The record-union., 1897-10-15
VOICE OF The PRESS.
EXTRACTS FROM EDITORIAL
EXPRESSION.
State and Coast Opinions on Sub
iects of Living News
Interest.


which some part of Central America
is not in the throes of revolution IL
there is one thing more evident thah
another it is that those Republics are
not capable of elf-government. Yet
if the Nicaragua Canal should be con-
structed, the highway of the nations
would be through a country IN Whlcn
peace and order could net be guaran-
teed from one year to another without
foreign interference. Whatever nation
builds or helps to build the canal must
be prepared to assume the responsible
ity OF maintaining the peace in that
volcanic country.
A QUESTION.
ReddIng Free Press What has be-
come of that dredger that was going to
scoop up the Sacramento River mud
and clear. the channel for navigation?
Has Governor Jim had another spasm-
of economy; or is he holding the ma
chine for mud-slinging during the next
political campaign?
MOB VIOLENCE.
Stpckton independent: Very few
lynchings in any part of the United
States have received so much attention
as that at Versailles, Ripley County,
Ind. It was not because it was any more
savage than any other, but principally
because it was committed in county
that has been noted, when noted at
all, for it's peacefLlness. Ripley County
is populated principally by Germans
and their immediate descendants. 1t
was an unpromising "black jack" re-
gion when they went into it, and by pa
tient labor, rigid economy and self-de-
NAL, they became comparatively
wealthy and have also become a politi-
cal power. Their success and their gen.
eral adhesion to their old country hab-
it's nave made them the envy and the
scorn CT the less thrifty and the law
less element. They are generally be-
lieved to hoard money, and on that ac-
count have been the objects of out
7agcous treatment by the thieves and
thugs who liked to live by the sweat of
other peoples faces. While the thugs
were robbing and torturing old men and
old women to eXtort revelations from
the unwilling of where their money was
hidden, no general cry went up for
bringing the robbers to justice. No
Governor of Indiana issued a procla>
nation to the officers of the county
to ferret out and punish those who
burned the feet of old women to make
them give up their boarded coin, but
when some of the men suspected of
these outrages We're caught in the act
ofaburglary and were hanged by a mob
the whole State and the Nation call for
vengeance. Lynching is murder and
deserves to be punished, but why
oh he 1a7~ Of fxra 1afo otuO
call for more general indignation than
outrageous indignities and crimes per-
petratsd during a series of years?
A BIG SUGGESTION.
Petaluma Courier: The great amount
of lawing over the estates of deceased
persons in the courts of this State, in
evidence mostly where large property
is involved, seems TO point to some nee
essary reformation of the laws. And
while we are doing it why not do it
thoroughly? When a person dies why
not have his estate escheat to the COM
monwealth? No man who has an es-
tate large or small owes a great deal to
his children, and nine times out Of ten
he owes it all to the community His
children during his life are given ad-
vantages that are denied to others in
the community more deserving They
are provided with all the fruits of
others effort without effort on their
own part, and the fortunes that fall to
them are more often than otherwise a
curse. We have abbreviated the law of
entail, and limited it to the living. 1t
would be better abbreviated to be limit
! ed TO testatOr's life Those who have
property, the product of their own eff
fort are entitled to use it for whatever
purposes they see fit Let them dis
pose Of it during life in a way of their
own calculation. But when they are
| dead, that should end it.
| LABOR AND CAPITAL.
Alameda Argus: The labor leader
does not lead very long, being soon
| deposed by his followers. but organized
labor is making headway, nevertheless.
Ii Is showing self-restraint, a capac-
! ity to bide its time, that commands for
it respect and consideration. The old
ideas as to the relation of labor and
| capital, employer and employe. have
been greatly modified through the rev.
olution in manufacturing and Industrial
processes. 1t used to be that one man
was employed by another, their status
| not being particularly different, and
when for any reason an employe with
drew from the services of one employer
| it was no trouble for him to find an
other. Labor was we'll distributed. and
| negotiations for it We're exceedingly
simple. Now it is tremendously differ
ent. Corporations carry on enterprises
requiring vast armies of employees, who
are mobilfzed in a given locality, and
| once settled, are almost as much de-
pendent as the hangers-on at an old
| time castle. Their employers are i'm
personal. Their conditions of servitude
are immensely formal and exacting, but
carrying in turn no responsibility. The
| laborer cannot get another job, for
that means removing to another indus
| trial center and settling in a new envi-
ronment, with the added barrier, per
haps, of a blacklist. One great point
that must be conceded before a salts
factory industrial basis is reached is
the responsibility in some degree of the
employer. The only one that now exists
is that which requires him to pay
wages when work can be utilized to
the best advantage. The well-being of
the wage-earner is never taken into ac-
count, nor the necessity of his living
in those intervals when work, through
no fault of his, is not to be had. The
crude efforts of workingmen to help
themselves are but gropings after the
principle that must finally be adopted,
| embodying the duty that society owes
to those who toll.
A BIG THING.
Los Angeles Express: "As big as New
York." means infinitely more than the
users of that common expression have
any idea One of the New York dailies