The record-union., 1892-03-12
THE PROPOSED NEW CHARTER
CLEARING THE WAY.


ing upon Freeholders to frame Charter
are now of the past. The document is to
be published in one morning and one
evening paper, that it may be read by the
largest possible number of people. It is
the duty of all citizens, therefore, to study
it, and it is the purpose of the RECORD
( UNION to give the fullest opportunity to
the people to educate themselves con-
cerning it. To that end this journal will
from day to day consider and criticise the
new Charter from the first to its last SEN
tence, upon the merits of each and wholly
irrespective of any and all other consider
ations.
Not until that work is completed, or
sufficiently advanced to justify it, will
this paper pronounce for or against the
document. And this fact we wish kept
in view distinctly. We shall speak of the
sections as we find them to bear the test
of critical analysis, and, at the conclu-
sion, weigh them all in the balance
against the present Charter, and, express
ing our own, ask the people to pass such
Judgment upon the Charter as intelli-
gence, reason and the best interests of the
community demand.
This, we submit to our readers, should
be the process all should adopt. There
should be no hasty Judgment for or
against; no leaping to conclusions; no
sweeping condemnation or commenda-
ton. Fifteen well-chosen citizens have
for three months given of their time and
ability to the erection of the Charter.
They have examined the work of other
cities. profted by errors and successes of
others, and have studied, debated and
analyzed every sentence in the docu-
ment. Their judgment deserves re-
spectful consideration, and entities the
product of their deliberations to calm,
thoughtful and patient examination.
The greater problem in government to-
day is the misrule in cities. In no
country is there so much of municipal
mismanagement as in the United States.
The chief seat of corruption is in city pol
itics, and the largest measure of debt and
extravaganza is found in the administra-
ton of city affairs. No other subject
more than municipal reform receives
such grave and earnest consideration of
the law-givers, political economists, es-
sayists and thinkers of the day. Our
people, therefore, should come to the con-
sideration of the new Charter with
out prejudice, bias or hastily
formed judgment. They ought to
consider that they are now called
upon for the first time in nearly
thirty years to debate with one another
new forms to fit new conditions, and to
make laws for many years of the future.
For in that period California has taken on
new character; electoral and municipal
reforms have greatly progressed; sanitary
and all other science playing parts in
good government have made gigantic for
ward strides; society has become settled
and industrial systems have taken on
permanent forms; a new State Constitu-
ton has been made, radical changes
made in methods Of legislation, new f1s-
cal policies have been adopted, and the
impermanence of the pioneer era has
wholly disappeared.
The first question to consider in the de-
bate of the proposed new Charter is the
last one submitted in it; it is essential to
clear the way by taking it up first and
disposing of it, since otherwise it would
tend to obstruct the view of the submit
ted document.
We may reasonably expect that friends
of the Funded Debt Commission will
jealously distrust any attempt to inter-
fere with that body. But its friends are
willing, and we are qualified to speak, to
submit to the sole and only benefciaries
of the commission thequestion of its con-
tinuance. Now, from the beginning to
the end of the new Charter, we do not
find single sentence that runs counter
to, or is inconsistent with, the Funded
Debt Commission, or the system it pur-
sues under the law. There is absolutely
nothing that we can discover that at all
relates to it.
But to make this doubly certain, and to
provide beyond all possibility of question
that the commission is not to be aban-
doned or interfered with by the Charter,
unless the people so vote, there is added
as a supplement to the document Alterna-
tive Proposition No. l, which declares in
language incapable of misconstruction,
that Nothing in this Charter shall ever
be construed as repeating, abrogating,
nullifying, amending, or in any way, or
to any extent, modifying or affecting'' the
laws creating or upon which the Funded
Debt Commission rests, and here the Act
and amendatory Acts are named by title
and date.
But, evidently, to make it clearer and
more emphatic still and to put it beyond
all doubt that the Funded Debt Com
mission shall stand, and that as against
it the new Charter shall go down, it is
added: tNor shall anything in this
Charter ever be construed as repeating,
abrogating, nullifying, amending or in
any way. or to any extent, modifying or
affecting the laws creating the Funded
Debt Commission. naming them by title
and dates.