The record-union., 1899-01-27
VOICE Of THE PRESS.
EXTRACTS FROM EDITORIAL
EXPRESSIONS.


INTEREST,"
Pasadena Star: The Los Angeles
Express" argues that because none of
them has yet blown out the gas the
members of the Legislature are intelli-
gent Inasmuch as cheap water power
has practically done away with gas in
Sacramento, electricity furnishing about
all the Illumination, the Express will
have to find some other reason to con-
vince waiting constituency.
THE PROPOSED EXPOSITION.
/ Oakland Tribune: Paris may have
first call on the exposition business just
now, but California does not propose
to be far behind. The projected PA
cific Ocean fair is evidently going to
be conducted on a. huge scale, for with
appropriations of $1,O00,OO0 from San
Francisco, $3.50, 900 from the State
Legislature, and $4,000 from Con-
gress, to say nothing of the money to
be obtained for floor space, it will not
be stunted for want of cash. With the
great success that attended the Mid
winter Faid still fresh in memory, the
question need not be raised whether or
not the venture would be a go if prop
erly launched.
NOT A UNIT.
! San Jose Mercury: Mr.. Hearst's San
francisco newspaper favors expansion,
which Mr.. Bryan opposes, and his New
York organ has come out against 16
to l, which is Mr.. Bryan's hobby. Two
years ago these two papers made
Bryan their idol; to-day they are OPP
posed to the two policies which he
| hopes to keep alive long enough to
carry him into the White House. The
Democratic party was never in all its
history SO demoralized as it is at pres
ent There is not a single principle or
policy on which it is unit.
CAN ONLY GUESS.
Tulare Register: Some bogus stat
isticians of the Coin Harvey school
and smaller caliber continually inf1ict
on the public their statements of the
gold and silver product of the world
annually, and talk and write on the
relative amounts of the metals now in
existence, something they can no more
correctly compute than they can give
the weight of Mount Shasta from water
| level to apex. An exchange says no
one can more than give guess as to
the amount of gold and silver at any
/ one time of the world or how much
Of such metal is held and used by the
people of the world as money. Gold
and silver which were being used as
ornaments or as money in the days
of Abraham may yet be in existence,
and in some form may now be serving
| the same purposes as they did nearly
1000 years ago. The ornaments OF
| that day may now be doing service in
| the sovereigns of Great Britain or
| the eagles of the United States, and
the coins of that day may be doing
service at the present time in watch
chains breast pins, sword hits, IN
! the coronets of Kings or in filling the
teeth of several million human beings
who are compelled to rely upon the
work of dentists for the justification
! of their food Pure gold and pure
silver are the same the world over,
and the output of any one year can
be mingled with the output of any
other year or years, and the combina-
lions thus made produce no changes
| in either metal.
IT IS DEAD.
Los Angeles Times: If the Bryan
campaign had been successful in 1896,
| and a ree-coinage system had been
adopted, the. entire volume of gold cur
rency would have virtually disappeared
from circulation, as gold would have
gone to a premium measured by the
difference between the bullion value of
gold and that of silver. In such cases
| the dearer money goes out lof active
] circulation, as both gold and silver
went into hiding during the civil war.
The withdrawal of the gold currency
/ from active circulation would have
been an unprecedented calamity, which
would inevitably have plunged the
country into panic and bankruptcy
The minis would have been powerless
to relieve the situation, for, if operated
night and day to the limit of their ca
| pacity, it would require years for them
| to turn out an amount of silver coin
equal in volume to the gold coin that
would have been driven into retirement
by the adoption of free and unrestrict-
/ ed coinage.
The issue of free-silver coinage is as
dead as it well can be. Bryan and
some of its other friends persist in
keeping the corpse above ground, but
| they will try in vain to galvanize it
into life They would better bury It
before it becomes "putrid reminis-
cence" = if, in fact, it has not already
reached that advanced stage Of decom-
| position.
GOVERNOR GAGE ON CRIMINALS.
San Jose Herald: Governor Gage
has before him a list of prisoners at
San Quentin whose terms of confine-
iment will expire next month. 1t seems
to have been the custom to restore con-
victs to citizenship on giving them
| their discharges. Governor Gage pro-
poses to vary this custom by exam
! lining into the character and anteced-
ents of criminals, and restoring to citi-
zenship those only in whose cases there
lare extenuating circumstances. The
Governor holds that pen who have
been guilty of arson, forgery, burglary
highway robbery and perjury should
not be restored to citizenship on dis
charge from prison. He believes that
in most cases they are ready to resume
their criminal practices after liberia
ton, and that to such the franchise
| should be barred.
The Governors view is right enough
so far as it goes. but it only goes far
enough to show the absurdity of our
criminal laws and regulations for the
treatment of prisoners. When the Gov
ernor asserts that the men convicted OF
a certain class Of crimes above men,
toned are ready to return to their old
courses upon being set at liberty he
gives excellent reasons why they should
not only be excluded from the rights OF
citizenship but from the enjoyment OF
liberty Can any one fail to see the abb