The record-union., 1899-09-20
VOICE OF THE PRESS.
EXTRACTS FROM EDITORIAL
EXPRESSIONS.
State and Coast Opinions on Sub
jects Of Living News
Interest.

iHSlStS upon obedience to orders ana
respect for officers. he cannot be per-
suaded to sign the death warrant of
soldier. Several soldiers have mur-
dered their comrades and been SEN
fenced TO death, but the President has
! commuted their sentences to life i'm
pTisonment, as he did the Porto Rican
who murdered an American soldier on
account of love affair.
DANGERS OF AN ELECTIVE JUDI
CIARY
Santa Cruz Sentinel: Had it not been
for the partisanship of Thomas Jeffer
son, the great Democratic chief, the
evils of an elective judiciary would not
be known in this land He tried even
TO lay his hands on the Federal courts,
but happily they were saved from or
dinary political turmoilS to be the bull
Warks of our safety and maintain the
confidence of a people who have never
yet been betrayed by any malfeasance
on the bench of the general govern
ment. Those few of our Common
wealths which have clung to the wis
dom of the fathers are rejoicing in
their escape, and the strength of their
Judiciary is the admiration Of the coun-
! try.
CONSENT AND GOVERNMENT.
Fresno Republican,: Really Mr.
| Bryan is going too far. He is too
pretty a maker of phrases to ignore,
but too reckless a one to be taken Sc
| riously. He rarely opens his mouth
without letting fall some epigram so
| quotable that it sticks in the memory
and yet SO meaningless that it is an
evaporation to attempt to .analyze it
| into it's literal sense. What could sound
| better, for instance. and mean less,
| than this:
There are but two sources of gov
ernment, force and consent. Monarch
les rest upon consent. If that doctrine
| is true then this nation cannot acquire
title by conquest or by purchasing
| from an alien monarch the land Of
rebellious subject
| There is but one source of govern
ment, which is neither force nor con-
sent, but the historic growth of ma
| tions Most monarchies rest in large
| part on consent and all republics rest
at least in part on force. A large part
| Of the title of this nation to it's own
territory rests on precisely the doc
trine which Mr.. Bryan says precludes
| title. Mr. Bryan knows these things
as we'll as anybody, but his oratorical
mind is so constructed that there is no
| consistency to it in making phrases
which imply a denial of that knowl-
edge.
| The phrases are pretty, but, serious
| ly, do we want to put the maker of
| them in a place where we may have to
back the literal truth of his phrases
with our lives and sacred honor?
WOULD BE ABSURD.
| Woodland Democrat: It is reported
| that in the event of an extra session
| OF the Legislature an effort will be
| made to repeal an Act passed by the
| last Legislature, appropriating $780,
| UOO in aid of a California exhibit at the
| Paris exposition. This is proposed as a
retaliation on the French people for
| the outrageous verdict of the military
court in the Dreyfus case Such a bro
| ceeding would be supremely absurd.
and would rightfully subject US to
| merciless ridicule. The courts Of our
own country have been responsible for
many miscarriages of justice. It would
be just as unreasonable to hold the
people Of France responsible for the ac-
tions of the military court as it would
be to hold the American people re-
sponslble for the acts of a bribed
Judge.
A FREE CONFERENCE
Santa Rosa Republican: The Sacra-
mento Record Union" joins the "Re-
publican in asking that the Republi-
can Senators and Assemblymen come
together in free conference to nomin-
ate candidate for United States Sem
ator and determine the business to be
transacted before the calling of Q spe
cia1 session. This preliminary action
is due to Governor Gage and to the
Republican party. All the newspapers
that have spoken have declared in fa-
vor of the conference.
RUSHING THE MARKET.
San Jose Mercury: There is a ten
dency on the part Of prune growers. as
there is among all classes of agricul-
tural producers. to rush their product to
the market as soon as it is picked and
prepared and it is, perhaps, not an
unnatural one. But the effect Of it is
bound to be a greater or less depression
in prices In the early part of every
fselling season. Not infrequently demor-
alization of the market may be traced
to this cause alone. Many smaller grow
ers are forced by stress of circum-
stances to sell at the earliest possible
moment, and many others entertain the
mistaken notion that if they can get
in the market ahead of other growers
they will be more likely to receive high
prices for their fruit. Of course this
assumption is wholly wrong. In their
feverish haste to- sell they overlook the
fact that they are entering into COM
petition with each other at the very
time when buyers are anxious to estab-
lish a low opening price basis for the
season and that this competition must
work to the general injury. When a
grower begins to make the rounds of
the commission houses and jobbers,
hoping that if one fails to offer him a
price that is satisfactory another will,
that moment he sets in motion an in
f1uence damaging to the sellers inter-
est; and If he and few others, dis
couraged by the outlook, finally let
their fruit go at figure that is shade
below the ruling price, the fact at once
becomes known to all the leading deal
ers and the price Immediately drops to
that extent.
Another and probably more potent
cause of fruit depression at times is
the disposition. among California news
papers to boom crops long before it
can be definitely known whether they
will be large or small. Californians take
pleasure in dwelling upon the mildness
of California's climate the generous
richness of its soil, and the abundance
o1-fn W Of ffc f,-,rt nd