The morning call., 1892-10-27
DUTY OF THE RURAL DISTRICTS.

The campaign against corruption cannot
be conducted to close in the city of San
Francisco. The country must do its share
Every county in the State is as deeply con-
cerDed as this county in checking the growth
of demoralzatioD. for every county may be
the victim of venal legislation. Rouenness
has been less con spcuous in the rural dis
trjcts than here; but if has fiouriShed every
where. and every section has suffered from
the arbitrary policy Of the railroad. The
comparative freight schedules published by
the Traffic Association show that our farm
ers pay from 20 per cent to rs per cent more
for the transportation of their produce than
the farmers Of Kansas.
The people of the rural districts Will con-
suit their own in terest if in voting for AS
semhlymen and Senators they look beyond
the question whether the candidate who
solieits their vote is a Democrat or Re
publican. At the stage we have reached,
something more is required of representa-
| tive in the Legislature than fealty to one OF
| the two old parties. No man ought to be
| chosen who is not sound on the question OF
| railroad regulation. and likewise firmly re-
| solved not TO disgrace California by send
ing a disreputable person TO the Senate
| Where the Democrat fills these conditions,
and the Republican does not, it is the duty
| Of Republicans to vote for the Democrat;
| and where the Democrat has heretofore
marched in the Buckley ranks, while the
| Republican bears a good name, and does
| not wear the railroad collar, it is the duty
| Of Democrats to vote for the Republican.
/ This is not q time for trifing over dead is
sues. What California wants is men who are
| al. Il alt "a 70 m
portanee of the questions OF the hour.
With the great national issues on which
citizens divide in the choice of a President
| the Legislature of California has only q
secondary concern. II will have to choose
a Senator ard il is to be hoped that it will
choose a citizen who will be credit to the
State. But it will be far better for rura
| Assembly district to choose an honest
Democrat than member who will cast his
ballot for Mike de Young. The main bust
ness OF the Legislature. however will be tc
| repair the evils which stand in the way Of
the growth of the State and its chief city
evils which may be summed up as poiti-
| cal corruption and railroad domination
and representatives should be chosen
| who will fight those evils, early
and late and all the time. 1t il
mere twaddle TO say, as the Crimmin:
| and Kelly organ does, that people ought Il
elect railroad tools aud corruptionists to the
| Legislature in order not to jeopardiZe Re
| publican supremacy in the Senate. 1t /;
| important that that supremacy should not
be imperiled. But it is far more importan
that corruption and venality and subser
viency to a corporation should be checked
OF two evils choose the least The country
viii survive tie in the Senate; but thC
State cannot survive a continuance of the
present era of political prOfigacy. We are
already a byword in the East, and ID is M
wonder.
The rural districts have generally beer
represented in the Legislature by men OF
honor. faithfully devoted to the interests OF
the State. There have been few black
sheep among them, but they have been ex-
ceptions In the country everybody knows
the Assemblyman, and a man who has once
fallen down has small chance Of nomIna-
tion. Is it asking too much Of rural con-
stituences to appeal TO their State pride to
rise, if need be, above party and to with
hold their vote from any man who has been
| identified with corruption In the past, or
who wears the railroad collar round his
neck? They surely owe so much to theiI
State.
1t is absolutely fatal to a State to be sus-
pected OF subsection TO a corporation. For
many years the influence of the Pennsylva
MIA Railroad in New Jersey was so potent
that the State was hamOrously called th
State of Camden and Amboy. The sObri
quet was deadly. People would not live ii
New Jersey il they could get houses any
where else. Real estate was about half tn
price which it commanded in the county o
Kings, a couple of miles off. The State be
came subject for jibes and sneers. Tn
story went that when a drowning man
struggling painfully toward shore, was tol(
by spectators on the beach that the land b.
was approaching was New Jersey he turned
about sadly, and swan out TO sea to die
rather than set foot on so benighted coast
Intelligence was so rare that the State gave
its electoral vote to Mcclellan In 1864
Some years have passed since railroad dom
ination ceased In New jersey. but the Stat
has never got over the hard repute it VOL
from that cause What befell New JERSEY
will befall California If no effort is made
throw off the railroad incubus.