6 #6 Sis LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. Uhap.—J Shelf ■ PEESE1TTED ■ ZB"ST UNITED STATES OP AMERICA. ^ SOME ODDS AND ENDS OF PERSONAL CORRESPONDENCE. Dear Sir.: So many have written to me with respect to the mat- ters of which you speak, that I have concluded to print hereafter some few odds and ends of my answers to cor- respondents, with, perhaps, other paragraphs suggested by re-reading of letters and conversations on political topics. First of all. If for convenience, etc., in private cor- respondence, I put such matter in type, I should set my word of congratulation, my testimony of profound respect for the people of our State. What a glorious record for a majority of the voters of California ! How- ever depressed I may confess myself to be on the gen- eral outlook, I do find comfort and cheer as I turn to the testimony given by our fellow-citizens of the Golden Commonwealth at the last election. Though the num- bers were pretty evenly divided, so far as the canvass disclosed, we know that there were at least four or five thousand fraudulent ballots counted in this State for the bribe-taker, and we know, above all, that most of the SO.OOO men who voted for the Democratic electors resisted some special corrupt offers for their suffrages. Glorious people of Cali r ornia ! A million of dollars were scattered throughout your borders by Republican agents, with the hope and expectation of securing a ma- jority of at least 5,000 for the perjurer nominated by the Chicago Convention ; but a majority of the people spurned the tempter and put the State in the roll of hodor. Of course a majority of the Republicans are honest men. Of course they are. Who said they were not? False, venal leadership, or blind, bitter prejudice, amounting to bigotry, control many of them. A year ago I rode up from Los Angeles with George W. Julian of Indiana, and in the course of our conversation he frequently ex- pressed his wonder, in exclamatory sentences, at the infatuation of many old -line Republicans. "Strange! Strange ! How they stick to the party name ! For that is all there is left of it, as measured by its record from 1856 to 1867." In 1876 the tops of the ballot boxes of San Francisco wi re actually lifted, and thousands of Democratic votes taken out and thousands of Republican votes put in. That was not attempted or done in 1880. But two or three thousand fraudulent votes were cast in this city at the last Presidential election by repeaters. It was the intention and expectation of some of the more courageous managers of the Republican party to cast more than twice three thousand fraudulent votes. Their method of operations ought to be understood by the people generally . Perhaps you wondered why so many copies of the Register were made'.' Take a page like this : D. *John Day t William Dedee Henry Doe James Due oFelix Dye Now, Day is known to be dead. Dedee is out of town. It is ascertained that Dye is a business man at the Cliff House. There arc many other men, ot that were indicated, but I give these as a sufficient sample. Put opposite the dead man's name was a star. Put opposite the absentee was a dagger. Put opposite the member of the Cliff House brigade was a circle. Republican strikers were watching at each polling place with lists to mark voters, so as to tell who had ami u ho had not voted. At 12 o'ci&ek the repeaters were started out in gangs of six or seven to go the rounds with tueee tallies, having a perfect understanding and system of simple cipher and sign signals to exchange with their acquaintances and "pals," — the watchers at the voting places. Mr. Ault, President of one of our Tenth Ward Clubs, followed a gang of these repeaters on the last election day, and broke them up speedily. The systematic chal- lenging at the polls after half-past 1, in San Francisco last Fall, undoubtedly saved us from at least three thousand of these pious ballots, that had heen prepared for Garfield and Davis. If the challenging had begun at 12 o'clock, we would undoubtedly have had a re- corded majority of several thousand votes for Hancock and English; and this without reference to (probable) similar pro in Oakland, Sacramento, Vallejo, Marysville, Los Angeles and San Jose. The leaders of the Republican party are losl to shame. See Carl Schurs denouncing the corruption ol Radicalism in one week, at the Fifth Avenue H New York City, in 1878, and taking a promise of a Sec retaryahip the next from Ha rs; alter eulo- gizing Samuel J. Tilden and denouncing the class of politicians to which John Sherman belongs, turning around and urging people to vote against Tilden and for Sherm < The leaders of that party arc wholly lost to shame. We have abundant testimony to that fact in the actions of the small fellows who lead that party in this State, and, who, bj reason of their feebler intellects and lower grade "i moral , are not so grcath to be blamed. See Booth, and Swift, and Estee, and Pixley, and Pitch and Fick- ering and Company, a few years ago condemning the Republican party, and most emphatically protesting against an) more bloody-shirt wavings, and at the last SOME ODDS AND ENDS OF PERSONAL CORRESPONDENCE. campaigns squalling- loudest and longest as, professedly, the most Radical of Radicals. What a spectacle to pro- voke ineffable contempt among men that are men. As well expect to tickle a rhinocerous on his shoulder with a feather as to excite any emotion of shame in the breasts of any of the foremost chieftains in the Radical camp. Don't attempt such a thing. They probably never experienced the sensation for any cause ; cer- tainly for no political reason. Every intelligent, thor- oughly informed and unprejudiced and honest man, who was prominent in the Union party, who is now in the land of the living, is a member of the Democratic party. To this there are no exceptions. The prejudice of some men in politics amounts to impenetrable and immovable bigotry. So there is absolute excuse for many and charity for all. The most insufferable hypocrisy is exhibited by the so-called Independent Republican Civil Service "Re- formers." Take the most lauded one, the editor of Harper's Journal of Civilization (heaven save the mark!), George W. Curtis. I remember when the Harpers were the special friends of the slave-holder, and would permit nothing to appear in their magazine or other publications that would be offensive to their Southern patrons. In a day they lost their patronage south of Mason and Dixon's line, and their scruples in the way mentioned at the same time. "Civilization," indeed ! The Harpers found a nice, smooth-spoken hypocrite for their literary Captain, in George W. Curtis. Does any respectable man undertake to tell you that he is sincere while he presides over a journal that lampooned, caricatured and vilified, to the utter- most, such men as Samuel J. Tilden and George VV. Julian, and Horace Greeley and Charles Sumner, and Allen G. Thurman and Lyman Trumbull? At one time actually putting the emphasis of ridicule against such men on the score of their loyalty to justice and right. Of course, it is part of a great plan, of a cunning or- ganization, to have loud-mouthed and smooth-tongued professors of " Reform" in the party of Radicalism, between whiles preaching and prating about the ne- cessity of tenure-of-offlce acts for every office-holder, and all that sort of thing. But it is said that Curtis is a "scholar," and a " scholar," and a "scholar." Not deep. But precisely what has that to do with this matter? No less a hypo- crite for all that. Would a decent man, of the Repub- lican party of 1856-1807, remain in the editorial charge of a paper that habitually caricatured Sumner and Greeley, and Gratz Brown and Trumbull, and Julian, and men of that stamp ? Not for an instant. You recollect, my dear Frank [Mahon] that I said to you last month that we must exercise great charity for the hardshell bigots of New England, who, (most of them) stayed at home during the war, but who are now honestly voting and voting the Republican ticket — even tickets bearing the name of such a branded per- jurer as Garfield ; for I said to you that these good men did not think it possible that a Democrat stood in any hope of heaven . You thought my words rather of the exaggeration order, as I could see by your smile. To- day I chanced to read George H. Holden's entertaining article on "Hawthorne Among His Friends," in the July (1S81) Harper's Magazine, p. 263. Here is what he says : " I would advise no man, unless his faith in the greatness and purity of Hawthorne (as noble-minded, pure a man as ever breathed in America, and chief among our genuises) is established beyond the possibil- ity of disturbance, to investigate too closely into the muck-heaps of local prejudice which to this day are to be found to exist among certain cliques of his native village. * * * Hawthorne was a Democrat in politics, when by these people grave doubts were eu- tertained whether a Democrat might by any possibility be admitted to heaven." I am unable to conceive of a more humiliating and disheartening spectacle than that presented by the principal newspapers of the country with respect to this very matter. Here are the people paying from ten to twenty times as much for a telegraphic dispatch as should be charged, the cost of sending being merely nominal, and yet rarely will you see, even in the most obscure portion of any of our more influential news- papers, a single paragraph, an accidentally quoted sen- tence, hinting the fact of imposition and extortion on the part of the Western Union Telegraph Company. Champions of the people, indeed ! The Western Union Telegraph Company and the Associated Press, by bribery or by intimidation (not direct ; Oh, no ; too smart for that) dictate what the Press of this country shall not say in reference to a Postal Telegraph. We ought to have a Postal Telegraph as the result of the passage of a bill by Congress of not more than ten sections. Within one year from the passage of such a bill — if its provisions were honestly carried out — the people of California would be able to send a ten-word message to the Atlantic States for 25 cents. Within twelve months after such a tariff had been inaugurated, under a properly worded bill, the people of California would be able to send a twenty-word dispatch to the Eastern States for 10 cents. Within twelve months after this last date — that is, within three years after the proper Postal Telegraph bill went into operation— the people of California would be able to send a twenty-word dispatch to the Atlantic States for five cents. This Government of the United States, under the operations of a proper Postal Telegraph measure, could and would make ■money, five years after the beginning of the workings of Government telegraph lines, equal in extent to those now controlled by the Western Union Telegraph Company, with a tariff fixed at three cents for a ten-word dispatch between the most distant points to which the Hues were run. The truth of this promise and prophecy can be demonstrated. See facts and figures in my lecture on this subject. As to a Postal Telegraph, every day brings out fresh evidence and fresh emphasis, in every practical sense of the vvopd, in favor of such an institution. I refer you to my lecture on that subject for detail of statement and argument up to the day of its publication. The special cunning of the managers for the monopo- lies is now exhibited in getting up side issues and nursing all sorts of demagogues, from Denis Kearneys up, with a view to mislead and bamboozle the people. The lawyers and flunkies of the Central Pacific Railroad Company on this coast are most assiduous in their efforts, at various times, to bolster up some fellow who can bawl " reform" in the streets, or write a pamphlet or a book elaborately, and perhaps to some extent cap- tivatingly, promising the millenium if something or other is done by the people, through their legislative representatives, in some other direction. Anything to divert the minds of the people from the real burdens under which they groan, and from the real reforms that ought to be established bv law. So you will hear or read about Leland Stanford's sympa- thy with the poor evicted peasantry of Ireland ! Think of it ! I have heard men get up and eulogize Leland Stanford as a man of " broad and generous sympa- thies'—evinced and illustrated by his sentiments on the Irish land question. The picture of the Old Patriarch in " Little Dorrit" is brought before the discriminating hearer b}- such remarks with dazing vividness. Anything to divert the attention of the people from the supreme grievance at home. What is that supreme grievance in California to-day ? Extortionate tariff on the railroads and on the tele- graph lines. That is what is the matter. You pay two or three times as much as you ought to pay when you travel on the Central Pacific Railroad Company's lines. You pay from ten to twenty times as much as is reason- able charge when you are compelled to patronize the Western Union Telegraph Company. That is what is the matter. Now, if you can be led to forget this fact, once knowing it, it's a' great end achieved. Getting up a hurrah