The record-union., 1894-11-29
FOR WHAT HAVE WE TO BE
THANKFULs

The day suggests the question with
which this article is entitled. To the re-
hecting mind much appears for which,
as people, we have reason to be thank
tul. That neither war, pestilence nor
famine have visited US; that domestic
strife has gone down before the majesty
of the law; that sovereign people still
prove to the world that man is capable OF
self-government, and that republic is
not theory.
We have reason to be thankful that
despite the lamentations of the gloomy,
the dark and dismal croakings of pessi-
mists and the arts ofdemagogues in their
efforts to hoodwink the people and mis-
Lead those who have the misfortune to
give ear to them, there is not reason to
believe that the government of the people
is in peril, that free institutions are
tottering, or that this last best heritage of
human liberty is to fail among men.
We have reason to be thankful that
despite the sluggishness of trade, the
pause in manufacturing, the timidity of
capital, the augmented number of the
unemployed and the slowness of mar
kets, the country is neither SO hopeless
nor in such extreme suffering that we
cannot discern the approach of better
times, the clearing away of the clouds,
and the promise of the sunshine of re-
newed prosperity and general industrial
activity.
We have reason to be thankful that
patriotism has not declined, the love OF
country grown old, or regard for Ameri-
can institutions ceased among our peo-
pie; but that, on the contrary, the Ameri-
can sentiment is strong and abiding, and
the resolution to preserve the Nation
with all it's beneficent institutions intact,
is fixed irrevocably in the hearts OF the
lovers OF free government. We have rea-
son to be thankful in California that de-
spite rant and falsehood, and the calamity
shrieking of the short-sighted, the fearful
and the designing, this State has made
greater material progress, and in the
forty-four years of it's life than has the
country, as a.whole. AS Mr.. Nimmo has
shown we gained in the decade preceding
1890 40 per cent. in population, while the
average gain of the whole country was
25 per cent. While the average per cent.
of gain in the wealth of the United States
was 40 ours was IS; the average for the
whole country was 142 in gain of manu-
factures, but in California it was 145, and
in the values of manufactures our per
cent. of gain was 50, while the average
for the whole country was IS.
Our agricultural product values in
creased 46 per cent. though the average
Der cent. of increase in the same lines for
the United States was only IL. In the
value of our farming lands and houses
we show the record of 166 per cent. OF in
crease, while the average for the whole
country was but 81 per cent.
We have reason to be thankful that we
live in a climate of SURPRISING mildness.
and that TO even the poorest of us there is
no such struggle before US for the coming
winter as must be met in the less favored
elimes OF our own land. While biting
blasts and penetrating cold drive our
brethren of the Fast indoors and close to
the blazing hearth to keep their thanks
giving. we bask in the warmth of a genial
sun, or renew our vigor in the refreshing
GOODNESS OF tempered breezes; and even ii
in the falling rain, we find no discomfort
to check the rising thanks which our
hearts should prompt to-day and our lips
utter that we are so favored, and that our
condition is not one of despondency,
hopelessness or fear.