The record-union., 1897-09-14
VOICE OF THE PRESS
EXTRACTS FROM EDITORIAL
EXPRESSION.
State and Coast Opinions on Sub
jects of Living News
Interest.


proceeded to dam the flow of prosperity
with large chunks of damage. The ca
lamity ties are apparently waiting for
the kind of prosperity that will pre-
vent banks and other business institu-
tions from being mismanaged by in
competent and dishonest men, and they
will have to wait a long while. Some
of the most disastrous failures the
country has ever know have occurred
during periods of exceptional prosper
ity. Even if Mr.. Bryan were President
it is doubtful if he could prevent banks,
newspapers and other great capitalistic
institutions from making failures occa-
sionally. These calamities were not
unknown during the days of Jackson
and Jefferson
FAILURE TO PUNISH CRIMINALS.
San Jose Herald: So far as the fail
ure OF our legal machinery to punish
crime is concerned, California probably
has a better excuse for lynch law than
any other State in the Union. We be-
lieve there is no other State in which
law and justice are so travestied in
capital eases. Here in Santa Clara
County we had seventeen murders last
year and not a single execution. And
the only murderer who stood in any
danger of the gallows had his case car
ried 10 the Supreme Court of the
United States on a plea which every
lawyer knows has no merit whatever
and is merely a trick to delay justice
and SO take one more chance of defeat
ing it, The Durrant case and Allen
der have made California the laughing
stock of criminals and the reproach of
the country. If we ever have a lynch
ing in California, which God forbid,
the mob should begin, not with the
murderers. but with those who aid and
abet their escape from justice.
DECLARED BY FARMERS.
Santa Rosa Republican: The action
of the National Farmers Congress in
voting down almost unanimously a res
olution favoring the Government own
ership of railroads must surprise a
good many people. It has often been
declared that most of the farmers
would like to have the railroads pass
into the hands of the Government; but
here is a representative body of leading
agricultural thinkers, most of them
practical farmers having much dealing
with railroads, that goes on record most
emphatically against the proposition.
1t may be with this scheme as it was
with i6 to l free silver coinage. About
all the farmers were supposed to favor
the cheap white metal dollar until they
were given an opportunity to declare
their judgment. Then it was found
that they stood with what the worlds
leading financiers approved in money
matters. No other class of people are
than those who till the soil.
DIAMONDS AND DUTY.
Contra Costa Gazette: The new tariff
law admits rough diamonds free, and
imposes a tax of but 10 per cent. on
cut diamonds Under the Wilson law
the duty on cut diamonds was % per
cent, and the duty on rough diamonds
l per cent, but as it was found that
nine-tenths of the diamonds brought
here were smuggled, it was thought
best to reduce the duty on cut dia-
monds and admit the rough diamonds
free as plain business proposition. No.
one can afford to run the risk of snug
Cling to escape the duty of 10 per cent.
imposed on cut diamonds, and if the
diamonds are imported in the rough
the cutting will necessarily furnish la
Dor for residents of this country
STRIKES.
Los Angeles Herald: Strikes are most
numerous in countries of the highest
civilization; they proceed from the as
pirations of men to improve their con-
dition. Nobody can question the fact
that they are lawful if they proceed no
further than to cease work when terms
are not satisfactory. The cessation of
work by one man or a few men would
have no influence, and therefore to
secure what is just it is necessary that
there should be cooperation on the
part of masses. Conditions have so
changed that production, in many re-
spects is the result of cooperative
capital and labor. Individualism on
both sides is in the main a thing of the
past. While interests on the two sides
are iii conflict, they are after all cor
relative, and the welfare of the one
depends upon the welfare of the other.
The difficulty lies in the fact that the
two sides view each other with askant
eyes. Capital, conscious of its power,
is liable to be exacting, to demand more
than its share; labor has come to re-
alizatIon of this through the immense
accretions to capital in enterprises
which involve the employment of both
money and labor. There has been a
modification of the character of strikes
in that there is less tendency to vio-
lence and destruction of property. Ex-
perienceS have demonstrated that de-
struetlve outbursts are hurtful not
only to employers and to the business
of the country, but to the strikers
themselves.
Capital and labor can never be
brought into harmony and become mu-
tually helpful unless there is intelli-
gence On both sides, which enables
each to understand its true interests,
and a disposition to concede to each
other what is properly due. To degrade
labor by non-compensatory wages,
while capital receives more than its
share of wealth, will produce caste
and turn back the wheels of human
progress.
ARBITRATION
Kern Echo: One of the mysteries of
the age is why some one does not come
forward with a plan for settling differ
ences between employe and employer.
Modern times are Witnessing some phe-
nomenal contests between these forces,
and in more cases than one order has
been threatened, and even revolution
aimed at. But still no statesman has
been found to bring forward a we'll
digested plan for settling these differ
ences by due process sof law
OUT OF A JOB.
Contra Costa Gazette: Free silver or
ators are about out of ammunition, and
don't know what to do in the States
where elections are to take place this