about some little five cent local extortion, and getting up a hurrah, and a hurrah, and a hurrah about good men for the city, and good men for the city, and good men for the city, and'getting into office church- plate-passing hypocrites who are owned by Leland Stanford, Charles Crocker and C. P. Huntington— that is the business that is mapped and modeled at the ,\ SOME ODDS AND ENDS OF PERSONAL CORRESPONDENCE. corner of Fourth and Townscnd streets, in the city of San Francisco. The peopie fume and fret, and then are pacified and misled. They discover their false leaders, by whom they should never have been deceived, and then the game is repeated over again, with just enough variation to excuse, perhaps, the general public from a sweeping charge of perfect idiocy. The game of bamboozle has been played and re- peated during the last fifteen years in California by the Central Pacific Railroad Company, and still there seems as little prospect as ever of relief from the extortions of that monopoly. We ought to have relief forthwith by the Congress of the United States. The original Pacific Railroad Aet provides for a re- duction of fares by Congress, and a short bill of two sections, and not over a hundred words altogether, would secure for the people a first-class overland ticket from San Francisco to Omaha for one-half the present charge. Why does not Congressman lierry introduce such a bill? Will General Rosecrans introduce such a bill ? Think of this matter and inquire. I foresaw what this railroad monopolv would be years ago. I was the first man on this coast to discern the signs of the times with respect to it. I made speeches on the stump and in the Senate of Nevada— as thousands can testify— in 1864-68, warning and foretelling per- fectly in regard to this matter. I urged the passage of Measures which, if they had been finally adopted, would have prevented this railroad monopoly on the Pacific Coast. While I was engaged in urging such measures I received the following letter : "Virginia, January 30, 1865. Colonel Sumner. "Dear Friend : "As a very warm friend of the Central Pacific Railroad Company, I would like to receive a line from you defining your position. It is a question that is of great importance to us all, and will be made much more <■/ a„ issue at the coming Congressional election than it has been in the past. "If you are a friend to this Company, then I advise you to say so in strong terms, so that I can use the same in your favor. "Respectfully yours, "John Gillig." To this I replied: "Senate Chamber, Carson City, ^ January 30, 1865. J "To John Gillig, Esq., Virginia City, Nevada. "Dear Sir: "Your favor of this day has just been received. You will pardon me for saying that I was somewhat surprised to learn that you did not already and thor- oughly understand my position on railroad matters. I shall be very frank, or endeavor to be so. "As a bona-fide citizen of Nevada, I am truly anxious to have railroad communication from Pacific navigable tide waters at the earliest practicable time. I am in favor of the Epnstien resolution, asking Congress to grant a bonus of 810,000,000 to the first company that reaches the base of the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada. [The Plaeorville and Washoe Railroad was then located, and plenty of pounds sterling were ready for the investment. See my lecture on 'A Trip to Pioehe'— the foot notes especially.] "I am, of course, heart and soul for a railroad across the mountains and the plains. But I judge that the Central Pacific Railroad officers have not acted in good faith. "However: they have all they asked; and by half-way work they can conform to all prescribed obligations— ail obligations precedent to securing the enormous govern- ment subsidies. Those subsidies can not now be re- pealed ; nor would I have them repealed if they could be. "1 know not how far your intimation goes. I don't know of any rights that the Central Pacific Railroad Company have acquired to dictate in our elections. I know the unserupulousness of the Stanfords, for I saw it illustrated on election day in San Francisco, "I am for a Pacific railroad, quick. I think our State life and prosperity as a people depend to a great extent on the prosped and fact of railroad communica- tion to the Pacific, and so on to the Atlantic Si "I hope you will remain my friend, as I subscribe my- self, ' J " Fours truly, " Ch \r,i.i:s a. Sumner." Of course the letter from .Mr. Gillig came under authority from t be Central Pacific Railroad managers, and was to inform me, as it did sufficiently, th would support me for Congress if I would do their bid- ding, and that if I refused to be tie ir servant or slave I might expect their hostility. Mv reply to Mr. Gillig's letter was hurriedlj dashed off while sitting at my desk in the Senate chamber of Nevada, and while at | time paying some attention to the business of that body; and, of course, it is written in a familiar and off-hand style. But it sufficiently disclosed my position then, which was taken in full view of the fact that in all hu- man probability my political aspirations from that time forth— as an enemy of railroad monopoly— might be con- sidered as vain and foolish. The people of the State of Nevada at their primaries twice nominated me for Congress, and twice was I de- feated at the State Convention at Carson by the aid of money taken from the coffers of the Central Pacific Railroad monopoly in order to secure the office. Others affected hostility to the Coming Monopoly; but, when they were once in office, thc-v, became the creatures of that gigantic monopoly. Anything to keep the people's, mind away from the Main Question. For in the meantime monopolies live andgrowfat andfatter upon their extortions. Anything to tide over and sail along. If the people once brought the Railroad and Telegraph monopolies under dominion of just law, the local mon- opolies of the several cities, and all lesser State and Na- tional monopolies, would soon disappear as such. The giant should be throttled. And simple, plain, straight- forward, brief legislative enactments will accomplish the disenthrallment. It is all nonsense to talk about the impossibility of electing honest men to the legislature, or true men, who will stand right up to the front on this main quesfion. You and I know in the several counties in this State men who can be completely trusted on this great issue, so far as integrity is concerned. And we know that a very small proportion of such men have found their way to places of power. And it does seem almost a hopeltss task to strive for the election of such men. [We have elected nian.v barking demagogues to Con- gress and to the State Legislature who have introduced Reform bills, and allowed them to sleep; intl them for blackmailing purposes, or to "make a rec- ord"— being instructed to "make a record" of this kind by their masters at monopoly headqnarters. I I have not been thus candid and explicit in this reply to your letter, because I have now no expectation whatever of occupying anj place of power as a foe of monopolies. I have always been so outspoken. It is true, mv strength must remain solely as an advocate before the people, i would speak as plainly if this were not so; but if any apology is needed for this direct and candid si from me, it may lie found in tile concede, 1 fad fessed by myself -that] am such a demonstrated enemy of tiiese monopolies that under no consideration would they permit mj election to Congress or to any other place of power where I could affect their interests di- rectly. As an illustration of how the railroad and i. monopolies hoodwink and fool the peop rise to party influence of this miser . Dennis Kearnej a low, filthy-tonjrued, lying, cowardly fellow without a -rain of manhood in any liber of his Com- position. Look at the placing in power of Beer who a few mouths ago was calling meetings in Ban Francisco for the purpose to use his own language — of sav ing the Workingmen's candidates from the arts of the demagogue! What is he now? .lust what I pro- phesied he would show himself to be a mere flunky to Leland Stanford and Charles Crocker. SOME ODDS AND ENDS OF PERSONAL CORRESPONDENCE. There is no use in disguising the fact— San Francisco is just now at a stand still. Houses that three years ago rented in central portions of the citv for 8250 are now let for §100— and the landlords are glad to get good tenants at that figure. What has brought this about ? There was an incoming tide of the best kind of immi- gration five years ago. It was stopped in a great meas- ure by the false agitation which the Central Pacific Railroad Company and the telegraph monopoly, through their independent organs, created and fostered. And in its place, or partly filling its place, in point of numbers, came the worst kind of immigration. You have to pay $120 for a first-class passage from here to New York, when a first-class passage ought not to cost you over §70 at the outside. At this latter fig- ure the railroads would actually make more money within a short period after the adoption of a proper tariff. And with such a tariff we could have our pro- portion of the better class of immigration : and thous- ands upon thousands would pour in to this coast from the existing communities of the East— of the very best class of people; there born and bred and educated into noble specimens of manhood and womanhood. It does seem, just at this present writing, as if the sun of opportunity shone, or was about to rise, for the Democratic Party. I tell you candidly as to the reforms of which I have spoken:— if the reliefs against the rail- road monopolies and the telegraph monopolies are not brought about through the agency of the Democratic Party, I don't expect that they will be compassed by any- thing short of Revolution. In other words,I expect (unless we have a change for the better through the instrumen- tality of the Democratic Party) that for years and years to come, far beyond my generation, the people of the United States will remain under the thraldom of the monopolies; — the rich growing richer and the poor growing poorer and poorer, until Revolution shall come. Of course — as a matter of course — there will be all sorts of make-believes of relief and reform; or little, oc- casional alleviations. Even now, when the Western Union Telegraph Company reduces the price of a dis- patch from Podnnk to Poop Hollow two or three cents, the independent Bulletin, and the independent Call, and the independent Chronicle, and the independent Alia, and the independent Record-Union, and the in- dependent Marysville Express, and the independent Los Angeles Express, and the independent Independent of Stockton, and the other newspapers of the same com- pany, shout out in leaded paragraphs, items and column editorials. And that is but an illustration of what will be in the future in this respect. And by and by the suppressed inventions (see my lecture on the Postal Telegraph), and the inventions of which we already have a prophecy in the accomplishment of the past, will effect such a mighty reduction — palpably so — in the cost of running locomotives, and in the cost of rapid telegraphy, that the present tariff of the railroad and telegraph monopolies will be manifold more extortionate than now. The people will perhaps get a little fraction of the benefit from these inventions by a comparatively slight reduction in the cost of traveling by rail or send- ing word by lightning. And over this, I say, there will be a wild tumult of eulogy for the Stanfords and Crock- ers, and Jay Goulds, and James Simonton's — proceeding from the independent and Republican Press and the mo- nopoly lawyers and the Denis Kearneys. What we want, and what we should have, is simple, direct, positive and unmistakable National and State legislation, giving the people at once the fullest benefit of all inventions. Stanford did not invent steam. It seems necessary, in some "arguments" with the petti- foggers of the railroad company, to state that the inher- ent force of this great motive power was planted there by the Almighty. Neither Jim simonton nor any other magnate of the Associated Press and the Western Union Telegraph Company invented or forged the bolts of Jove. Neither Mr. Stanford nor Mr. Gould nor Jim Simonton applied, with inventive capacity, steam or electricity to the practical purposes of mankind. [As for that matter, they never paid a cent for their railroad and telegiaph properties.] With a reasonable reward for the inventor and patentee — if he comes within modern dates — inven- tions should pass to the benefit of the whole people. That is supposed to be the intended operation of the Law. And we should have, further, simple, straightforward, brief statutes effecting this very matter,— determining this result. California is in a position to do great things on these subjects. If her true people — if her men of sound judg- ments and conscience and candid dispositions and reso- lute wills, come together this year and the next in the Democratic Party and choose and elect men to the prin- cipal offices in the State, and to Congress, we shall make a great step forward toward achieving the results so