THE KEARNEY AGITATION IN CALIFORNIA. 439 



their election. Amid all these "parties," and "councils," and "clubs," 

 the organization of a " Workingmen's Trade and Labor Union," with 

 one J. G. Day as president and one D. Kearney as secretary, attracted 

 no attention. This new organization, which, besides a president and 

 secretary, boasted also a treasurer, stretched out a canvas bearing its 

 name, and " resoluted " upon the necessity of " patriotism and integrity 

 in the public offices from the lowest to the highest," calling upon the 

 laboring classes to unite " to elect candidates in whom they can put 

 their trust, and who are above suspicion." This being done, the new 

 organization, by its president and secretary, proceeded in the usual 

 way to ascertain which of the principal candidates were most above 

 suspicion ; but it printed no ticket, this particular movement to secure 

 " patriotism and integrity in the public offices " winding up on the 

 night before election in a row in which the treasurer and sergeant-at- 

 arms vainly endeavored to make the president and secretary " come 

 to a divide " on the amount collected, which they charged was between 

 one and two thousand dollars. 



But the master spirit of the ephemeral organization that thus un- 

 noticed closed its life of weeks was no ordinary " price club man," who 

 when one election is over retires from politics until the next approaches. 

 The knot of men who had called the meeting of sympathy with the 

 Eastern strikers had afterward organized a workingman's party and 

 run a few candidates with a view to the future, but their intentions 

 were brought to naught by the more energetic and audacious Kearney, 

 who went to work without delay. On the Sunday after the election 

 he again attended, for the last time, the Lyceum of Self-Culture, and, 

 to the astonishment and amusement of the men whose ideas about the 

 rights and wrongs of the working classes he had been berating, told 

 them that they were a set of fools and blatherskites, and that he now 

 proposed to start in with the demand of " bread or blood," and organ- 

 ize a party that would amount to something. The first move was a 

 meeting to consider the Chinese question, at which a speech was made 

 by a highly respected and prominent citizen ; but when Kearney, who 

 officiated as secretary, got the stand, he dealt out some more highly 

 seasoned mental stimulant by reading a description of the burning of 

 Moscow as a suggestion of what might be in store for San Francisco. 

 Then appropriating the name of "Workingman's party, Day and Kear- 

 ney took to the sand-lot, enlisting some other speakers. Though vio- 

 lent, these harangues would have attracted little attention, and in fact 

 the movement might have been choked in infancy (for several rival 

 factions started up, and opposition platforms were erected within a few 

 feet of each other), but for a powerful ally of just the kind needed. 



The two San Francisco papers of largest circulation are the " Call " 

 and " Chronicle," between whom intense rivalry has long existed. 

 The " Call " has the greater circulation and more profitable business, 

 drawn largely from the working classes. It is a good newspaper, but 



