The record-union., 1894-08-16
VOICE OF TIE PRESS.
Some Frank Expressions plainly
Made
BY Papers at Home and Abroad on
Topics of Living Inter-
est TO All.
fresno Expositor. I

Fresno Expositorl
! Among the political signs of the times
none are more pronounced than the de-
cline of Populism, wherever an oppor-
tunity has been given to test public
sentiment. The Populists fused with the
Democrats in Oregon in the expectation
/ of being able to overthrow the Repub-
licans. and they were ANONYMOUSLY de-
feated.
In Tennessee they fused with the Re-
publicans and made great calculations on
winning victory, but when the votes
were counted they were hopeiessly in the
vocative.
They were sure they had dead thing
in Alabama. where another combination
was made with the Republicans, but
there they lost, rather than gained,
ground. And so it is everywhere, and
SO it will be.
Take the situation in Fresno County.
| When the Populists opened their con-
vention here the whole atmosphere and
the circumambient ether were laden with
the prediction shouts OF victory that
they say as in vision, but no sooner was
the convention over than they found that
their pneumatic tire was busted" and
they have been walking beside their ma
chine ever since. They are less hopeful
now than ever before and their depression
|
| proacheS.
The fact is, the sober common sense of
| the people has been offended by the mis-
guided efforts of Populist leaders to be
all things to all men, promising every
malcontent. whether anarchist or social
| ist, everything be wanted, and to profess
sympathy for the lawlessness and vio-
lence with which such people threaten to
take everything alone and on their own
| account.
NOW IN ORDER.
Fresno Republican,
The sympathy of political demagogues
! is now in order for the Omaha strikers,
who have made it necessary TO call out
| the State troops by beating the life out OF
other laboring men and defying the civil
| authorities. The rule of brute force would
be deihed by class of political agitators
if they thought it would bring loaves and
fishes to their empty maws.
GOVERNMENT OWNERSHIP OF RAIL-
ROADS.
fAntioch Ledger1
The Government ownership of railroad
agitators urge that it is just as consistent
for the Government to carry the people
and their produce as to carry the mail.
They do not stop to consider the econom-
les of the question, but point with
pride" to the knock-down argument that
the Government carries and delivers let
ters, and hence it can carry and deliver
freight. The Government charges the
people thirty-two cents a pound to carry
and deliver their letters, and even this
does not pay the whole bill, and Congress
Is called upon every year to appropriate
money to pay the postal deficiency. On
the other hand railroads. under private
ownership, carry fruit across the conti-
nent for one and one-half cents per
pound. 1t stands to reason, therefore,
that private enterprise could and would
carry and deliver our letters for a heap
sight less than tnirty-two cents per
pound. If the Government ever carried
a pound of freight, built ship, erected a
building, printed book or carried ont
any enterprise for less money than pri-
vate enterprise could do the same work
we would like to hear about it. The
function of government is TO protect the
| people in their person and in their pos
sessions. 1t certainly should not be di-
verted into channels OF enterprise unless
economy prompts the venture-and the
economy is SO self-evident as to be pro-
lection to the possessions of the people.
GOOD MEASURE.
TShasta Courier.1
The anti-anarchist bill passed by the
Senate Monday and sent TO Congress with
! a favorable recommendation by Secretary
| Carlisle, ought to become law and be
enforced.
A VOTING PROPOSITION.
Oakland Enquirer.]
General Chapman announces that he
| will draft bill and present to it the next
Legislature making compulsory the
adoption of the Australian ballot for vot-
ing in political conventions. 1t is proba-
BILE that the bill will become a law as
easily as did that creating the purityof-
elections law, and the result cannot be
but beneficial.
A PREPoSTEROUS IDEA.
baltimore sun.
Government ownership of railroads
and the other so-called natural mono
poles" cannot be even attempted with
out wrecking American liberty and COM
pletely subvert1ng our institutions. 1t is
estimated that the Government would
become under the Nationalist pro-
gramme, the employer of 100000 men,
and this vast host would be constantly
growing larger. If we have already seen
the evil tendencies of massing paltry
10000 office holders behind the party in
Washington, what chance would there be
for turning out q bad Administration
with 1000, 600 of subservient voters at its
back? Popular government would GER
tainly perish by the corrupt compact be-
tween the party in power and its huge
standing army of wage earning depend
ents. The whole idea is Utopian and pre-
posterous.
COYOTE SCALPS.
Oakland Times
The position of the next Governor of
California on the coyote scalp bounty law
is of far more importance than his posi-
ton on the tariff, silver question, pay
ment of the railroad debt or any othar
purely national question.
THE SENATE.
Riverside Enterprise.]
If any reasons were lacking to convince
the people of the United States that Sen
ators should be chosen by direct vote,
such reasons have been furnished to the
fullest extent by recent actions of the
Senate itself Ii any arguments were
needed to make clear the necessity oi
bringing the upper house Of Congress
closer to the people, such arguments have
been more than supplied by the conduct
of that body in regard to the tariff bill.
THE TEHUANTEPEC RAILWAY.
[San Jose Mercury.]
Among the foreign events Of the sum-
mer that will affect industrial and COM
mercial conditions in California the most
important in itself, and, perhaps, the
most far-reaching in its consequences, is
| Df raI, Do;