Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1885-11-19
UNNECESSARY ALARM

There is, we think, unnecessary alarm
on the part Of some people that the social
agitation regarding the Chinese on this
coast may develop revolutionary ten
denotes. 1t must be remembered that no
great social, political or economic changes
or accomplishments have ever been effect
ed without some apparent disorder. The
greatest attainments by society in reforms
have been marked by sudden commissions,
by phases of excitement, and by apparent
throes of menacing character The social
body does not reject that which makes it
i'll without some evidences of suffering,
precisely as is true of the physical body
But these manifestations do not necessarily
indicate revolutionary tendencies Gov
ernments are nodded in their policies by
convulsive agitations often, that serve
rather TO strengthen the system of govern
ment than to weaken it, and to bring the
people closer rather than antagonize them
to authority. In this country, where the
government is the governed there can be
no social or economic rising against dis
tinct governing power. The right to mod
ify policies in free government resides
with that sovereign, the citizen, who is not
subject to any assault from a force back of
him, since he is at once ruler and ruled.
Out of excitement and agitation reforms
are worked in this country, and through
these only. That the sentiment of the
people of this coast is so strong against
Chinese immigration does not to us indi-
cate the danger of any uprising of a revc-
lutionary character. The whole movement
appears to be that the moral force and the
inherent power of the governed acting upon
the agencies of government in methods that
only in sporadic cases are manifest by vio-
lence. This people have not lost one whit
of their respect for the law. They are as
sensible as ever that they are the authors
of the law, and that its policy is modified
by the rule of the majority. To influence
this majority is their sole aim, and the
TAScNhN 0ANlltlutul II u manifestation OF
effort made in that direction. When the
New York Times speaks of the "hoodIum
element being here in the ascendant. and
as dominating these communities, it illus
trates its objectionable ignorance of the
state of public thought, and the real status
of the situation. A very little inquiry
would convince it that the hoodlum ele-
ment has no part in the present agitation,
which is the natural sequence of disease
of the social body now attempting TO free
itself from that which afiiicts it. 1t should
be the aim of the law-givers appointed to
the task, to aid this natural effort. The
lawleSs element, SO far from having part in
the real and influencing agitation of the
day, is frowned upon and held in check by
the law-abiding and orderly forces of our
society. The lawless have ever, and in all
countries, sought to improve such occa-
sions as this, to their own gain
Bat nowhere, where the great
thought and sentiment of the
people have tended in one direction
for reform, has the lawless class been able
to give character to the movement. but
has been uniformly subordinated to, and
kept in check by it. Our society is in the
formative state as yet upon this coast, but
1t is influenced by representatives of old
civilizations, not by class untried in the
science of government or the systems of
law and orderly regulation. The attempt
to adapt society to conditions admitting of
the unrestricted occupancy of the country
by an antagonistic civilization has been
going on for some thirty years, and has
failed, and now Pacific coast society is
endeavoring to shake off conditions that
trammel it and threaten its substructure-
free, independent and fairly rewarded
labor. 1t should be borne in mind that the