The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1899-04-04
VOICE OF The PRESS.
EXTRACTS FROM EDITORIAL
EXPRESSIONS.
State and Coast Opinions on SUBJ
jects Of Living News
Interest.

VerSlhS on starvation According TO
that champion of the poor, Count Toll
stoi, the people are so police-ridden that
they have lost heart and hope, and have
neither spirit nor energy. General APP
athy has possessed them, and they have
become so slothful and gin-sodden that
limprovidence has come over them and
brought about the present fearful con-
dition- The Russian system of land
tenure is the real cause of the de-
pressed condition of agriculture in
that vast empire
MIR. BRYAN'S LUCK.
Oakland Tribune: Bryan is having
poor luck in his Eastern trip, the object
of which was, Of course, to create an
other Presidential boom for himself. He
is discovering that, as everybody
guessed would be the case, the Demo-
Gratis Of the New England States have
had all they want of free silver, and
that consequently he is persona non
grata- 1t looks now as if Bryan made
a sad mistake the day he resigned his
commission as Colonel, for he is not
very likely to ever get another Govern
ment job.
| THE NEW BALLOT LAW.
Fresno Republican,: To the EXAM
liner" everything is superlatively good or
superlatively bad-usually the latter,
unless it is an Examiner pet scheme.
Just now it is the Richard ballot bill
which arouses its hysterical indigna-
ton. The bill abolishes the present
awkward arrangement of the Austral-
ian ballot, and provides for the arrange
ment Of the names by party columns.
Therefore, according to the Examiner
it strikes at intelligence and puts a
premium on ignorance; it is the pet
scheme of the scoundrel Bosses" and
several other things.
AS matter Of fact, the bill is a re-
form in the right direction, though it
goes too far in providing that the name
of man nominated on two tickets
shall appear on only one of them. But
the very simplicity, by which it puts
premium on ignorance is it's virtue.
Intelligent men can manage a compli-
Gated system, but even they prefer
simple one, and ignorant men can use
no other. The laws of California per-
NIT ignorant men, above the grade of
total illiteracy, to vote. They have a
right to their votes, and to be aided and
encouraged in casting them. Their in
telligence is limited, and the more of it
/
expressing their choice, the less will be
left to make the choice Experience
shows that, aside from a few offices, the
less intelligent vote is distributed by
pure accident. Under the new SYSTEM
| it will at least express some sort of de-
Eliberate choice, of party lines, if of moth
ing else.
The remedy for ignorant voting is not
to make the machinery of voting so
complicated as to make the result ex-
pressed differ from the result intended,
but to make it SO simple that whatever
the people mean, that the election will
express. The Examiners plan, car
ried to its logical conclusion, would
justify printing the ballots in Greek,
which only the learned could read, or in
some elaborate cipher which only the
most ingenious could decipher Then
the learned or ingenious would have
their choice, and we would trust to luck
to Distribute the other votes evenly
THE WAR AGAINST MICROBES.
Ell Dorado Republican: The real war
which the United States has been wag-
ing during the past year has not been
against either Spanfards or Filipinos,
but against microbes At least the mi
|
age upon our troops than any other
enemy has accomplished. The army
officials compiled statistics this week
from the beginning of the war to the
first of March, showing the losses in
fiicted upon the American forces. Our
army has lost 472 men in battle and
5,2l1 by sickness. The navy has lost
Is men in battle and 90 by disease. The
ra<2 rn sc-t
because it was on the salt water where
the microbe cannot fight very success
fully. The less of nearly 5000 men from
sickness at this comparatively early
stage Of the game shows what we have
to expect from campaigning in tropical
islands There is nothing new or
strange about it. Such sickness has al
ways been the record of military oper-
atoms or any other operations that as
sembled large numbers of the white
race suddenly in the torrid zone. War
even in the temperate zone is mostly
diseased condition of cholera, diarrhea,
fevers, lice and embalmed beef-or
something else equally repulsive. All
these things are penalties which Dame
Nature exacts from human beings be-
cause they haven't got sense enough to
quit going to war The history of war
the world over among human beings
shows that the number of men actually
killed in battle is the least of the evils
that war inf1icts. Some day we shall
learn, perhaps, how to conduct war
without the Affections of disease and
death other than death caused by the
enemy's weapons, but by the time men
achieve that much scientific progress,
they may have sense enough to quit
Ifighting-at least as nations. At pres
ent it is dismal fact that King Mi
crobe has destroyed more human lives
since this war commenced than the
Americans, the Spaniards and the Fill
pinos combined have killed. The edit
or's patriotic instincts would lead him
to wish that it were otherwise, and that
his own people had succeeded in ac-
comprising the greatest amount of ex-
termination, but the unpleasant truth
must be admitted. Our real enemy is
King Microbe.
THAT SILvELA PROTEST.
Santa Cruz Sentinel Premier Sill
vela will hardly make that promised
protest TO the nations against the ac-
ton of the United States in blocking
SPANS efforts to get Agunaldo to give
up it's prisoners. There are at least
two reasons why he will not protest.
lAguinaldo would not give up the pris-
oners except on the payment of a sum
of money such as neither Spain nor any
! other nation would give him. The
Americans will soon finish up Aguinal-
49, l.