The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1897-05-23
WHO SAYS WAR?

San Jose Mercury: What is the mean
ing of this talk in the Senate about
war with Spain? Who proposes any
thing of the sort? The only question
now before that body is the recognition
of the fact that war exists in Cuba
Such recognition is our prerogative as
a neutral nation and it is none OF
SPANS business. Are Senators to be
held responsible for instituting war, be-
cause impotent and senseless Spain
talks about fighting IL we recognize a
state of war? Is an American legisla-
tive body to be bullied by third-rate
semi barbarous Power and its allies in
the Senate?
IF THESE GREEKS.
Fresno Expositor: If these Greeks
would leave some of their banana peels
in the path of the Turkish army even
Edhem himself might slip up.-Chron-
ice.
Yes; and a few of their celebrated
Zante ''currants' might be devoted
to a similar purpose. The 'currants
may not be quite as slippery as the vi
cious hide of q banana, but our for
eign competitor has g peculiar variety
of Greece which seems to answer just
as well at Washington.
PARDONING POWER.
Ell Dorado Republican: Another il
logical nuisance is the pardoning power
given to the Governor. A man is tried
in a Superior Court and convicted of
murder. The case is appealed. If the
Superior Judge has been fortunate
enough in his rulings to agree with the
notions of the Supreme Court, COM
posed of Judges selected mainly by
political manipulations and usually not
much, if any, wiser or better than the
subordinate official, his decision is sus-
tanned and the man is finally sentenc
ed. Then a petition is circulated among
people who know but little about the
case and care less. The relatives,
friends and attorneys of the criminal
besiege the Governor and plead for
mercy. Every influence that can be
| brought to bear upon the sentiment of
pity that most of US feel toward the
worst criminals is persistently used
| upon the unfortunate man who must
| finally decide the question of life and
death. He is empowered to overrule
| by his individual opinion the carefully
rendered decision of Judge and jury
of investigation.
On the other hand, he is burdened
with the necessity of giving life or
death to some poor wretch and of being
unjustly besieged with requests to sub
stitute mercy for justice. The whole
condition is one of absurdity. The Gov
ernor or else the Supreme Court should
have the power to order a new trial in
cases where important evidence eXcul
| pating the criminal is discovered after
his conviction, but the pardoning power
should be abolished. When we stop
unanimity in juries revise our system
| Of appeals, and abandon this foolish
| idea of permitting the Governor to an
null the action of our courts, the judi
cial system of California will have be-
come somewhat more serviceable and
useful.
BUSINESS DONE
| Santa Barbara Press: The calamity
howlers who have been insisting that
| the promised prosperity is not mate
fializing, are thrown into confusion by
a recent announcement from that re-
liable business barometer, the Weekly
Review of r. G. Dun & Co., which, in
it's last weekly issue, says: Nearly
all will be astonished to learn that ac-
tual sales in April, by leading houses
in each line Of business in the principal
cities east of the Rocky Mountains,
average only about 10 per cent less
than in April, 1892, the year of largest
business hitherto. and were 81 per
cent. more than in the same month last
year. Yet this is the summary of
357 reports. each covering actual sales
of merchants in one of fourteen cities.
They are especially encouraging, in
view of the great fall of prices within
the last five years, and floods and other
retarding influences this year."
MAKE THE LAW EQUAL.
Solano Courier: We have not fulfilled
the demands of a Christian civilization
when we make men equal before the
law. First of all, we should seek to
make the law equal. That is, the law it
self should be the true and unmistakable
exponent and protector Of natural and
inalienable rights. When the people
give their formal consent to a govern
mental policy that seeks to hamper or
obliterate these, the darkness that oh
scures, and the corruption that ensaves
will surely and inevitably come upon
them. This has been the history of all
ages. The scattered wrecks that strew
the pathway of departed centuries bear
sad and affecting testimony to the
power of this inflexible law of human
life.
WHAT THE FUTURE MAY BRING.
Humboldt Standard. To anyone who
has intelligently noted the trend of
events as recorded in the history of the
past two hundred years it must be APP
parent that the time is approaching
when capital punishment will be entirely
abolished. Formerly, commission Of any
of a large number of offenses subjected
the culprit to the death penalty; but as
mankind became more civilized it grew
more humane, and infliction of capital
punishment more infrequent. Whether
Its abolition shall prove judicious or not,
there is no question that the time is APP
preaching when the law providing for
a death penalty viii be erased from all
statute books. In the punishment of