The record-union., 1899-09-12
SACRAMENTO

depressed, and in California, where it
is still timid and scarcely realizes the
good times that are at hand. What is
the cause of all this?
AS the Republican says: Signifi-
cantly enough, these two sections are
the ones which have departed furthest
from patriarchial self-sufficience. In
the depressed cotton sections of the
South, the one crop system reigns alb
solute. They raise one thing, and that,
just now, the cheapest product in the
world, and they buy everything else,
though most of the things they need
are just now the dearest products in
the world. Therefore they are poor
While all the rest of the world is pros
pering. California is better off. We
have many crops, and we can not be
utterly prostrated by the total failure
OF even the best of them. But we are
like the South in this, that our crops
are raised for. a. distant market, and
that the very food of the men who raise
food is bought in a distant market. Our
farmers raise little for their own use.
When the richest agricultural State in
the world can not supply its own limit
ed population with meat and butter and
eggs, something is wrong. Just this
is wrong; that, having so many new
things to learn we have unlearned the
lold things, and in raising the things
which California alone can produce we
have forgotten to produce the things
which all the world can produce, but
which we need for ourselves and ought
not to have to buy We are exporters
of food ylot In ont
should not be other food
THE ACME OF IMPUDENCE.
Los Angeles Times: 1t would be diff
flcult to conceive a more obnoxious
piece of impudence than that perpetrat-
ed by the Bricklayers' and Stone Ma
sons Union of Chicago, in .electing"
the President of the United States a
member of it's organization and issuing
a card to be forwarded to the Pres
ident, as certificate of membership.
If the action taken had been designed
merely as compliment to the Chief
Executive, it would not have been quite
SO bad, but the purpose is plainly politi-
cal, the obvious intent being, if possi-
bic, to put the President 'in hole,'' by
placing him in a position of seeming
antagonism to so-called organized Ia
Dor. 1t was menace, not courtesy;
an order, not an invitation.
One Gubcins, President of the Chi
cago organization which was guilty of
this exhibition of monumental gall, ex-
plains that since the President is to lay
the corner stone of the new PoStoffice
in that city it is necessary for him to
join the union before he will be al
lowed to handle trowel in Cook Coun-
ty." The Secretary of the organization
| further explains that IF Mr.. Mckinley
sets a stone prepared by non-union la
Dor, which the stone intended for the
| corner of the new Postoffice is. as a Ma
tional organization we will strike on
any building in any part of the United
States at which he lays a cornerstone
or does any construction work."
This petty conspiracy will fail to ac-
complish its intended object, and the
| conspirators will receive, as they merit
the contempt of all fair-minded Ameri-
cans. The attempt to drag the President
of the United States into a rade-union
| dispute is an insult to the high office
which he holds; for he is the Chief Ex-
ecutive of the entire Nation, not the in
strument of a small and comparatively
unimportant faction. The Presidents
| friendship for men who labor is well
known, but he cannot be dragooned int
the attitude of recognizing only cor
ganized" labor, and ignoring that which
is unorganized, which constitutes the
great body of labor in this country.
| The President is too great a man.
and the office which he holds is an of
! flee of too great Importance and dignity
| to be injured or degraded by such a
petty subterfuge; as this. All public
work, like the building Of Postoffices
! Customhouses, etc., is performed fo1
the benefit of the Nation at large, and
| is paid for by the people of the entire
country 1t is the superlative of i'm
pudence for any organization to demand
recognition by the Government, or by
any officer thereof. on work of this
| character. The President WILL of course
| ignore Gubbins and his co-conspirators
entirely, as he ought, and will officiate
as originally intended at the laying ol
/ the cornerstone of the new Chicago
Postoffice.