much longed for — for which you and I have so earnest- ly struggled during these many years last past. No halfway measures, no halfway men. Every frank man knows in his heart of heans that the only fractions of reform that we have had in this direction during the past ten years have been due to men and movements in the Democratic party. I will have no political affilia- tion — as I have no hope — with anything else. I am aware that it is said that no reliance can be placed upon any party or any men in this great anti- monopoly struggle; that one professed anti-monopolist is as good as another — is as likely to prove true as another. This is all humbug. This is the talk which the C. P. R. R. Company and the Western Union Tele- graph Company often put into the columns of the inde- pendent press. The Democratic party, by its leaders in Congress, has shown, I think, that it, as a national party, can be trusted on this great issue — if those same leaders are kept in leadership when the party attains general dominion at Washington. The momentum of the National party is right. The leading Democrats in the East, with few exceptions— and 1 will note some of them — have already proven themselves sound in this contest. And you and I can pick out men in this State — from one end to the other— who can be relied upon in this connection. Just as I write, the names of some of these men occur to me. There is Ryland, of San Jose; there are A. Hewell and J. D. Spencer, (there's a man that should be in Congress or the Gubernatorial chair,) and W. Grollman, of Stanislaus; there is Doctor Mont- gomery, of Sacramento; there is Kellogg, of Plumas; there is Biggs, of Chico; there is Judge Wallace, of Napa; there is Chapman of Los Angeles; thore are J. V. Coffey and Frank Mahon, of San Francisco. Let me make the nominations and I will have solid and unpur- chasable State Legislatures and Congressional delega- tion! There is no difficulty whatever in picking out men, who, in prominent State offices, and in our Legis- lature, and in the United States Senate Chamber and the House of Representatives, would stand true, and would be active and aggressive as anti-monopolist repre- sentatives of the people. There is no excuse at this point of time for the people, if they select hypocrites aud frauds out of the ranks of the Democratic party for their principal nominees. I know very well that the monopolists have their men in the Democratic party. 1 know very well that if the Democratic party would have consented to nominate Stephen J. Field for the Presidency in 1880, the C. P. R. R. Company would have contributed largely in his behalf. That is well understood. The C. P. R. R. Company had a candidate for Con- gress in San Francisco last year — (he is still in the field) — who went about ,in the early, part of the campaign, saying a la Edinburg bagman, " Stow [boss railroad lobby lawyer] wants-me. Stow wants me!" And, b} r the way, no man who went to Cincinnati, in the delegation of the Democratic party from this State, in June 1880, and there supported this C. P. R. R. can- didate for the Presidency, Stephen J. Field, should be permitted to have any voice of influence in our councils hereafter. The same should be said of those who went with the perfidious, to give them "moral" support; from Duke Gwiu down. We know those men well. Surely they are on the record. This proceeding was before the face of every Democrat on this coast, as flagrant a piece of personal treachery— that going hence from the Democratic State Convention of 1880 as a Nationxl Convention delegate, and supporting Stephen J. Field — as was ever perpe- trated in the history of politics. SOME ODDS AND ENDS OF PERSONAL CORRESPONDENCE. I know very well that the Western Union Telegraph Company would support, cheerfully. Beck, of Kentuckj , for the Presidency of the United States. And, indeed, all the monopolists would sing sweetly in favor of the candidacy of Bayard, of Delaware— the '•Democratic" pet of the Wall-street rings. But I say there is no excuse for the people of p olists, in the strictest and most imperative sense of the word. Is it not time to check the tyranny of the monopolists? I tell you that the people only half realize the temper of these men who manage these robbimr corporations. Most of them, of course, are ignorant as well as brutish creatures. Of the few who have received a little educa- tional polish, it may be said that it has been demon- strated that no amount of culture could take the hog out of them. Their disposition is well indicated by a remark which one of their kind — who married into their immediate circle, and lias a side-show establishment — getting his goods at family freight tariff— by a remark which this man made to my former partner, Mr. William M. Cut- ter. He said: "Yes, I am in favor of monopolies, and if I had my sweet way and will I would have a padlock on every man"s throat in the State of California, and charge him a dollar and a half for every drink of water that I per- mitted to pass down his gullet." There spoke the sentiments of the Central Pacific Rail- road Company monopoly . In 1864, the railroad company took 8250,000 in U. S. bonds and hypothecated them for a sum sufficient to buy up all the coal oil in the market— bonds solemnly dedicated by the Government, and so accepted, to C. P. R. R. construction; and at once raised the price of coal oil 50 per cent. That was a specimen of the throat clutching of the Orphans of Nob Hill. Having purchased the Santa Monica Railroad of John P. Jones' theC. P. R. R. Co. proceeded to tear up the splen lid wharf that had been constructed from that grandest of sea-bathing watering places; naturally the most eligible location for such a resort that I ever saw . Crocker & Co. lied by saying that the wharf was dan- gerous. The real object of tnis ''unconscionable piece of vandalism "—as Judge Miles fitly termed it— was to bear the price of real estate, so that the C. P. R. R. c nild gobble it up for a song. The consequent de- preciation in value of landed property was expected to be much more, by far, than the value of the work de- stroyed. The company went through the formality of sending one or more of their tadpole engineers, with instructions to "condemn," as unsafe, etc. The ob- ject in this being to plead with owners and influen- tial parties, having to do with the land titles at Santa Monico— and who were or naturally would be exasper- ated at the act of wharf demolition — that the " rip- ping up of the d -1 thing ' (as one of the Railroad Directors expressed it, in a burst of confidence) was not a wanton or a purely selfish act. The property -owners there seem to have held out well; for the illustrated Herald of Los Angeles for May, '81, says that Crocker & Co. have not yet suc- ceeded in perfectine their intended grab. When tin; railroad managers shall have compelled a "sale" of this magnificent property; to themselves, for a- com - paritively insignificant sum, then they will put up a big %i a-day hotel, and put the whole front under ex- tortionate toll. So it goes. It is well known that "the money spent at Wil- mington would have given Los Angeles a better har- bor at, Santa Monica, and at half the distance from tin' sea." Says General E. P. Beale; "The vandalism of the Southern Pacific in arresting the progress of the beautiful town whbh was growing up at Santa Monica, and destroying the wharf, is one of its ,,< which has justly incensed the people against that cor- poration." The Railroad Monopoly and the Telegraph Monopoly- say that work can he done for the people a greal deal cheaper in the way of transporting persons and intelli- gence, if the business is all in the hands of one company. The force of this argument— SO farasit is an argument— riththeadvo ol t Postal Telegraph. Let the United state. Government have a monopoly of transmitting dispatches, and in less than ten vears— under a proper administration under Democratic con- trol— the people will be sending their letters by light- ning at about the same cost that is now attached to transmitting communications by mail And there will be all the facilit corner boxes, general car- rier deliverj . etc. The exactions of the Telegraph Monopoly arc simply marvel of marvels how t in this connection ire hidden from the eyes and the understanding of He- people. You, sir, arc charged from ten to twentj and in some instances, even as high as forty tint: s as much for a telegraphic dispatch as the sending costs; and inventions ;- suppressed boughl up and suppressed— in order to prevent its being proclaimed, as an unquestionable truth, that you are charged a hundred times as much for a telegraphic dis- patch from here to the Eastern States as you ought to be tolled, considering the expense to the telegraph companv. See my lecture on the Postal Telegraph for highest authority quoted in support of this state- ment. . Jim Gamble, Superintendent of the Western I nion Telegraph Company at San Francisco, said in writing, over his own signature, in 1878, March 18th. that in 1876 the British Government "lost" si, 176,115 by the Postal Telegraph. Where did he get his figures? He is almost equal to Jim Simonton as a truth-teller. I have before me the official report of the British Tele- graphs for 1ST i;. By that it appears that there was a net income for 1876 JO! And a twenty- word message in Great Britain from Leeds and to John O'Groats costs a sixpence. Think of it, Shameless ! Of course the Republican party leaders meless. The illustrations of that fact are innu- merable. In davs or in months, when it has not paid the Independent Press to be dishonest— in interval , lavs— or at times when that press has been under the absolute control of honest men, speaking in all honesty and candor, the truth has come out. Henry J. Raymond was an honest man by instinct and disposition.' He started, after the civil war was over, to act honestly in politi :s in connection with Southern affairs. The New York Times in 1866-68 spoke the political truth— speaking exactly the opposite of its ut- terances of to-day. At one brief period in 1S69, the New York Times advocated a Postal Telegraph— in rice- watery stvle. It was 'shown to Henry J. Raymond that financial ruin stared him in the face if he persisted in attempting to carry out his honest p ditical reforms. John Bigelow was summarily ordered out of the edi- torial room-; and management of the New York Times immediati mild editorial in favor of some sort of a Postal Tele raph system. The New York Tribune spoke honestly and bravely for the political truth in L872. Horace Greeley's last ut- terances I relations of the North and the South should be eatheredin one volume, forperma- . ii Whereisthe New York Tribune today? Th ture of the monopolists -the most abject and servile and serviceable of all. When Horace Greeley dictated in general outlines to Whitelav. ven small ability), Whitelaw ■ ,\ words in a g i »1 hand Now the scribe for . tint was, is the flunk 13 tor Gould and Simon- ton, that are. M11 tl ien and boj 9, remember the New York Evening Post: What a change has tal there! Sorrowfully I rteps of its de- cline we - • ! E lite I by Carl Schurz, under the co ' owner- ship, of one of the dlroad corp What a fa ,v bige- low! Behold and « No wonder thai SO many children ill this country arc growing Up without a belief ill a God. It doefi 'lot need ol H0I3 Scripture by an Ingcr- soll to aid the do il in breeding the) old average of infi- SOME ODDS AND ENDS OF PERSONAL CORRESPONDENCE. dels. His contribution in that service is compara- tively trifling. But these grasping and rotten corpora- tions have made it plain to the young men of this coun- trv that no considerable political preferment can be ob- tained or held without their grace. And with all man- ner of flatteries and blandishments, as well as direct of- fers of bribery, these monopolists search out young men of ability, that they may warn them from the path of political rectitude and make them their servants — either their openly avowed or secretly bonded creatures. And the shameless exhibition by the New York Trib- une and the New York Times and the New York Eo°n- ing Post — in the inconsistency of men still acting with those papers or selling out, knowing what the purpose of the purchases was — is one of the most potential of all demoralizing exhibitions, brought home to the young men of this country: to induce them to laugh at and despise all honor and decency in the character of a pa- triotic citizenship. Unto every young man of ability in this country, the monopolists say by every channel of communication — and they say it daily, in substance and effect, by the history and hissing of the Independent Press, from one end of the country to the other: " If you don't take a salary or a pension from the corporation mon- opolists of the land, you are a fool, you are a fool, you are a fool !" Shameless? You think that our Independent Press is more shameless than any other ? Well, it is as nearly up to the standard of the New York Times and Tribune and Herald and Evening Post, as it is possible for the smaller brains and the more insignificant souls who rule and rot and stink in the "Independent Press" mana- gers' sanctums