Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1886-05-22
WE ARE NOT GOING TO RUIN.

The Chicago Times puts 1t in this way
With ea'eoes of rags from European pest
houses we have imported among other physical
distempcrs the frightful disease called cholera.
With cargoes OF social refuse from the slums
and cutters 81 EulOpe we have imported among
other mnral distempcrs The deadly disease
called socialism. We were taught in the costly
sc.,OO of experience to adopt rigorous quaran-
tine measures against the former. Have we
learned in that costly school the necessity of
quarantine against the latter, or shall we re-
qlire more tuition of dynamite bombs?
Not if the expression of the press of
the country is to be accepted as a standard
of the current of public thought. The
press demands the establishment and en-
forcement of this social quarantine at once.
Miller of New York, FELTON, of California,
and Mitchell of Oregon, have introduced
bills looking to some such accomplish
ment
But the Times fears we hope without
cause for the quarantine regulation. 1t
holds that demagogism is yet too prevalent
among our Lawmakers to warrant the
expectation that they will deal with the
subject as is needed
They "coquette with every two-legged indi-
vidual that mas attained the right to put a bal
lot i'll the box" and lack the moral faculty of
discrimination between the foreign anarchist
with red flag and a dynamite bomb and the
honest American citizen that he is preparing to
destroy.
There is some truth, but mainly error
in this conclusion of our Chicago contem-
porary. There are courageous good men
in Congress; patriotism neither sleeps
nor drowses; the instinct of self-preserva-
ton is not benumbed Legislators, even
noses" realize that the vast majority of
the people and the good of the country
demand the restrictive measures sug-
gested, and hence self-interest, as well as
patriotism, will move them to enter upon
the task of reforming the laws necessary
to be changed TO effect the desired end The
Times, with lugubrious wall, assumes to
think the nation in peril. For instance,
1t tells us we have passed from youth to
the Ills and diseases of old age without
experiencing the middle life of nation
ality that we have accepted the saying
Of demagogic idiot, that this
republic is an asylum for the oppressed
Of all nations" and we have been bowling
down TO il with idolatrous alteration
We have sent for aided to come and well
coined the criminals and paupers, the So
cial lepers the diseased and the brutal
refuse of Europe We have squandered the
public domain, deprecated home labor by
tariff laws excluding the products of the
labor abroad we have invited to these
shores, and destroyed foreign commerce to
enrich great capitalized industries
All this sounds loudly, but the country
is not 3" bad off" No nation is in danger
that realizes its errors as this one does.
On the tariff question the Times simply
echoes partisan wall there is honest
division on that issue. We have moi dis
posed of the public domain without COM
pensating and developing results, while
as to foreign landlordism it has not vet
grown to dangerous proportions, and al
ready has received attention that will re-
suit in the application of such remedy as is
needed. Our chief blunder has been in
adopting the absurd sentimentalism that
America is a free hospital for the worlds
incurables. But that idea is even now ex,
ploded, and finds no comfort in the ma
tional heart. The very fact that we con.
fess the need of certain corrections is the
best evidence of the vigorous vitality Of
our system. The charge of rapid passage
from youthful health to old age and dis
ease IN which the struggle for existence
sharpens, and political scrofulous condi
tons develop, is but the result of pessi
mistic blues. The industrial and com
merelal conditions do not Justify any such
alarming diagnosis. On the contrary. the
American people are to-day better off,
enjoy more material comforts greater re
wards for labor, broader intellectual ad
vantages and profounder peace than thos,
Of any nation of Europe
The unrest of the past few months doe
not signify national degeneration or socia
decay. The attrition of the present is tn
necessary prelude to the birth of tn
promise of the future. Out of travail
bonn life. With the free-school syster
intact, religious tolerance secure, republi
can institutions mistaken, democrati
forms dominant. the great mass of tn
people loyal to the laws and the restrain
necessary to order; with the work tn
English race began in America when