivvy' themselves.
The gamblers thought it would be
cheaper to buy the whole city government
in a lump than to buy the police at retail. |
1t was pathetic to hear how shocked my
friend the Trustee was that the naughty |
police should take a bride to look the other |
way, and shield the crimes they were
sworn to punish, but he had permitted |
himself to be bribed to do the same thing
ana now these Trustees are holding up |
that $4,000 as bride to the people of Sac |
ramcnto to sustain them in the defiance of |
law. As for the gamblers. they are happy |
Before, they paid the police handsome |
price to stand between them and the State !
law; but now for one or two per cent. of
their stcalings they have the whole city |
government between them and justice.
Which is worse: for the police, as indi- |
viduas, to take bride secretly to wink at |
crime or for the whole city to do it pub |
licly, and to glory in it, and to haunt its !
share in the face of decency through the /
public press?
The police bribed, We're they? Whose |
police ere they? Whomade them? Must |
business man 20 into partnership with |
burglars because if he don't his dishonest |
clerks will? Would it not occur to him to |
kick the rascals out and put in honest men !
grant that the police were bad enough. |
What must the force have been when an |
cx-Chici stood by and saw young January, |
and the State treasury through him. robbed |
of thousands in his licensed gambling he'll? |
That is the man to whom for years you !
committed the execution of your laws, the |
punishment of your criminals and the con-
servation of public peace and morals
But granting all that is said about the |
venality of the police land l suppose their
supcriors in office know them better than |
do), that is no excuse for the license iniqui-
ty The whole principle is corrupt and !
corrupting The changes are rung on that |
S25, 900 paid annually into the treasury;
but where does that money come from2
The gamblers do not prey on each other.
Beasts of prey never do. They do not pro-
duce anything. They are the parasites of
society, feeding, as is the nature of para
sites on the weak and the morally unclean
and diseased. Their money comes from
our young men, our laboring classes, who
should be the bone and sinew of our young
community And these vampires not only
steal the money of these men, but their
manhood and their honor, making paupers
and criminals of them, to be an incubus on
society The King of Dahomey mixed
the mortar for his palace with the
blood of two hundred maidens slain for
that purpose Will Sacramento pave her
streets with the hfe-blood of her young
men? Woe to him that buildeth town
with blood. and stablisheth a city by in
EQUITY"
Can we not see that this license money is
only pittancc of the hundreds of thou
sands taken out of legitimate channels