in San Francisco to make it. At the present time, and for several years past, the Alia and Bulletin and Call have not pretended to be anything - but railroad and telegraph monopoly flunk- ies. The most influential flunky of the railroad and telegraph monopolists on this coast has been the Chron- icle. Between times, it is instructed to play the part of the people's friend, and all that. The Call and the Chronicle are to do this with the poorer classes of the community — the Chronicle being specially effective in this line. The Bulletin and Alta are to work in what its managers call the upper crust. Every thing is to be salved over with respectability and respectability and respectability, so called. The Call and the Chronicle will take turns — will alternate — in nursing up the Den- nis Kearney's and Stephen Maybells, as the word may go from the corner of Fourth and Townsend streets. Undoubtedly there is some real rivalry between the managers of the Call and Bulletin and the managers of the Chronicle. This is with respect to small adver- tisements and the amount of subsidy to be obtained from Republican committees and railroad and tele- graph treasuries. My advice to the people is to drop these papers alto- gether. You will feel better, you will know more, you will be clearer in vision to do the right thing, if from this time forth you neither patronize nor look at any one of these sheets. No; the New York Sun is not to be relied upon eith- er. The management there know very well that the majority of the people in New York are in favor fo Democratic principles. They know 7 , furthermore, that the field of direct and continuous advocacy for the mon- opolies is well occupied, in New York, by the Times and 'Tribune. It is entirely a mercenary matter with ths Sun. The hypocrisy and venality of that sheet can be illus- trated by a hundred instances of comparison and con- fcrast. The Sun did not originally advocate the nomin- ation of Samuel J. Tilden for the Presidency. When the Electoral Commission was first proposed, the Sun did nut object to it. Not until after the passage of the Electoral bill was a foregone conclusion, did it say one word against it. And, you may have noticed that when the Democra- cy of Indiana commenced holding public meetings, in accordance with the suggestion of Mr. Tilden (which suggestion, acted upon throughout the United States, would have resulted in the inauguration of Mr. Tilden) the Sun denounced such meetings; and expressly said that anything of the kind would meet with its opposition. And the Sun fully indulged in the hush, hush, hush business, which the monopolists in- structed their organs to begin and continue, while the work of President-robbing was going on — aiding to make the people in each State believe that the Democ- racy in every other State only wanted peace, peace, peace, at any sacrifice. Several times during the last four years the Sun has announced that Mr. Tilden would not be the President of the United States; so saying voluntarily, without provocation, at the time when it was most likely to have effect with all classes of readers. Then, when it was known that Mr. Tilden would not receive or would not accept the nomination at Cincinnati, the Sun began its hurrah for the Sage of Gramercy, and all that. This being done so as to he in a good position for that most outrageous piece of treachery — if it can be called treach- ery — of which it was guilty near the close of the cam- paign of 1SS0— the "No-use-in-mincing-matters" edi- torial business. No; the monopolist managers are very cunning. They have all sorts of organs — newspapers in every party, demagogues in every organization and every clique. But, I have said and I say it again: By this time the people should know who the true men are, and know what is desired and what is desirable. The people at this stage of the great national battle should not be misled by journals of any sort. Yes; I know Frank Pixley. I have known him for twenty-five years . He has*been in every party, and has begged for office in every political camp. He is the most effective worker — notwithstanding the fact that he is such a slop-over — the railroad monopolists have on this coast. He published a pamphlet reviving all the vile slanders against Broderick in '59, rcnd afterwards he wrote editorials eulogizing him; the same man. He is himself a sort of a Dennis Kearney — after his own kind — about the same apparent amount and char- acter of conscientiousness, cunning and — indifference to pecuniary reward. He blatherskites and makes money. He is the most respectable of the Independent Press gang in San Francisco. I think myself that there is to he another high rising tide of anti-mo aopobr talk and promise. I would not be surprised if Conkling and Gorham — who have been as obsequious tools of the monopolists as have been Blaine and Pixley and Garfield, and that ilk — I would not be surprised if they undertook to head another Sham of Anti-monopoly within the next two or three years. Such are the present indications. You say thnt you cannot understand how the people of California could tolerate Gorham as a professed Anti- monopolist. I tell you, my dear sir, the people forget the record of the past. They forget that in 1867 Gor- ham was the candidate of Stanford and Huntington and Crocker. And we have many new comers. And many people will forget that Conkling has been an attorney and flunkey of the banks and of the Express monopoly and of the Telegraph monopoly. The people have to be reinformed and re-enlightened, again and again, in re- gard to these matters. I know it is unpleasant to do this work. I hate to do it. I would a thousand fold rather speak well than ill of any human being. But it is a part of our duty — a solemn obligation resting upon us — to do this very work of reminding; sc that the peo- ple shall not have the shadow of a shade of an excuse, if thev again elect frauds and bilks under an anti-mon- opoly platform. Yes; the people of the State of California have been most tremendously deceived. The defeat of Henry H. Haight signified a long lease of power to the monopo- lists on this coast. No wonder that 'General Lewis of Tehama, upon that defeat, to use his own language, "threw up the sponge;" and saw " no use in trying an3' more to serve the people as an anti-monopolist." Anything as an expedient for a new lease of tyranny; the people fume and fret, and follow false leaders, and the monopolists wax fatter and fatter. Ves; I well remember the awful — I thought it blas- phemous — declaration of Booth after his election, as to the service he would do for the people. Look back up- on his record in the Senate, from that text! SOME ODDS AND ENDS OF PERSONAL CORRESPONDENCE. Will the people again be mislead by our rotten Inde- pendent Press into putting Such a creature into the Uni- ted States Senate? They will be led to do precisely that thing, unless you and I exert ourselves to the ut- termost to defeat the plans of these conspirators against the liberties and rights of the people, whose immediate organs these Independent newspapers arc. The people do not even get the benefit of inventions. " Rapid telegraphy " has been suppressed. Gas is cheap- ly manufactured from crude petroleum and fresh water (in New York City), but the people generally derive no compensating benefit from these discoveries. It is simply ridiculous for any newspaper managers to pretend to be anti-monopoly and honest in their record, when the fact is that they supported such men as Haj es and Garfield for the Presidency — especially where the record is that the managers supported Garfield against Hancock. One of the managers of the Central Pacific Railroad . Compauy returned to California from the East shortly after the nomination of Hancock and declared that the General had a " walk over." It subsequently transpired that the managers of the great corporations of the country believed, that it was impossible to defeat Hancock; and believed, still further, that he could be brought over to at least a !:on-combative pledge in their behalf. It will be recollected— it was a matter of common notoriety — that General Hancock was approached with an offer of a very large supply of money for the Democratic cam- paign if he would agree to confirm the nomination of certain parties for Secretary of the Treasury, Secretary of War, Secretary of the Interior and Postmaster-Gen- eral. It will be remembered — to the everlasting credit of General Hancock [Fit to put in parallels with Joseph Reed's reply to the British emissary in 1775: "I am a very poor man, but, poor as I am, the King of Great Britain has not money enough to buy me."] and to the honor and glory of the Democratic party — that the proffer was rejected. Then it was that the monopolists' managers held a meeting and determined that Garfield must be elected, if it was within the bounds of possibility. Prior to this meeting Conkling and his satellites had been in the sulks. Prior to this the Xew York Sun had de- clared that it was impossible to defeat General Hancock. Immediately after this meeting Conkling entered the canvass vigorously in behalf of Garfield, whom he had so often in private denounced for his lying and bribe- taking. Conklling, as wel as Horsey, went to Ohio and Indiana on a campaign mission. Not alone with Star Route money was Dorsey supplied . The treasuries of the railroad and telegraph and bank monopolies poured out immense sums for his purse. It was at the direc- tion of the agents of the great corporations that Gar- field made his promises to Conkling, by which that chief of spoilsmen was induced to give the signal of energetic support to his creatures in the New York Custom House and elsewhere. And shortly after the purchased Indiana October elec- tion, the Sun came out with its treacherous "No-use-in mincing-matters" editorial — instead of denouncing- the corruptionists for their work in Indiana, and striving to move the people to a sense of the peril to our insti- tutions from the Conkling -Dorsey-Inghani methods of manipulating elections. Nothing could be more absurd than a profession of anti-monopoly sentiments on the part of any newspaper or any journal that supported Garfield. Many of them will be directed to wow cry out in favor of "Reform," and, in some general, diffusive, blubber-cheeked way, against the exactions o*" the great corporations; so that when the focalizing time comes thej these same news- papers — may be in a position to aid in demoralization, on a vaunted Record — from whence to Saj "We, we, we, have always been opposed to this monopoly, but this bill realy won't do" etc. That has been the his- tory of this thing all along. Intelligent men in California should take no hints, nor accept any species or line of leadership from news- papers or men who supported Garfield in a prominent way. Of course, there were thousands of good men who voted for the bribe-taker on sheer prejudice, and from entire reliance on just what they read at that partlcu lar season from their party organs. It does seem as if such men cannot stay much longer in the Republi- can Party. The monopoly managers reasoned that if they only succeeded in 1880 in putting the bribe-taker into the Presidential chair they would have a comparath time thereafter. Their thought and policj was then to break up the Solid South — so-called bj the power of their combinations on railroads ;uid telegraphs in that section of the country. And the first illustration of their efforts may be seen in the State of Virginia. -Ma- hone is a good outcome of the Bchemings and invest- ments of Central Pacific Huntington and the telegraph monopoly managers in the Old Dominion. It remains to be seen whether the majority of the people of the South can be corrupted by the methods and the ma- chinery adopted or invented and employed by the na- bobs to whom we have referred. We are often told that there will be relief from the thraldom of the national monopolies through competi- tion. [The Republican and Independent organs are in- structed to talk this way, sometimes.] There has been occasionally, and there will or may be in the future, some slight relief, undoubtedly. But no speedy and ade- quate, no complete and permanent relief. The extor- tions of the telegraph company are so enormous that competition here and there — and probably, by and by, across the continent — is inevitable. But the reductions will be very small, under the rise of rivalry, at the best; and only temporary. There will be the old, old story of soliciting and securing stock or patronage — and then selling out. For instance, we pay 82 for a day dispatch and Si for a night dispatch of ten words from San Francisco to New York. Now, the tariff ought not to be at the very outside over 25 cents for twenty words for day and half that by night sending. That to begin with. And reduc- tion upon reduction, as business increased — as it would inevitably and immensely on such a tariff — until it came down to the point at which communications by mail would be practically superceded, between distant points, with reference to all business transactions. The true way, the quick way, in every respect the only proper