Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1886-10-08
PROPOSED s1DE-BAR CONGRESS

The proposition is before the national
body of the Knights of Labor for that
Order to establish a side-bar Congress in
Washington to consider all measures before
Congress, decide upon their merits and in
huence their adoption, rejection or modifi-
cation in the real Congress. 1t is the right
| of any body of citizens to set up a mock
| Legislature. 1t is the right of the people
on the stump, at the crossroads, in lyce-
ums or in press, to debate all or any public
measures. But would a small Congress by
the Knights of Labor, going through with
all the processes of business necessary in
the Congress of the United States, be ad-
visable or beneficial? We think moi. The
scheme would attract attention because of
its novelty, but it would very early find
itself swamped in the vast mass of meas
ures and subjects brought before Congress.
1t would be simply a debating club, moth
ing more, and driven to consideration of a
few topics relatingto its membership. 1t
might not be without benefit to the coun-
try, by dispelling the popular idea that it
is the easiest thing in the world to lesis-
late, but it would certainly be disastrous
to the Knights of Labor by projecting the
Order into politics, for to that it would,
~insensibly perhaps, but certainly drift.
The strength of the Order is in its declara-
ton that it is non-political when it can
not longer justly lay this claim it will
go down. Should the scheme pro-
posed be adopted, the result of the
experiment will be looked for with
curious interest by the public, and if we
do not greatly misjudge humanity, that re-
suit will be the breaking down of the
scheme under two in1uences-demagogism
and the same lobby agencies that operate
upon the confines of Congress itself-and
the inevitable splitting asunder of the Or
der upon any one Of a dozen all-engrossing
issues that may be named. 1t is, for the es-
sential well being of the country that the
people divide into parties that join issues
regarding policies. These issues are re-
fected in national legislation. If the
Knights of Labor propose to take sides
with either of the parties that present for
public support, the initial purpose of the
Order must first be abandoned. If, again,
they propose to conine themselves only to
matters relating to labor, in their side-bar
Congress, how will they avoid taking issue
upon the tariff question, financial policies,
and a score of similar question, and will
not such issues destroy their unity?
ALLEN GILMAN BIGELow, in the North
american Rerieu, deals the prejudice of
centuries that clings to Inflammation a
singing blow, when, waving all sanitary
questions, and looking only to that raised
by Bishop Coke that it is horribleto think
of committing the form of the loved one
to the flames, he asks, " Is fire worse than
the worm Are speedy ashes more awful
that the slow corruption of the dear body,
when the loved form is carried to its bur-
ial, the earth cast up to make the grave,
and the very sides of it within are covered
with boughs of evergreen, to shut out as
much as may be of the repellent sight?
No sound known to incarceration can so
rudely wound the heart and ~lacerate the
sensibilities as the harsh rattle of the earth
upon the coffin while the struggle and
Juggling of the bearers as they lower their
precious burden into the grave, and the
grating withdrawal of the straps cannot be
paralleled in the entire process of crema-
tom