CALIFORNIA. 



91 



trary to Article IV, section 25, above mentioned. 

 The" law being adjudged unconstitutional, the 

 tax levied under it was void. The next Legsla- 

 ture will be obliged to frame a new law. 



Political. On April 9 a State convention of 

 the Prohibition party met at San Francisco and 

 nominated the following State ticket : For Gover- 

 nor, Gen John Bid well ; for Lieutenant-Gover- 

 nor, A. M. Hough ; for Secretary of State, F. E. 

 Kellogg; for Treasurer, Henry French; for Comp- 

 troller, M. C. Winchester; for Attorney-General, 

 Chauncey H. Dunn; for Surveyor-General, E. 

 M. Chase ; for Superintendent of Public Instruc- 

 tion, Miss S. M. Severance ; for Clerk of the Su- 

 preme Court, J. T. Price ; for Chief Justice of 

 the Supreme Court, Robert Thompson ; for As- 

 sociate Justice (unexpired term), S. B. Brown ; 

 for Associate Justices (full term), W. G. Murphy 

 and L. W. Elliott. The usual ^resolutions were 

 adopted. On Aug. 4 the adherents of the Ameri- 

 can party met in State convention in the same 

 city. This party was founded in California large- 

 ly through the efforts of Hon. P. D. Wigginton. 

 At a meeting in Philadelphia in September, 1887, 

 it became a national organization, and in 1888 it 

 nominated a presidential ticket, which received 

 1,591 votes in this State, but found compara- 

 tively little support elsewhere. Except in Cali- 

 fornia, it has at present no active organization. 

 The convention decided to make a partial union 

 with the Prohibitionists by adopting the candi- 

 dates of the latter for Governor, Comptroller, 

 and Attorney-General. For Lieutenant-Gover- 

 nor, the convention nominated Benjamin Mor- 

 gan ; for Secretary of State, William S. Lyon ; 

 for Treasurer, Guy E. Grosse ; for Surveyor- 

 General, William L. Dixon ; Superintendent of 

 Public Instruction, Daniel Lambert ; and for 

 Clerk of the Supreme Court, W. A. Beatty. The 

 nomination of justices of the Supreme Court 

 was referred to the State Central Committee, 

 which afterward adopted the Republican nomi- 

 nees for these offices. The following principles 

 were adopted as the party platform : 



That the naturalization laws of the United States 

 should be unconditionally repealed ; that alien non- 

 residents should not be allowed to acquire real estate ; 

 that the Constitution should be amended prohibiting 

 non-residents transmitting real property at will ; that 

 the National and State laws be amended so that no 

 persons except native-born citizens shall be permitted 

 to enter or purchase any public land from the State or 

 National Government ;' that the ownership of land by 

 resident aliens be limited in area and value ; that the 

 State shall establish free technical schools wherein 

 American boys and girls may be taught trades ; fa- 

 voring a uniform reduction of taxes on the real estate 

 of the cultivators of the soil and the imposing of ad- 

 vanced rates on property coming under the head of lux- 

 uries ; that a system be maintained excluding cheap 

 competitive foreign labor productions and laborers ; 

 that Congress pass an immigration law whereby a per 

 capita tax shall be levied on all immigrants, and that 

 all persons not in sympathy with the Government be 

 prohibited from "immigrating to these United States; 

 that after 1893 no person shall be allowed to exercise 

 the right of suffrage unless he can speak, read, and 

 write the English language intelligently ; that the 

 saloon, being the great agency of corruption in poli- 

 tics ? should'be restricted to the narrowest possible 



limit ; favoring an election law embodying the feat- 

 ures and principles of the Australian ballot system ; 

 favoring the enactment of a law by which any ques- 

 tion of any general import, upon the petition to the 



Governor of 3 per cent, of the total vote cast at the 

 last previous election, shall be submitted to the elect- 

 ors at the next general election for their approval or 

 rejection : thtit we are heartily in favor of the bill in- 

 troduced in the United States Senate by the Hon. Le- 

 land Stanford, providing for loaning the money of the 

 Government to agriculturists at low rate of interest, 

 taking, as security therefor the land of the borrower. 



The candidate for Supreme Court clerk with- 

 drew before the election, and the State committee 

 adopted the Democratic candidate. 



The Republican State Convention was held 

 at Sacramento on Aug. 12. On the first ballot 

 H. H. Markham, of Los Angeles, received the 

 nomination for Governor, his chief competitor 

 being Congressman W. W. Morrow. The other 

 nominees were as follow : For Lieutenant-Gov- 

 ernor, J. B. Reddick; for Secretary of State, 

 Edward G. Waite; for Treasurer, J. R. McDon- 

 ald ; for Comptroller, Edwin P. Colgan ; for 

 Attorney-General, W. H. H. Hart ; for Surveyor- 

 General, Theodore Reichert ; for Superintendent 

 of Public Instruction, James W. Anderson ; for 

 Clerk of the Supreme Court, L. H. Brown ; for 

 Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, W. H. 

 Beatty ; for Associate Justices, Ralph C. Harri- 

 son and C. H. Garoutte, both for the full term, 

 and J. J. De Haven for the unexpired term. The 

 platform favors rigid exclusion of the Chinese, 

 Federal appropriations to widen and deepen the 

 channels of the Sacramento and San Joaquin 

 rivers, and the enactment of stringent anti- 

 trust laws. The nominees of the convention 

 were pledged to support the enforcement of the 

 eight-hour law. The action of the last Legisla- 

 ture, " which, under the control of the Demo- 

 cratic party, appropriated $12,534,000, and for 

 the purpose of raising that sum increased the rate 

 of taxation to the unprecedented rate of 72 

 cents on each $100 of property," was denounced, 

 and the party pledged itself to make only such 

 appropriations as would keep the annual tax 

 rate within 50 cents on each $100. A State 

 board of arbitration for the settlement of labor 

 disputes was favored, and legislation to extend 

 and develop irrigation was promised. 



The Democrats met in State convention at 

 San Jose on Aug. 19, and nominated the follow- 

 ing ticket : For Governor, Edward B. Pond, 

 Mayor of San Francisco ; for Lieutenant-Gover- 

 nor, R. F. Del Valle ; for Attorney-General, 

 Walker C. Graves ; for Surveyor-General, Stanley 

 C. Boom ; for Superintendent of Public Instruc- 

 tion, Henry C. Hall ; for Chief Justice of the 

 Supreme Court, John A. Stanley ; for Associate 

 Justices, James V. Coffey and George H. Smith 

 for the full term, and Jackson Hatch for the 

 unexpired term. Secretary of State Hendricks, 

 Comptroller Dunn, Treasurer Herold, and Clerk 

 of the Supreme Court Spencer were renominated. 

 The platform favors free coinage of silver, anti- 

 trust legislation, the election of United States 

 Senators by the people, the election of State 

 printer by the people, an eight-hour day for la- 

 bor, the improvement of the chief water-ways of 

 the State, and the encouragement of wine grow- 

 ing by law. The party declared its opposition 

 to any scheme for dividing the State, denounced 

 the management of the San Quentin prison as 

 extravagant, pledged itself to secure an Aus- 

 tralian ballot law, and declared an annual tax 