way of relief, is by a Postal Telegraph. Ex- pectation elsewhere is foolish. Think of it. You can telegraph a twenty-word mes- sage from land's end to land's end in Great Britain for a sixpence. And further reductions are expected. And the cost of telegraph work extensively for business pur- poses is proportionately reduced - night messagl - going atlessthan a shilling for fifty words. Five hundred words of press dispatches for country papers, four shillings one dollar. And telegraphing costs more, construction of telegraph lines costs more, than in the United States. The cost of maintaining lines and of transmitting is far more in that more humid climate. There is no point from which you can view this matter without having your wonder raised to Inexpressible amazement at the ignorance and stolidity of the majority of OUT people — to say nothing of other qualities -as illustrated in sub- mission to the extortions of the telegraph monopoly, when a Postal Telegraph bill of a few plain 91 I would bring about the desired relief and reform within a very short period, And the advantage of such a system, and its ultimate ■ beneficent results, are mam and TOSt, aside from the mere matter of convenience. Among the items. increase in wages for operators, and a demand for the services of twenty in. n and boys and girls in flu- busi- ness w i v ployed. And the telegraphic news columns of our metropol- itan papers bear evidence to. any discriminating news- paper man 01 an utter lack of an intelligl nt Byst( D comprehension on the part of the chiel managers ol the Associated Press. The San Francisco Daily Herald, In '69, for a few months, had its own special Eastern dispatches bj cj phei . i ■ supi i Lorit] ovi r t be Associated Press messages was so great that it had to he conceded bj every reader. [So far superior to the Orton-Simonton hash-up that the Western Union Telegraph Company, in very desperation, broke the contract it had made with the llerabl.] SOME ODDS AND ENDS OF PERSONAL CORRESPONDENCE. Everything in the way of political news is twisted and tortured — where there is no suppression — in the in- terests of the Republican Party, which is practically the property of the great Telegraph and Railroad Com- panies. Is it not a good thing for you and me, and for the whole country, to have honest and able men in Con- gress? — as it is a good thing for us to have able and efficient generals at the head of our armies in time of war? Now, it is not only a fact that the best men in Congress and in the Senate of the United States within the past few years, have been machined out of these great deliberative bodies by the monopolists of the coun- try; but it is also a fact that now, as well as during the past ten or fifteen years, the people are not justly in- formed by the Associated Press dispatches from Wash- ington and elsewhere as to the proceedings in which our real statesmen are present. The words of Tilden and Thurman and Austin E. Blair and General Joseph Palmer and Andrew Curtin and Horatio Seymour, are not telegraphed broadcast over the land when thev make politital speeches or issue political addresses, un- less it is first ascertained that by some private enter- prise the addresses referred to will be generally dissem- minated by telegraph. Ana even then the speeches of those patriots will be garbled and shorn of half their states- eraft and strength. But for years we have had the vaporingsof Blaine and Conklingand Garfield, and crea tures of that infinitesimally small mental caliber and incontestibly rotten character, spread full upon the telegraph minutes all over the land, with eulogy piled on eulogy over their " eloquence " and their " wisdom " and their "foresight," etc., etc., etc., etc. The people of this country have not known what their strong men have said in strength and honor and justice, so far as the Associated Press and the Western I nion Telegraph Company could keep them from knowing it. The Dili- gent Cunning of Suppression is the long name for the the short Art that is one of the Tricks in their catalogue. This is sometimes termed an Age of Mediocrity. The monopolies are determined that no man of hrains and honesty shall receive a nomination even, in a party where there is any probability of success. And if such a man gets into the chief councils of the nation, they will misrepresent wherever they can, and suppress where they can, to the uttermost of their endeavors. Now, a Postal Telegraph would brush away the whole of this infamous business ; and the people would learn and realize with proper sentiments who their great and good men were. How dare Jim Simonton come into San Franciseo and talk about the Postal Telegraph as something that would be an injury to the country newspapers? What an ex- hibition of superlative mendacity ! In Great Britain the weekly newspapers have their special dispatches which they receive for a nominal sum. Give us a Postal Telegraph and the Modesto A'eivs, and the Colusa Sun, and the Yolo Democrat and the Petaluma Herald, and every other country newspaper in California, and throughout the country, would be able to receive, and in the natural course of events would take and publish, the latest authentic tidings in regard to great matters of public concern— receiving their telegraphic dispatches from their own private sources at the last hour before publication. Can these papers afford to do anything- of the kind now ? Why, this is one of the reasons why the country papers have been appealed to by me to take a lively interest in this matter. No, my dear sir; the people do not realize the extor- tions of the monopolists. These should be brought right home to them with facts and figures, day by day, so that they felt it on every occasion of patronage. Every time, sir, that you pay $7 for a round ticket from Modesto to San Francisco you are simply rob- bed of three dollars; every time you pay fifty cents for a dispatch from Modesto to San Francisco, you are rob- bed of from forty to forty-five cents. And so in pro- portion between almost all other towns and cities. An honest Railroad Commiseion, having the power to act, would provide that your fare from Modesto to San Francisco and back should not exceed $i. Pass a National Postal Telegraph bill, and the inevit able consequences will be that within two years there after, you will not have to pay over five cents for a ten- word message from Modesto to San Francisco. Now, you just think of this every time you are robbed by the tariff referred to. And talk to your neighbors about it. And understand whether your candidates for the Legis- lature — no matter who they are — are in favor of passing a set of resolutions favoring the Postal Telegraph. [Not whether they will introduce blackmail or Sleeping Res- olutions of the nature indicated.] Make a missionary of yourself — a citizen missionary — in regard to these matters. If every citizen in this State who reads this little pamphlet will follow this bit of advice, the next Legis- lature will see a sweeping majority there anxious and resolute to enact all, and pass all, resolutions with res- pect to this telegraph monopoly that come within the province of that deliberative body. And we will have a delegation in Congress unanimous for a Postal Tele- graph bill. The Great side-fret, just now, of the Call and Bulletin is in regard to the water monopoly. Occasionally they will babble about the gas. Here again they expect the people to forget. For years and years the Bulletin and Call supported these twin local monopolies ; owning stock to a large extent in one of the companies. Both sheets then ridiculed the idea of sinking artesian wells — which measure of relief, as against the Bensley and Spring Valley corporations, was first recommended to the people and put into practical operation by Jacob C. Beideman and myself. The managers of the Inde- pendent Press have no real care for the interests of the people.' They are simply and purely mercenary. They have not got one particle of the flavor of human sym- pathy in their arterial circulation. They are cold- blooded fishes. But they succeed — they have succeed- ed and they do now succeed, and far some time to come it seems probable that thev will continue to have a large measure of success in pretending to be champions of the people. Why, some of them have lied and lied and lied about the Postal Telegraph and concerning the Associated Press in a manner and in ways so flagrant as even to astound the oldest observer of their mendacity. Others have pretended to favor a Postal Telegraph until they were given dispatches; or while there was no danger of their editorials having any helpful effect on the move- ment. A great want in San Fraucisco to-day is a good Dem- ocratic evening paper. And among the marvel of mar- vels is the fact that that want is not responded to. Of course, if we had a Postal Telegraph, such papers as the Bulletin and the Call and the Alta and the Even- ing Pout of San Franoisco would be speedily superseded by decent and honest newspapers — real daily Journals. Yes, sir : we should travel more rapidly, as well as much more comfortably, by water. We should make the trip to Europe in three days. But the inventions that have led up to this "indication" towards this con- summation, have been suppressed. How long? The monopolies are continually egging on their or- gans to cry for a reduction of salaries; and the organs are accordingly grinding out new prophesies of a politi- cal millenium to be had by such reductions. It is every way in the interests of great corporations to have sala- ries of public officers put at the lowest figure. In that way it is reasonable for them to expect that a poor or- der of talent and a low sentiment of morality will be represented in public stations, in official positions. Men in offices which it is desirable to control in the interests of the great corporations are often directly pensioned by these corporations, and by that means absolutely owned by them. Sometimes it is sufficient for the pur- poses of these great tyrants, to get weak and timid men in office, whom they can bulldoze with their pugilistic pettifoggers, or mislead and dictate to by in- dependent newspaper editorials. The grasping avarice of these corporations extends in all directions. A few years ago a plan was laid to cap- ture some of the county offices in each county, by an ab- solute transfer of county official duties to corporation SOME ODDS AND ENDS OF PERSONAL CORRESPONDENCE. agents. And the movement was adroitly started in a Democratic county. Some of the influential citizens in that county were bought up, and sonic prominent and conscientious men were deceived into favor for the nl . The plan was for a transfer of the moneys and the duties of the County Treasurers into the local banks or into the office of the express company (Wells, Fargo & Co. 's express now being owned principally i>.\ the Central Pacific Railroad Company.) And from that beginning- after a general, hoped-for adoption of the County Treasury transfer— the schemewas to bring at County Recorder and the County Surveyor di- un ler the same management. The talk was: "What is the use in paying a salary to a County Treasurer? The money can just as well be passed over by the Sheriff or the Collector into the local bank or the express company's office, and there kept, with a bond for safe-keeping, by clerks whose salaries will not be charged up against the county!" (The mo- nopolists having the use of the money for many months). Again: "We have plenty of civil surveyors lying around loose, whom we can easily detach for special services in the various counties, at a nominal charge to the coun- ty." So they would have the people's money and the power of profit thereof; and so they would have the county lines and subdivisions under their mapping; and so they would have had all the far-reaching power springing therefrom. That country is prosperous, that state is rich, where every industrious citizen is well-to-do. And the plan of the "monopolies is directly towards making the rich richer and the poor poorer. This is undisguised and avowed within their own circles. They despise the people— these managers of the monopolies and these managers and flunkies of the independent press. They aonot believe in a God or in a Judgment, though some of them pass church plates or serve as deacons or vestry, men;— and they all join in the grand jubilee chorus whenever they can succeed in cutting down the waires of a hard-working public officer. For as soon as official salaries are cut down, they have a fresh excuse for cut- ting down the wages of their clerks and bookkeepers, and engineers and superintendents. "Employ Chinese?" Yes. Charles Crocker once said at Reno, Nevada, in the presence of a nnmber of per- sons, shortly after the track was laid to that place, that within a few years the Central Pacific Railroad Company would have Chinese engineers and other Chinese train officers. In 1367-6S, ex-Cnited States Senator William Sharon i 1 to introduce Chinese into the mines on the Comstock. His purpose coming to the knowledge of the miners and preliminary preparations being made by them to resist the introduction of