The record-union., 1894-02-09
THE EVIL OF LoCALIzArIoN.

The general criticism now INDUCED in,
that Cali fornia has been indulging in the
luxury of palaces for asylums, retreats
and the like, with extravaganza and un-
warrantable expenditure from the pub
lice purse, emphasizes the protest the
RECoRD-UNIoN put in whenever such
lavish outgo was proposed.
The simple truth is that to placate To-
cality, to trim sails to the pull breezes of
sections, our Legislatures have violated
every known law of financial economy,
and squandered hundreds Of thousands
OF dollars in architectural extravaganza,
which might have been saved, and yet the
dependents of the State have been just as
well and comfortably housed as was
needed or demanded by the most sensi-
lively humane.
We must break away from the per-
nicious policy of localizing State institu-
tions. Because State building is located
in given county or town is no reason
whatever why the representatives from
that section or place should manifest
greedy and especial desire to pluck the
very pin feathers of the treasury in its
behalf. Itought to have just as much the
concern and fostering care of one section
as of another.
So long as the support of State institu-
tions is to be game of grsb-all, and
strife between given localities, to see
which can get the most for its pet institu-
ton. there will be waste, extravaganza
and depletion of the public purse. Our
present policy. however, encourages and
invites this scramble.
Take the matter of the State Capitol.
At every Legislature bills are neces-
sary for appropriations needed for the
Capitol, and advised by State officials.
But the most trivial and ordinary cur
rent expenses and repairs are spoken of
and treated as Sacramento measures, and
the Sacramento delegation is looked to by
the whole State to prepare, present and
champion them.
Nothing could be more silly; the main
tenance of the Capitol is no more a con-
Germ of Sacramento's than of San hiego's,
and it is just as much its as it is Sono-
mas. Such outgo should no more be
charged as a benefaction from the State
to Sacramento than to Siskiyou or San
Francisco or Yolo.
AS matter of fact Sacramento as a To-
cality receives far less of the States coin
TOR maintenance of State institutions than
any other city where there are State in
stitutions. Indeed, the State has never
given Sacramento a dollar, nor has it
been asked to. On the contrary, Saera-
mento has given the State hundreds OF
thousands of dollars in lands and cold
coin.
So, too, the maintenance of the asylum
for the insane at Napa ought to be no
more the concern of the Napa delegation
than of any other, since it is not Napa's
asylum, but the States, and should con-
cern all sections alike. AS every one is
aware, however. the custom is the very
opposite of the doctrine we espouse.
We have now grown old enough in
Statehood to rise above the contentious of
localization of institutions; we should de-
localize every State institution in the con-
sideration of State policy. and do for each
what is needed utterly regardless of the
fact of locality.
When the counties and their represent
atives have risen to such level of ad-
ministration of State affairs, the whole
people will experience relief, economy
and wisdom will be conserved. and the
frantic struggle, the plotting, trading and
bullying to divide the money of the tax
payers among sections in which State in
stitutions are located viii cease, and
with it State shame will, be removed.