Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1886-02-09
VIOLENCE AND MOB LAW.

Our dispatches this morning give details
of troublous times in three distinct quar-
ters- In London, as we write, a riot is pro-
crossing, having its birth in the studied
effort Of socialists 20 move to frenzy the
unemployed of that vast human hive.
Sufficient is not now known of the inlme-
date cause Of the riot to speak of it as it
deserves. 1t suffices now to saw that while
II is evident it is very largely promoted by
men who are in real want, and are sincere
in their desire for wage-paying labor. it is
certain that, as in all such cases, the vi
cious element has seized upon the oppor
tunity to swell the surging crowds in the
streets of London. The labor element in
England is indeed to be commiscrated if it
IS given over to the leadership Of the com
munists and socialists.
In our country labor is becoming so well
organized that it is not in the danger from
such influences as menaced it even two
years ago. The workingmen of the United
States have shown their capacity to treat
the questions most Immediately affecting
their interests in calm and philosophical
manner, within the law, through the me-
dunn of organizations, that thus far have
prevented disorder and conserved the in
terests of labor Herein lies the distinc-
ton between workingmen in a free gov
eminent, where there is no ruled or ruling
class, and those in the monarchies where
the workingman in distress assaults first
the government over him, and which does
not derive Its power from the consent of
the governed. In this Republic the citi
zen wage-winner gives his attention to
remedies, involving questions of political
economy, and so far as he antagonizes the
law, rarely does so except peaceabIv, and to
secure its modification, since he is himself
at once the lawmaker and the subject of
the law.
But there are exceptions, even with us,
as in the case Of the Pennsylvania coke
strikes, yesterday, where violence was
resorted to, and is resulting, as it always
must, IN injury to the very interests that
invoke 1t. On our own coast at Seattle
suicidal policy of violence against Chi
nese has been renewed, and the
people, arrayed against the people, have
shed blood in defense of the laws made by
the sovereign people-an act in itself one
OF the most signal evidences of thestreneth
of the American system. The militiamen
who shot into the ranks of the Seattle
mob were volunteers from the citizenship
OF the place, not the hired troopers of 4
governing power. The mob that rendered
the resort to arms necessary, was itself
from the people that created the very law
that fortified the guardsmen in their
action. The forcible removal of the Chi
nese Of Seattle was in violation of the laws
OF the land. The citizen whose own pron-
erty snd person is dependent upon the
supremacy of his own sovereignty as per-
sonified in the law, made by his own direc-
ton, cannot for moment approve resist
anee to it. Yet, while we condemn and
deplore the violence to which the peonle
OF Seattle have teen moved. it is limos
slble to ignore the fact, that underlying it
and prompting it, is deep, widespread and
wholly justified sentiment, that the con-
h'ct between the Chinese and the white
waye-winners on this coast, is, if not ire
rrsssibie, at least Of such force and vitality
that II viii, and should make itself mani
test in the laws of the land. so as to secure
the remedy so much needed. Either
this, or continued acts of violence and
law-breaking. But this latter we
cannot believe will prevail. 1t mus. he
that the sentiment which moved the peo-
pie of Seattle to such unwise and wholly
iaexcusable action win robe itself leoiti.
mately, and accomplish its ends peace
ably. There Is danger in the present, and
he is blinl in6eel who fails to see it-dar-
ger of hot eounsels prevailing, and of pas
sion supplanting reason. The situation is
by no means so bad as the laboring people
are being led to believe. A very consider
able check has been put upon Chinese i'm
migration, and though the restriction law
has been evaded, and sadly ill-used, it re-
mains that the national Legislature did
ass such a law in Response to our just pc
titicns, and that it maniiests its present in