Mongolian labor, one of Sharon's agents declared to the Reverend Father (now Bishop) Manogue, of Virginia City, that the militia would be called out to sustain this movement to dis- place white laborers by coolies, and that Governor Blas- dcll hail been telegraphed to, at White Pine, with that that a company of regular United States sol- diers had been stopped at Reno with the declared de- sign of having them aid in this project. The Rev. Father Manogue told Mr. Sharon's book- keeper and next friend, N. A. H. Ball— (Mr. Ball notify- in- the Rev. Father voluntarily and advising him to aid in keeping the peace)- -that he could not be held in any ponsible for the actions of the white miners, in case the attempt was made to supplant them by coolies. And Father Manogue told Mr. Ball that he believed that if the attempt spoken of was made, there would not be a hoisting works building or a mill between Cedar Ravine, in Storey county, and Empire City, in Ormsby, that would not he in flames within twenty-four hours. Charles Crocker & Co . and Sharon & Co . dared not carry nut these plans. Hut their disposition was clearly manifested, and it illustrates the wish and sentiments of their kind as they exist unto this day. V.iu say that it is "funny" to read Hayes' attack on Conkling. Well, I suppose it is left to us to extract some enjoyment out of all such things. But to me it is such a humiliating spectacle that I can hardly afford to laugh at it. II ayes and ( '.inkling are both men nl' very small abili- ties. If you nave never heard Conkling speak, you have a disappointment in store: If you have pla< reliance on the high-sounding eulogies « hich the Ass,,. ciated Press agents have repeatedly bestowed upon him. There is mi teal logic in the man. Witness, in proof of this, his "reasoning" in his Bpeech at i York Aeadcnn of Music last summer, wherein heat- tacked the South i>\ a showing of exports ami ixn Even the New York Evening Post could notabide, hut had to ridicule, such false premises as he laid down ami such incorrect deductions as he drew even from his un- just 'and slanderous statements. And in point Ol his highest achievement is seen in constructing i orate sneer at someot ler Republican in power, whom although quite as likely a man as he is he chooses to denounce. Heisach ' fellow. Frank Pix- ley complains very bitterly of Ins treatment of Pi x ley at the Chicago Convention of 1880. Frank had ca complaint. Frank and Roscoe are of about th pattern in morals and manners and intellect; and after Frank's toadying i" Grant in San Francisco, Roscoe had probable cause for believing that he would be th, Gen eral's friend in the campaign. Conkling is not any smarter than Frank Pixie] or any of the turn-coat corporation flunkies in California. In" intellect he is not above Creed Raymond. Grove L. Johnson, Newton Booth or T. <;. Phelps. He is not a man of as much ability as Henrv Edgerton or Judge Sanderson — by no manner of means. Now, it seems to me that the talk of Haves against Conkling, as recently reported, is simply anothei disclosure of shatnelessness. Conkling knew that Hayes had no right to the Presidential chair. Hayes was in- formed at the time, he now states, that Conkling so expressed himtelf. And yet as a Senator of the I ni- ted States he sat still and unprotestingly witnessed, and even took a part in, the consummation of that great fraud. So did Roscoe Conkling; only great — if there be any bigness in his mind or manners onh great in infamy. As for Hayes! He must be an exceeding] brained creature, as weighed in the catalogue of "states- men!" Look at his opportunity! Opportunity as was never before given in this country to mortal man; such an opportunity as Caesar did not have. How insignifi- cant Hayes must appear in the conjunction of his intel- lect and conscience, when we consider that opportun- ity. And look at it even in the points of a wise selfishness. If he had said in 1877 to the Visiting Stab the Republican party and to all the people of the Uni- ted States: "No; I have not been elected to the office of chief executive of this nation. The man who has been chosen by the voters to fill that office is Samuel J. Tilden, of New York."— What a splendid immortality of renown would have been obtained by him, '<■• declaration of that which he knew to be true! Better than to have been President all the days Of his life. And what a patriotic service for his count i\ ! What immense, immediate moral and materia! benefits would have flowed from such an act of sup-erne honor. () blind, foolish man! Messrs. Hoar, andDawes, and Blaine, and chandler, and Rollins, and Ilawley, ami their colleagues in the national legislature from New England, «/<> not believe one syllable about the alleged atrocities in the South, to which tii. . pn I to refei with such holj horror and heart-felt sympathy. They know better. Pshaw! Of course they do! The leading politicians and prin- cipal clergymen of New England, are to blameforthe abused nun, is ol ipon thousands of good poo pie in that section of the conn try who regularly vote the Republican ticket, and who ,/„ believe I he Anna Pinker- ton stories. When ■ STew England and find a man who i, liberal™ his ideas, and tu mi gritj conjoined with real independence ol thought, and industry in pi rsonal .lion as t,, political mailer-, you I'm,! a I >, mo crat. l know that nine out of ever] ten of tin- leading Dem- ocrats in New England, to-day, are men who were either ., in the Republican ranks ,,r He- i nion ranks during tin' war activi d therein or of such men. 10 SOME ODDS AND ENDS OF PERSONAL CORRSPONDENCE Yes ; it does not seem possible that another National campaign can be conducted on the sectional cry. And yet, that is what we said four years ago. Talk about nun in New Hampshire voting for General Jackson twenty 5 ears after he was dead; why, there are hundreds and hundreds of good people in New England who will continue to vote the Last War just so long as the monopolists can keep such creatures— such small, lying creatures— as Hoar and Dawes and Rollins in seats in the chief councils of the nation, and in the opening speech-desk of the New England State conventions. A Postal Telegraph would break the backbone of sec- tionalism as an element in national politics. A Postal Telegraph would speedily result in informing the people as to the comparative littleness of such creatures as Dawes and Hoar and Rollins and Chandler and Blaine— as well as serve to meet with instant, nation-wide ref- utation their ''Southern outrage" falsehoods. Because honest journalists could afford to start news- papers, and have direct and correct intelligence from the Capitol at Washington, and full and just reports as to the public consultations and debates and arguments ; and"direct and correct tidings from every point of alleg- ed excitement or interest. The People now do not know the greatness of their great men, or the feebleness of the so-called political giants of t.lie day. Such men as George W. Julian and Austin E. Blair and Jos E. Palmer— O, I have not space to "-o through the catalogue that is familiar to my daily thoughts— such men are driven out of politics or driven out of public life, driven out of Congress, and their words and actions are hidden from the people, by the instrumentalitv of the telegraph monopoly and its side departments— including all its Independent and Repub- lican organs. If Daniel Webster was alive, in all his intellectual strength and glory, to-day, and a member of the United States Senate, and should get up on the floor of that Council Chamber and, with his masterly method of statement, expose and denounce the telegraph and rail- road monopolies, and argue, in his ponderous way, in favor of measures for the emancipation of the people from the tyranny of these monopolies, there would be two or three little paragraphs concerning his speech telegraphed abroad to the Associated Press— conjoined with the statement that "the old man is breaking down;" that it was evident that his faculties were sadly impair- ed; that there was great expectation and great disap- pointment in the Senate and in the galleries respecting his speech. And there would be, at the same time, columns de- voted to Hoar's and Blaine's and Edmunds' "exhaustive and overwhelming reply to the pragmatical old gentle- man:' —imagining the least of puffs, puffs, puffs for such as Edmunds is, and the least of indecency in expressions of contempt for Webster and respecting his speech. And at the very next session of the Massachusetts Legislature which had a Senator to elect, under the force of monopoly bribery, and intimidation and bland- ishments, some such crawling, sniveling, whining, sneak- ing, lying creature as Dawes or Hoar would be sent to the'National Legislature, to snivel and shuffle and "rat- tle around" m the place which the God-like Daniel had majestically and magnificently filled. You press me to know what my confidence is or what my expectations are in regard to the anti-monopoly movement, in its largest sense considered. That is, whether I have any real hope or expectation of a future victory by the people over these tyrants this side of Revolution '.' I must confess that 1 am not as sanguine of the future in this respect as I was up to the defeat of such a man as Hancock by such a man as Garfield. Still, it seems to me that the burden will grow so insupport- able that some measure of relief will be adopted, through the Democratic party, before another four years shall To tide along and tide along— meanwhile growing stronger and stronger -is what the monopolists now seek. Their art is to amuse the people with sideshow issues and excitements; and to try and make them be- lieve that the political millenium can be reached by reducing the salaries of public officers to a nominal sum. Their agents will raise and inflate local issues about comparatively trifling extortions, by local companies in San Francisco and elsewhere on this coast, just before every election— so as to blind and divert the people. And, if necessary, such men as George Wm. Curtis and Cari Schurz will' be instructed by their owners to whirl around aud make a new pretense of sympathy with the people and hostility to monopoly domination. Any- thing to keep the real power in the hands of the avowed or recently -pi edged servants of the Rings. The avow- ed agents of the railroad and telegraph monopolies will make their influence felt, with money in hand, in regard to candidates for important office in any party or organizations that have the present promise of success. The George Wm. Curtises and Carl Schurzs and Whitelaw Reids, and Frank Pixleys will, mayhap, denounce Republican candidacies (put up to be defeated) and advocate railroad and telegraph monopoly " Demo- crats." Meanwhile, there will be thousands of blatherskite demagogues who will preach to scores of expectant of- fice holders that, no doubt, within three or four years, the great i|iiestion before the American people may be, " Whether the monopolies or the people shall rule in this country?" But, at the present time, the great question is as to who should ue Auditor of the county ! All helping to tide along; perhaps unto that day when Relief and Reform will be impossible— save by 1776 methods. You say that George Gorham announces that the rail- road companies were against the nomination of Grant at Chicago. 1 have always felt convinced that that was so. But, of course, Gorham does not give the right version of the matter. The difficulty with Grant, as a railroad monopoly man, was, that he could not be considered entirely reliable as a direct servant. Blaine was the railroad companies' man. And, when they could not get Blaine. Garfield was their choice. With Blaine, it was a straight road— between the railroad and telegraph quarters and the White House. With Grant, there might be some difficulty, on account of his obstinacy in nominating Cabinet officeis, and such little matters," in which the corporations would be interested during his Administration! Not because of any sus- pected latent hostility to monopolies— nothing of that kind— certainly not on account of any ever declared hostility;— but because— on account of some " whim " — he might insist on putting in "the wrong man in the right place "—some Bristow or Devens, who would not be entirely at the command of Jay Gould and President Green and Jim Simonton and Huntington and Stanford It was a matter of preference, of absolute preference. The monopolists, the railroad monopolists especially, have been nursing up Blaine for years and years. He is preeminently their mini. Unsuccessful in their efforts to secure Blaine' s.noniination— (and the monopoly agents who worked for his success at Chicago must not be blamed too much by their masters— for the country is large, and a nationa'l nominating convention is unwieldy —and the railroad and telegraph companies had not, as yet, got any of the Southern States well in hand)— fail- ing to secure Blaine's nomination, they succeeded in obtaining the next best thing— G-arfield,— Garfield at the head of the Presidential ticket. No intelligent, unprejudiced and honest citizen will undertake to question for a moment the fact, that all the powers of the monopolies were exercised in favor of Garfield and against Hancock, The monopolists are cunning in having such papers as the San Francisco Chronicle — directed to profess anti- monopoly sentiments during three years, and then giv- ing ail the " benefit of their circulation " in favor of the candidate of the monopolists for the chief executive chair. . This ought to be among the simplicities by this time ; and no intelligent person should be deceived or influ- enced by the branded sheet, or "the like of it." SOME ODDS AND ENDS OF PERSONAL CORRESPONDENCE. 