The record-union., 1898-01-02

and believed that the present Congress
will do something to make more strln-
gent our immigration laws. and there
by prevent the coming to this country
Of ignorant semi-paupers The presenI
public domain and field of labor IN
the United States should be preserved
for our own people or for those who
are fitted to make good and prosperous
citizens.
PRESIDENT AND CUBA.
Placerville Prospect: The calm,
clear and foreeful expressions of the
President as to the prospective course
of the Government in the Cuban ques-
ton in case the Spanish promises or
autonomy and justice to the Cubans
are not carried out have impressed the
country very greatly in his favor and
have developed general Willingness
to leave this important and delicate
question in the hands of the Admins
tration instead of attempting to force
action and embarrass the Government
by such Congressional action as was
demanded by so many people few
months ago.
A GOOD RADIANCE.
Stockton Mail: Judge Day of Santa
Barbara County has administered the
coup de grace to the so-called inn
keepers law, by declaring it invalid
on account of a technical blunder of
the Legislature of 1893 We are rather
sorry to see this statute knocked out
by technical pleading. We should have
liked to see the Act tested upon it's
merits. Another Legislature may be
prevailed upon to re-enact this unjust
and unconstitutional statute. We have
no sympathy for deadbeats who do not
pay board bills. But it is too much to
ask tine State to use it's criminal court
as a collecting agency for any class of
business men. Neither is Imprisonment
for debt lawful in these United States
and disguise it as one may, this Act
simply punished debt with imprison-
ment.
We recall an instance showing the
injustice of this special legislation. An
innkeeper gave board and lodging to
a mechanic who had been promised a
job of work. The job was not given
to the workman, and, penniless as he
was, he left the inn to hunt work else
where He was arrested at the inn
keepers instance and committed to Jail.
Now mark. Within week the inn
keeper failed Among his creditors who
got nothing were his butcher his baker
and his grocers, not TO speak of his en-
ployes. He had nothing, and, of course,
nothing could be done to him. And so
it happened that the poor workman lay
in ;an for not paying. the innkeeper
for food, while the innkeeper walked
the streets unmolested, though he had
not paid a cent for the very same
food. We fail to see why by any rule
Of logic or of justice he should not have
been laid by the heels in the same cell
with the man who was his creditor
A PERIL
Santa Barbara News: A peril-it is
very serious, too,-that confronts the
American people and may be partly
the result of the growing idleness of
the people is the shocking prevalence
of immortality Physicians all over the
land are uttering warning words and
predicting dire results, if the carnival
of rhine continues.
1t is a delicate subject to speak of,
but unless a change comes over the peo-
pie very soon, the sanctity of home
and with it the great bulwark of the
nation will be gone forever. Like it is
in England, the integrity of the Amer
lean Republic is dependent on the in
stitution that We know as home" The
home creates our loyalty our patriot
ism, our honesty, our value as citi-
zen. The home is the great jewel Of
civilization. The home means all the
dear amenities Of life, all the world can
give that makes life worth the living
1t means law and order and Christian
ity. But an outraged home must fall
1t is a house of cards, a rope of sand.
We see the awful accounts of deeds
of violence toward women all over the
land
Their recital fills us with horror and
carry us back to less civilized days,
when even ladies of the royal families
had to flee to converts to escape the
brutality of the nobility And we may
look for q revival of such scenes If
the laxity of morals continues much
further.
VITALITY OF A GREAT CAUSE.
Los Angeles Herald: That bimet-
allism has become a dead issue is an
acknowledged fact, but it by no means
follows that agitation for the inde-
pendent adoption Of the double stand
ard will cease Confidence in the
justice and wisdom of the cause and
faith in its ultimate triumph is world
wide. In no European State where it
his given way to the single gold stand
ard, are the masses of the people sat