The record-union., 1896-01-21
VOICE OF THE PRESS.
Expressions from the Newspapers or
Interior California.

1
Interior California.
| Stockton Independent: Washington
dispatches say that Congressman are
not pleased with the slanderous meth
DDS of the anti-funding bill character as
sailants and viii fight back. AS a mat
ter of course they will fight back. 1t is
a duty every good citizen owes to his
country to resent the outrageous at
tacks on the members OF Congress who
| do not happen to have personal griev-
ances against the railroads and who
have the courage of their convictions
and stand up to declare them. 1t is be-
coming a common method of political
warfare to assaiI the characters of men
who do not agree with the professional
reformers and to charge them with cor
ruption. In private life men take the
law into their own hands in defense OF
| their good names, but the members Of
Congress can only fight back with their
votes.
A MENDACIOUS STATEMENT.
| Oroville Register: The California
Cultivator and Poultry Keeper makes
| the statement in its last issue that prof.
liable olive growing is confined in this
State to Southern California. It dis
putes the fact that olives can be sue
cessfully and proftably grown in Cen
trail and Northern California The edi-
tor of the "Cultivator'' does not make
this statement from ignorance but from
a malicious desire TO misrepresent the
central and northern parts of the State.
There is not single county in the great
Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys
that cannot grow olives just as abun-
dainty and fully as proftab1y as any
portion of Southern California. These
lying assertions may deceive the East
ern tourist but they cannot impose upon
| the Californian, who knows his own
State. If the editor of the journal
quoted is as reckless and untruthful in
his statement of other industries of our
State as he is regarding the culture of
olives he ought to be shown up before
the public in his true colors.
ABOUT ROADS.
| Visalia Delta: Probably there is no
class Of public work SO unsatisfactory
to the people at large as road building
and repairing, and nothing from which
smaller return is received from the
| money expended. A bad road is a ca
lamity 365 days and nights in every
year, and is the most expensive and ex-
pense producing property owned by the
public. 1t is not always possible to
avoid having bad roads. Good roads are
| expensive and in thinly settled districts
| the cost Of their maintenance is too
great to permit of keeping them in
perfect condition. And again, the aver
age road builder. who is usually pub
| lie official without experience in road
making, does his work in the least sat
| isfactory manner. First of
all, let the people resolve to abandon.
at the earliest moment, the present
primitive ways of spelling roads. A de-
sire for good public highways will be
| followed by the determination to have
/ them, and with this determination will
come good roads.
THE JOHNSON RIVER BILL.
| Alameda EncinaI: Last Saturday
Congressman johnson of Sacramento
introduced bill to create a Sacramento
River Commission. The bill provides
that the board shall consist Of three
members, to be appointed from the
Corps Of Engineers of the United States
| army by the President, by and with
the consent of the Senate, to hold Office
for a term of four years, and until
their successors are appointed and
qualified. The intent of the bill is to
restore the river and its navigable trib-
utaries to the condition existing in
1862 by causing the channel of the
Sacramento to be cleared and improved
by removing the sand bars between
Sacramento City and Suisun Bay, and
to be deepened over the shallow cob
blestone bars between Mcintosh Land
ing and Red Bluff, so that there shall
of thirty-six inches of water between
Mcintosh Landing and Red Bluff.
They shall remove all snags and
other obstructions from the Sacramento
and its tributaries. and all trees stand
ing on the banks of these rivers. from
the head of navigation to the mouth,
that may be liable to fall into the river
channels. The commission shall close
up the breaks or crevices which allow
water to escape to the injury of the
navfgability of the river. The commits
sion shall also build any other structure
or use any other means that will inn
prove the navigability Of the Sacra-
mento, and prevent its injury from de-
bris from mines from the head of navi
cation to the mouth. For these improve
ments the commission shall be author
lied to expend not to exceed $500, 900,
exclusive of the amount herein and
heretofore appropriated.