The record-union., 1894-06-01

over ten and a quarter miles of old side
walks were condemned and cement walks
substituted, the entire sidewalk reform
| having been planned and ordered. and its
execution having begun two years before
/ the Legislature of 1893 met.
The agitation for new water supply
was renewed in 1887, and at no time since
has been lost sight of, nor has experiment
in that direction ceased. Three years be-
fore the Legislature of 1893 met the sew
erage system and sewage disposal ques-
tions were taken up, and those difficult
matters made the subjects of local legisla-
ton, public meetings. foreign inquiry
and the Iabors of the Board of Health,
and the present approach to the adoption
of new systems is wholly due to such
PREDATORY public educational debate and
activity and not by one particle to the ac-
| tion Of the Legislature Of 1893.
| The rapid transit electric system was
chartered and the lines largely built long
before the Legislature of 1898. and was in
operation while that body was in session
over some eight miles of track. The
extension of the system and its inn
provement, until the city is gridironed
with electric roads, has since then been
rapid and great, but it is to be noted that
such extension and improvement were not
checked by the Seymour tomfoolery but
went on just as vigorously while the
Capital question was still in an unsettled
condition, as did also the street and other
public improvements.
The levee improvemements were all
conceived, planned and prepared for
prior to the Legislature of 1898; the peo-
pie early in 1892, at an election held for
the purpose. voted the necessary bonds
for carrying out the plans, in addition to
the large sums expended in like direc-
ton by the City Trustees.
The post-awning removal scheme or
iginated in the time of Mayor Gregory,
and the first ordinances to effect it were
passed three years before the Legislature
Of 1898 assembled. 1t was a long, hard
battle to break down the prejudice in fa-
vor of post awnings, and, of course. the
greater progress in removals was made
after the legal battles had been fought,
and the work had somewhat progressed,
but the post-awning reform was not born
of the Seymour Capital removal resolu-
ton; nor were the macadam, bituminous
curbs; nor the stone crosswalks;
nor cement sidewalks; nor the re-
moval of street nuisances; nor the
| Improvement of business fronts; nor
| the substitution of electric for horse
power on the street railways; nor the
fortihcation of the levees; nor the intro
duction of intersection electric street
| lighting; nor the scheme Of improved
drainage and sewage disposal and clear
water systems; nor the improved street
grades; nor the broadening and raising of
Y street, q most important and costly
work; nor the enlargement Of the paid
fire department.; nor. greatest of all. the
adoption of wholly new form of munic-
ipal government, under charter voted
upon by the people and approved by the
Legislature of 1894, month before the
Seymour resolution was concocted. That
| grand step in advance, the new charter,
was one of the natural results of the
spirit Of improvement that actuated our
people prior to the Legislature of 1893.
OF course it is very popular among
Sacramento's critics to attribute the city's
advancement to the stirring up the threat
of removal of the capital is supposed to
deny that that had some effect in break
ing the spines Of some mossbacks, and in
bringing into the ranks of progressionists
some who thought that things were NOV
ing too rapidly, and that the spirit of i'm
provement was piling up too heavy bur-
dens Of taxation. But we do most en-
phatieally assert the facts to be that all the
improvements in Sacramento which,
now that many of them approach the
condition of completion, make showing
that surprises visitors who knew the city
only in its former garb, were all planned.
begun and in process of execution prior
to the session of the Legislature of 1893,
and that to the action of that body is not
to be Justly attributed the progressive
spirit of our people.
ANOTHER argument in favor of putting
up the bars against foreign immigration
the Slavs of Chicago. thousands strong,
fell upon. beat. wounded and drove out
health officers who were obeying the law
by enforcing regulations to prevent the