Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1885-01-01
more thoughtful and conservative elements

more thoughtful and conservative elements,
and, secondly, at the polls by an over
whelming defeat by the people, who re-
turned none of the radicals to the Legisla-
ture, and fatty rebuked the agitation and
rejected the platform on which it was
phasized by the decision of the Supreme
Court of the United States to the effect
that the State should have accepted the
taxes rendered by the railroad companies
since the stipulation to Gtigate the issues
between the State and the railroads did
not waive any right Of the State or circum-
scribe her remedies. The people very evil
IDENTIFY realized that the rejection of the
offer to pay with stipulation that the issues
involved should be Irrigated was a serious
and stubborn error.
The extra session of the Legislature
called in the early spring was one of those
stupenduous blunders into which the over
weening ambition of pretentious ignor
ance, backed by ambitious wealth, made in
the effort to secure political preferment,
was led. The Presidential campaign alb
sorbed large share of public attention for
third of the year, and was one factor in
increasing business depression. The State
gave its electoral vote to Blaine and
Logan, and signally rebuked the Demo
cratic State Administration by returning
the Republican party to power upon its
| platform, which distinctly refused to COM
nit the party to the insane and demagogic
policy of hostility to transportation inter-
ests in this State
Among the undesirable things to recall
in the years history are the charges of
heavy defalcations by ex-State officials in
the matter of fees collected while in Office;
and the confession Of the Deputy State
Treasurer, A. D. January, of systematic
and long-continued thieying by him from
special deposit funds Thesresult was his
incarceration and the resignation of his
father, the Treasurer.
The people of the State, gratifed by the
passage by Congress of the amendments to
the Chinese Restriction bill, were exces-
sively annoyed by the perjury and evasions
of the law by Chinese immigrants, and
much disheartened ny the ruling of the
United States Supreme Court, constituting
the Restriction Act in manner to lessen
! its virtue as a restraining measure.
As whole the year 1884 in California
has been one of mingled good and i'll.
There has been no great suffering, but
nevertheless business stagnation. There
have been but few signal business
failures, but no great volume of business
has been transacted. The soil has yielded
bountifuIly, but the markets have been
irresponsible Money has been plentiful,
and investments in lands extensive, but
labor has not been in hot demand Manu-
featuring has nowhere ceased, but every
where has been drawn within narrower
limits. Food is plentiful and cheap-meats
alone excepted-and rents lower than in
1888. No pestilence has visited the coast,
and no great disaster shocked the people,
and bounteous rains open promising sea-
son. In short, 1884 in California has been
a wear of quicscence outside Of the political
atmosphere. But it has not been year
Of Encouragement. Agriculture is the
chief industry, and the ability of agricult-
wrists to hold a seasons crop testifies to
their independence. They are not now, as
once, heavily in debt, nor are their lands
so pledged by mortgage as in former
years. The acreage under cultivation has
greatly increased, and agriculture gives
larger employment to labor in California
than in any previous time. A season of
narrowed margins is not without its econ
omic benefits, and in the fiat market of
1884 there Is no suggestion to cultivators
and growers of bankruptcy, nor of serious
financial embarrassment.
The Junipero Sierra Centennial celebra-
ton at Carmel Mission was an event of
much Importance, and was observed with
BETTING ceremonial by Church and State
authorities.
The efforts made by the Central Pacific
Railroad Company, the Southern Pacific
Railroad Company and agriculturists, hor
ticulturists, vineyardists and manufacturers
to enable Commissioner Andrews to make
a creditable exhibit of California products
at the New Orleans Exposition, met with
great success, but it was attained in
the face of great difficulties, and in a space
of time that might well have been deemed
so brief as to warrant abandonment Of the
scheme.
The Irrigation Conventions of the year
were of exceeding importance, and re-
suited in agreement to suggest plan to
the Legislature to permit equitable distri-
button of waters for irrigation, and the
recompense Of riparian owners for damage
done them by appropriation. But the
whole scheme is surrounded by difficulties,
and will become one of the gravest ques-
tons in State economy.
The adoption of an amendment to the
Constitution providing for the printing Of
school books by the State marks new
and a wise departure in our educational
policy.
SACRAMENTO.
Ii has been deemed not necessary to fol-