11 No; Conkling never has be n an anti-monopolist. He if the gold ring and of the railroad ring, and preeminently of the telegraph ring; voting even against allowing railroa raph linestocarrj jes when there was ;i threat ition from th it sourc ■: and 1 1 i ^ present and the p of his flunkiesabout anti on sentiment on his part, is supremely audacious and ab- onkling, and B ick, of Kentucky, have b i strong pillars of the telegraph m mopolj foi years past in the Senate of the United States; and, in return for his servj frapb Companj have puffed, puffed, puffed Conkling on every occasion. ii that class of men who hive swim- from the Prol iction and Internal Improvements doctrines of ultra-Whiggism to the other site of the circle. Uid the telegrap i mon ipoly have nursed him tenderly and shrewdly as one of their next friends in tie- I nit d i is th,- railroad's p is the eh e • of the telegraph devil-fish— in the Demo- cratic party. '•A Postal relegraph"is an original Democratic pro- position, as shown in my lecture on the subject. No. There was not any bribery by Fair in Nevada. Then sityforany. All the hurrah on that 3 gotten up for the purpose of heading off id In regard to the use of money in the state of California, which resulted in the election of the Presi- al Company monopoly to the Si of the United States. Nevada is naturally a Democratic State. Take away the corruption of .money and Federal patronage from that little commonwealth, and its vote would have shown a majority of thousands instead of hundreds, for General Hancock. I know the State well. ir Fair had no occasion to contribute anything more than a reasonable amount to the legitimate cam- paign fund of the Democratic party in that State. He was known to be a very wealthy man. Bill Sharon was of the opinion, doubtless, that Senator Fair might spend larg-e sums in the contest, and knowing that Nevada was legitimately a Democratic State, and that Senator Fair could spend as much money as he, if he was so disposed, in such a canvass, Sharon drew out; and, keeping his purse-strings closed, the natural result was a Democratic victory, in spiteof the Federal pap in- fluence, and the money that wis tossed in from the out- side General Fund of the monopolists. You know very well that the same thing m t, of the State of California. Permit the people of this State to once vote uninfluenci d by bribery andintimida- tion and promises of Federal offices, and they would poll a Democratic majority of from ii'j.OOO to 40,000 votes. The corruption that resulted in sending the President of the Fur Seal Company to Washington, as Senator, should have been investigated. That is to say, an at- tempt should have been faithfully made in the California Legislature to investigate this matter. I am not pre- pared to sav that such an investigation was prev< or warded off by the lies in regard to the Nevada elec- tion, which I have referred to. But those lies were studiously invented and circulated with that very pur- pose in view. - It is, indeed, from one standpoint, a threat man • dd insist upon their extortions and go into all their rotten schemes in order to keep them i;i'. ff they would charge reasonable rates they would in tin- end— within a year— make, at least, as muchmone; a- they do now. and would by the people as public benefactors. But they are such hogs er the dollar and a half of to-day and ter J ield "t the coming year— as compared with the present receipts. If we had a postal telegraph, there would soon be twelve persons nun, women and children— employed, where there is now one person on the roll of the V> cst- ern Union Telegraph Company. And the demand tor operators and workmen would rapidly increase, with nance at good wages, and with clear opportuni- ties lor inventors and the more skillful emplo, Suppose the railroad charged one-haU ii i from here to the East. Three pass mgi be required daily, wh n oands ot \,,d [nth - - :i 1 the railroa I company would be the gainer.while thousands would find em business from witho it, from other portion would poui us with an immi volume. Competition maj ulthx Nl ,,u ' wftv of redo railroads, for a short time; comp u re '"" cing telegraph tolls within : an ' mor.! inexpensive 1 c, will probably bring about this result. But what th is not a slight or a I"--'' ' ; '- out "" '" '"'■ mous Water Coin- n hich in : h ith Btealin . I rem th an i chortation to be happy. The whole hu.--ine.ss Sting shame; but it iypo ites ol the BuUi - The co hasbi in the curse With varied it sufficient to a — nine ab . regularly. * just any intclli- SOME ODD? AND ENDS OF PERSONAL CORRESPONDENCE. gent, thinking man, to see a paper that has a direct and avowed interest in company with the telegraph monopo- lists, professing sincere hostility to our water and gas moparchs. If we had a postal telegraph, men of brains and common honesty would immediately have such equal opportunities and advantages in the way of get- in-- telegraphic news that they could successfully start and continue the publication of daily journals that would weed out the Pharisaic and the avowed Judas or- gans of San Francisco. Bear that in mind. * San Francisco would have double her present population and wealth— with prosperity as evenly divided as anv of our most favored Eastern cities— if San Francisco had not been cursed by the most infamous Independent Press that ever afflicted any community. Yes; that is one of their stereotyped forms in which they slander the rest of mankind : " Anyone else would do the same thing under the same circumstances." Not so. Some have endured martyrdom for the truth and honor; why not expect many' to resist the utmost of temptation or intimidation from the source indicated? If Tilden had accepted the Presidential office under the same terms and circumstances as those marked for Hayes— or anywise similar terms and circumstances — would not you and I have denounced him for his ve- nality ? I know I would. I am thankful that I am ac- quainted with some old line Piepublicans who openly de- nounced the hypocrite, Hayes, for taking the stolen property passed to him by John Sherman, J as. A. Gar- field & Co.; and who thereupon gave assurance of their entire sincerity, by quitting the Radical camp. It is true that many a man has conducted a great business with a just and even generous consideration of his responsibility to the people in his immediate employ and to the community generally, and to the government of his country. These dominating money "bags of to- day do most grossly libel their fellow men when they declare, and have proclaimed for them, that any othe'r person or persons would be as selfish and extortionate and corrupt as they are in a like position. Jim Fisk, with all his manv and well-known vices was an incomparably better man than any of his com- panions or successors in monopoly power. They have all his faults with none of his good qualities, in their business operations. He exhibited many redeeming traits of character, which are entirely foreign to the composition or self-culture of the railroad or telegraph bosses who are now on the throne. Railroad Commissioner Cone goes directly to Stanford for counsel as to the action of the Commissioners. He is honest about this. He states such is his habit. So stated to Judge Hewel, of Modesto. Nice Railroad Commissioners for the people ! It is a little refreshing though, to note that he does not lie about his service, and pretend that he has no communications with the railroad dukes, or their lawyers, or lacqueys. For what small things do we become grateful. If the railroad and telegraph graspers did not charge extortionat* l.v they would have no occasion to debauch teipslators and other public representatives or officers. Iheyrobyou by extortionate freights and fares, an 1 then, out of their robber's fund, they buy the election of legislators and judges; or bribe representatives and courts, fitter the legislature and the tribunal of justice has been opened. rhe article in the July Scribner (1881), headed "The Peoples Problem," is monopoly-defending in its ulti- mate and general effect. It belongs to a class of articles which the lawyers and lick-spittles of the great railroad ana telegraph corporations write for the leading maga- zines, whose editors and managers are, from ignorance or collusion, ready for -their insertion. This article-de- scrioes politicians as plundering Jav Gould, and Jim Simonlon, and Cornelius Vanderbilt and Leland Stan- ford." That is the drift and bent of the article ; and, in some parts, this statement and challenge is direct ; al- though, of course— of course— of course- there are the usual (most inconsistent) paragraphs deprecating mo- nopoly. The monopolists sometimes pay directly for just such people-libeling, hoodwinking, bamboozling articles ; and the authors of such will frequently be found gnzzling at the dinner-tables of the railroad and telegraph company magnates. The people are more than willing— they are anxious —that all legitimate and fairly conducted business en- terprises shall return large profits to proprietors and managers. This statement, in the simplicities, con- fronts, and, if held in contemplation for a moment, will confound the maudlin magazine flunki s of New York and California. Exasperated, sometimes, even by the shadow of pro- test against their exactions — though the protest be made where it cannot avail — the real temper and sentiment of our railroad orphans crop out. A few days ago, Stan- ford said, at a meeting of the California Railroad Com- missioners, that no one was opposed to or aggrieved by the railroad management in this State, except " bumming politicians, who spend most of their working hours with their feet up on a table, etc." Now, there^ spoke Leland Stanford: This " gentleman," this "prince of entertainers" — whose biography, as a beauty, is stuck under the nose of every reader in this State in a dozen different prints almost every month in the year. This is the way he classes you — honest man and decent citi- zen, merchant, artisan, or toiler in a profession— if you presume to complain of the extortions and the corrupt practices in businessand in politics of the Central Pacific Railroad Company. Now, if Leland" Stanford will point out one " hum- ming politician" in this State, who is not now, or who has not been, as occasion called, a servant of the C. P. R. R., he will gratify a laudable and wide-spread curiosity. I undertake' to say that every morally, rotten creature in the form of a man, who makes a business of bargaining his vote or influence in polities— living a life of comparative idleness in every other respect— is a hire- ling of the Central Pacific Railroad Company. And no one has better reason to know that fact than Leland Stanford. I would like to see the people roused up to a full sense and appreciation of the character of our monopoly ty- rants. Here is an illustration of it. They hate every one who is opposed to their outrageous management, and who expresses that opposition in sincerity and for the purpose of stimulating reform disposition and move- ment against them— whose honest opposition they know and feel to be true and intelligent and influen- tial and effective. What a foul slander is this quoted statement, coming from the blubbery lips oX this purse-proud, arrogant Railroad President — a lordly millionaire in ownerships of railroads which were built with the money of the people. Yet Scribner's and Harper's managers, and Kearney and Fitch and Pickering and Pixiey — from the top to the bottom of the scale of influence and " re- spectability"— will join in unstintedly praising such men, and by every means in their power helping such men to continue to bear extorting and tyrannical rule in this " Land of the free and home of the brave." It is an everlasting shame that the people of this State should be held by the throat by a Board of Railroad and Telegraph Directors, in conjunction with the directors of local monopolies in San Francisco, a majority of whom are so ignorant that they buy their pictures by the yard, and their statuary by* the ton — or were accus- tomed to do so until some of them took friendly advice and purchased through competent agents. There may be something of added exasperation in the gross ignor- rance of these men. But that is a very little matter, and you should not dwell upon it. Their petty spitefulness is illustrated by their ignoring Modesto in their folder maps, which are supposed to give accurate and full namings of important stations, SOME ODDS AND ENDS OF PERSONAL CORRESPONDENCE. IT etc. si mi ilaus County seems to be irreolaimablj