Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1888-06-04

Legislature, unDluSllnSly FlOlateS MS odlD
of Office and deliberately refuses to do
duty the law imperatively imposes upon
him, and the Governor or Superintendent
OF Printing, or some one, ought to bring
him to the bar of account to answer for his
contumacy. If he has ordinary conception
OF duty he must know, as we have shown,
that he has nothing to do with the amount
OF the appropriation, other than to see that
the Superintendent plans do not call for
expenditure in excess of it, that they are
properly drawn and that the State is fairly
protected in the Specifications. He is to
approve or disapprove for reasons attach
ing to the plans, and not to defeat the will
of the people expressed through their rep
resentatives.
Every man fit to fill 4 State office knows
that it is a first principle-one as old as the
law itself-that all officials and Courts are
bound to give full force and effect to all
statutes, and to construe them literally
for that purpose, except the higher duty
imposed by the Constitution requires their
defeat. There is no sane person so lacking
in intelligence as not to know that
il State Treasurer Herold is, as he
should be, brought before Court
by writ of mandamus to answer for
his delinquency of duty, that tribunal will
not for an instant permit him to reply that
he objects to the policy of the law, or that
the appropriation is insufficient, or that he
does not think the structure necessary. He
will be given to understand peremptorily
that such response is little short of con-
tempt of Court, and that he must base his
refusal upon objections to the plans, not
upon the merits of the law. Even the in
genuity of his journalistic advocate cannot
save him from that discontinue.
The Treasurer's action would justify the
suspicion that it might be in the interest of
the influences antagonistic to the State text
book system, by putting heavier cost upon
the production of the books, by placing the
books required to be kept on hand in peril,
by endangering the books and the printing
stock in refusing them the protection of
fire-proof building II he can afford TO
commit the Democratic end of the State
Administration to such policy it is a
greater responsibility than any other Demo-
cratic official has ever been willing to as
sumo He can rest assured that the fiimsy
excuses advanced by the sheet that cham
pions his cause will not avail before the
next Legislature
The statements recently made in the
REcoRD-UNIoN concerning the Immediate
need for the warehouse the danger of
further storage in the Capitol, the renting
of an outside building, the increased insur
ance, the extra cost of handling, and the
probable necessity for reduction in two or
three months from that date of the force
in the State Printing Office and bindery
because of lack of storage space, and the
extra and unusual responsibility put upon
the Superintendent under his bond, were
made to the RECoRD-UNIoN by the Super
intendent, who manifested at the time that
anxiety in the premises which should
characterize such conscientious and faith
full official. They were made with the
knowledge that the facts would be pub
lished, and that the remedy of resort to
mandamus would be suggested. We are
perfectly confident that Superintendent
Young has made no statements in anywise
conflicting with them-it is impossible to
Imagine that a gentleman of his high
character could do SO; this, notwithstand-
ing the assertions of the mendacious sheet
referred to, that adroItly conveys the i'm
preston that the Superintendent has done
so, and that the statements of the RECORD
UNION were unwarranted and incorrect.