Salt Lake evening Democrat. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1885-1887, 1886-08-05
CALIFORNIA POLITICS.

An ex-member Of the California Legis-
lature OF 1880, now in Salt Lake City on
business from San Francisco, assures the
DEMOCRAT that the gentleman recently
railroaded through the extra session OF
the Legislature in that State as United
States Senator, is not the Williams who
is at the head OF the firm of Williams,
Dimond q Co., the local agents OF the
Pacific Mail Company, but the senior
member OF wholesale liquor firm doing
business there The DEMOCRAT was as.
sured he was the identical Williams, and
believes so STILL but in either case it
would in no manner change the facts
set forth in the article in which
the name was written. The politi-
cal history OF California has almost
without interruption been history OF the
power OF money and the classes against
the will OF the majority of the workers OF
the State. In no other State in the Union
do the classes and the masses show up so
plainly, for the State and her present
prosperity is the result OF the labor of the
masses, and all the wealth, where it is
held in large single bodies, is in the
hands OF few, who style themselves the
classes, and who, with an occasional ex
ception, are all Republicans. While the
State was content to build up on internal
trade, and was also content to thrive on
stray immigration which had for
its incentive the golden dreams
OF the 50s, these classes were
unknown, but from the day the
State reached out for foreign commerce
and railroad communication, schemers
who were long.headed took steps to
gobble the material interests, and to-day
hold the masses of the people OF Cali
fornia under their thumbs in very
undemocratic manner. On her coast
line California is hemmed in bya coterie
of the classes to the exclusion OF honest
competition; with her commerce over
land, the same state OF things exists, and
now the same classes are excrting their
fettered means OF subsistence, the ma
tural waters OF the State, and through
money and other power, are very likely
to win. II is notable that
the Democratic party has ever fought
these encroachments on the rights OF the
people, step by step, but the power of
money and the treachery of the tools OF
the classes have always succeeded in
pinioning the hands OF the party, and
holding them helpless. Even at this late
day, when Stanford, who may be called
the leader OF the classes, is posing as a
friend Of the State in the National Sen
ate, the discomfited masses are plannin.
campaign against him and his classes
the principal point in which is the draft
ola law that shall force him and his
classes to pay honest taxes on thcil
roads in the State, and force
them to regulate fares and freight'
on them, and wipe ont theil
despicable methods OF unfair discrimi
nation against the masses. The actor
OF the present Legislature on the wate
problem is watched with great interes
by the Democratic party throughout tn,
country, as the vote to give the peopl'
free water for irrigation will ring tn,
death knell OF the classes in California
and pave the way for a Democratic Con
gressohal delegation aud ultimate free
dom from Republican rule, which, whil
it has been in force, has been prostitute'
to the will OF the classes against the vel
fare OF the masses. California, with al
her golden halo OF possibilities and reali
xations, has long been whited poltica