Dem- ..:! i Modesto is the shire town thereof. H although a place of 3,000 inhabitants, it; name is not given on Crocker's travelers' map ;— although profile of the railroad contains scores of names of little hamlets along the road. What sweet revenge on Mo- ni.l Stanislaus County. Fully indicative of the length and breath and heighth and depth of the brains and souls of theCrockers and Stanfords & Co. The Modesto people pay •-, for a round ticket to San Francisco and back. I know of many roads in the East, who for a greater distance, for 140 miles, sell round tickets for 82 50. And that on roads built with private funds, of course. The railroad magnates charge at least twice as much as they should ; and the Modesto people know it and feel it, and talk about it. Yes. I suppose you may say that some of these monopolists are sensitive about having any one speak of them personally. In general discursive phrases—such as thej give their shams to use, when they put them up to bamboozle the people with anti-monopoly affecta- tions— they do not find much annoyance ; but when a man of the people speaks of them with any appropriate individual, personal reference, they are very wrathy. It is too much the prophecy of time when the Lord of all, whose is the silver and the gold, shall single them out and denounce them for their perjuries and robberies and oppressions and rascalities of every sort. They establish and hire slander and smut mills all over this State, and all over the Union, to blacken the char- acter of decent men and outspoken politicians, whom they know they cannot corrupt ; and they sometimes direct their Sptrit of the Times, or News Letter, or Ar- gonaut, or Daily Chronicle, to begin firing;— whenever, by incorruptible patriots, the dukes of monopoly in California are challenged ami exposed and denounced. If deemed absolutely necessary, the Bulletin will also be ordered up to this work. They hide themselves behind low mud-batteries, and grin alK ' giggle while their scav- engers conic up from their cess-pools under the em- brazures and east mire in the face of the sincere cham- pions of human liberty, who know and denounce and battle the greatest living and aetiug foes of Republican institutions and popular rights. Talk about shame! Witness the shouting over the al- leged Morey letter, and then note the substituting of the name of Charles Francis Adams Jr. for that of Charles Francis Adams, — pretending, as the Chronicle and other rotten Radical organs did, that Charles Francis Adams stultified himself with respect to his own grand charge of ineffaceable fraud against the Republican Party; tak- ing the words of his runt son (a stipendiary of the rail- road monopolists,) and putting them into the mouth of the venerable and venerated father. Talk of the Morey letter ? See the forged report from the free-trade League,— ascribing to it an endorsement of the Demo- cratic Party, when it never made any such endorse- ment ; when its officers never dreamed of any such thing. The Morey letter never made a vote against Garfield . The men on* this coast who had made up their minds to vote the Democratic ti.-ket at the last Presidential elec- tion, on the basis of the Chinese question, had come to that conclusion long before the Morey letter made its appearance. I believe that if it changed any votes at all, it changed them the other way. When it first made its appearance, 1 did not believe it. The words " Per- sonal and Confidential," which were written over it, made me discredit it, and I never made any use of it. I never spoke of it in public, nor did I ever say anything about it in private, except to pass the common remark that it was less emphatic as indicating Garfield's senti- ment on the Chinese question than his action in Con- gress or his Cleveland interview. It bore no compari- son— even supposing it to have been a forgery— to the Radical iniquity of the Charles Francis Adams false- hood and the free-trade League forgery ; andthese lat- ter, though proven beyond a question against the managers of the Radical Party of 1881, have never been retracted or apologized for by any Radical or Independ- ent paper not even by the much bepuffed saints,<}eorge W. Curtis and Carl Schurz. Themerchants and the farmers of California should i market rates in New York and Liverpool, within shortest telegraphic dispatch time, for twenty-five ci nl - For each ten words. With the tariff would run from this cost down to one-quarter the figure named. As it is now, the mana- gers of the telegraph monopoly own, for all practical purposes, the market newB of the world. Every mer- chant and farmer in California should be abli latest Liverpool quotations for wool and otherstaples in half a day's time, for a quarter of a dollar. See my lecture on Postal Telegraph. It is rumored that some of the monopolists in New York City are about organizing a telegraph company, which is to he called "The Postal Telegraph Company." Here, by the way, is a confession as to the growing popu- larity Of the name and that which it stands for. It would seem that the name " People's Telegraph Com- pany "has been worn OUt- as a delusive title. lean count sixteen "People's" Telegraph Companies that have risen with great threats against monopoly and suddenly sold out. The charges of the Western Union Tdegraph Company arc so enormously extortionate that genuine competition will frequently spring up be- tween main points. But one of the principal tricks of the telegraph monopoly nowadays is to get up sham "competing" companies and go through the motions of fighting "it for a year or so. Then there will 1m- a pretense of buying' out the new concern. In this way real, honest competition is warded off; outside capital- ists and the people being made to believe that compc ti- tion does exist or is about to be permanently established. And, at the same time, here is a cunning device for ci >\ er- ing another immense watering of stock. When the "new 7 concern," so-called, is bought in, or professedly purchased, there is an inflation of stock which is out of all proportion to the actual cost of the additional V that are now avowedly taken under Western Union management. The general public has been completely hoodwinked by this maneuvre several times. Willi this watered stock* some of the independent press managers have been largely enriched— in payment lor special ser- vices as suppressors and misreprescnters and wholesale and retail liars on behalf of the Western Union Tele- graph monopoly. Be not deceived. A National Government Postal Tele- graph is what we need. Any other establishment will fail to bring the people speedy,, adequate and enduring relief from extortionate telegra] h tolls; anything other than this will fail to afford us the benefits and advant- ages of telegraphy, which it is the right of the people to have and to enjoy. The real monopoly proprietorship in the New York Nation is now sufficiently disclosed, when we 9 editor lock arms with Carl Shurz in th ent of the New York Evening Post a paper now avowedly the flunky organ of the Northern Pacific Railroad monopoly. Time was when these monopolists seemed a little more shrewd, or at least more secret about their newspaper proprietorship. Thej disclaimed a monopoly manage- ment, after the fashion of our own delectable /■.'■■■ Bulletin, and Morning Call, and San Francisco Chroni- cle. But here we have the grand old New Voir Even- ing Post,- that journal of splendid record, with its Leg- get and its William Cullen Bryant and its Park Cod- win and its John Bigelow, on the editorial list! Now we see it with thai soldier of fortune, Carl Schurz, spindled on its tripod; with the I hvpo i i ; and ehattterin . ar >und him. Yes ; it was bad enough to see the New York World pass from Manton M irbli lould's • and avowed proprietorship. Hut the humi in th.i i- far less than that whic observingth d i hery in the oflice of the New York i Post . I began the ad • N itional Po in 1851, when I had charge of a jur at North Adams, Massachusetts. I was then a lad of fifteen years. At that time I had not seen or heard of the re- 18 SOME ODDS AND ENDS OF PERSONAL CORRESPONDENCE. r General on the nib- .■ had n I ben been I irope. The proposition I i ■'• '.-i. [pr i it oc- curred b inarm :l the M "■ I is laughed at and ridi- ibi iut sending all 1< per , and in such me1 1 c rresp mdenc i Presently I learned that a Demo- prehended f, and I then begun writing to Cabinet esentatiyes in reference to r. [See mj lecture on Postal Telegraph, ap- racts from President Polk's Postmaster 3 Report.] From that time on I was embold-- I to press the subject; really and aanifest are the ad ' hi it are the extortions and imposi- 'i us kinds, of the tyrants of telegraph mo- nopoly— that e ' ir would witness the •an Postal Telegraph. I have i bills to many United I Represent: tives in Congress, on their agn ■ md advocate such a meas- ue have been introduced and referred and urged; some have been offered and allowed to sleep in the committee room Two or three of the ivn— leading, in fact — tlunkies of the monopo- Legislature, recognizing the impor- nd probable ultimate adoption of such a meas- ure, has >rd by introducing a of their own. A. A. Sargent, for instance. Distinj i S n itors and Representatives have red me many times that they would offer or of such a measure .died to 1 .1 Know that such them— have, indulged in favoring talk about thi d cloak rooms at the National Ca] I rsation; anil i know that tlie: li maries of the Western Union ! have been very active in buzzing ' "argu- md rising from lying state- British and Continental Telegraphs, er, as 1 go from poin n the extortions, tyrannies • lies ot the Western Union Telegraph monopo- ly ! 1 >i ■ ■ i ms of information and inent on the subject by our venal press, nl to realize the enormity of the in political and the outrage in the falsity or . emeudous over- irvices actually rendered! Do ti all your acquaintances on this si us see if wee;- ational Government Postal Telegraph during the next Administrati ctfully, LES A. SUMNER. San Francisco, July l, 1881. STSCRIPT. Since the foregoing was written and put in the hands of the printer, an assassin has shot James A. Garfield. cent citizen must feel a heartfelt sorrow for .Mr. Garfield and for his family, on account of this das- tardly deed. Why shoot James A. Garfield ? I did not suppose he had a personal enemy in this whole country. He was not and is not the man to make personal ene- mies. Ik is one of ' b >se men who started out in life with a pleasant disposition, and who has educated his amia- bility to the utmost. There is a profoundly wise sel- fishness in this. James A. Garfield always sought not to hurt anybody's personal feelings. And certainly no citizen of good sense could desire to substitute Arthur for Garfield in the Executive Mansion. I will express gratitude because it was not a lunatic from the South who committed this horrible act. If it had been, it would have made capital sufficient for the prolongation of Radical rule at Washington during the next ten years to come, at the very least; although it might have been established bej 7 ond the shadow of a shade of a reasonable doubt that no other human being in the South or on the face of the earth had the slightest fixed-star-distant thought or suspicion of the deed be- fore it was done. Now Garfield is to recover. Good. I am heartily glad of it. But is he less the man who went down to Louisiana and help steal the Presidency from that in- comparably noble statesman, that splendid patriot, Samuel J. Tilden ? I know that every possible use will be made of this unfortunate occurrence to build this man Garfield up in popularity, and continue his administration over an- other term. Rut, unless the people lose their wits in a sympathy pushed beyond the proper bounds of personal pity, it will not be a success. lorry, sorry, sorry, that James A. Garfield was struck down by the bullet of the cowardly Guiteau. 1 am glad that James A. Garfield is recovering, and I hope he will live out his term, ami as much longer as the laws of nature will permit him to live. Rut i pro- test against popular forgetfulness of public life and character on his accounl because of this murderous act. See how the masters behind the Presidential chair un- cover themselves to-day! Jay Gould and G. P. Hunting- ton. J. M. Green and Gyrus J. Field and William H. Vanderbilt come forward to make up a purse of a quar- ter of a million for Mr. James A. Garfield. You may- say that they ought to do it? As Thomas A. Hendricks asserted and demonstrated, he, James A. Garfield — above - was instrumental in carrying out the plans of Chandler and John Sherman (who were then more immediately the servants of the monopolists) for defrauding the peopli out of their rightfully-elected Executive, Samuel J. Tilden. And th ht never to forget, but ought ever to be reminded of the fact, That if Samuel J. Tilden had been allowed to take the Presidential chair to which he mesty in public affairs and of justice ■ na't 'ation, as against n i f, would Inn. ted and. established in thexc United States of America! , j LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 013 789 916 4