78 



CALIFORNIA. 



legitimate argument. As to the policy of enforcing 

 the power of the State to regulate fares and freights 

 there can not, since the result of the late election, ba 

 flirther doubt. 



Sumptuary laws are and ever have been opposed to 

 Democratic teachings, and find no support among 

 liberal-minded people. For many years sections 299, 

 300, and 391, of the I'enal Code, commonly called the 

 " Sunday law," have been on our statute-books. 

 Under slightly varying torms this law has been in 

 existence in this State during the major portion of the 

 past quarter of a century. Now and then spasmodic 

 efforts have been made to enforce it, but without suc- 

 cess. In every contest before the courts the condition 

 of public opinion has been shown by the fact that the 

 law has been practically placed on trial, and not the 

 particular defendant at the bar. In cases where the 

 testimony adduced has been conclusive that the al- 

 leged offense has been committed, juries have almost 

 uniformly refused to convict a state of facts never 

 before observed with reference to any other portion 

 of our criminal jurisprudence. Such is the condition 

 of the sections above cited. It is unwise to encumber 

 the statute-books with an enactment which experience 

 has proved can not be enforced. The result at the 

 late election is an emphatic indorsement of the atti- 

 tude of the now dominant party on this important 

 subject, and our duty in the premises is perfectly 

 clear. We all concede that those sections of our 

 Codes which provide for certain holidays and non- 

 judicial days are essential to happiness and health. 

 The repeal of the " Sunday law " will in no wise inter- 

 fere with the permanency or effect of our civil legis- 

 lation in the matter of a day of rest. Nor is there 

 any disposition to disturb those penal enactments 

 which are intended to protect religious assemblages 

 from all unseemly interference. 



Within the past year Congress has granted to the 

 people of this coast partial relief from the much-de- 

 plored evil of Chinese immigration. There are some 

 who affect to believe this important question finally 

 settled by the statute referred to. There are those 

 who evince a desire to nullify its effect by a loose con- 

 struction of its terms and an inefficient execution of 

 its provisions. The law had hardly taken effect when 

 another bill was introduced into the Senate of the 

 United States, and I believe is now pending in that 

 body, under which many thousands of Chinese now 

 serving under labor contracts in the West India 

 islands might be permitted to cross the territory of 

 the United States to their homes in the Chinese Em- 

 pire. Considering that we have no power to deport 

 the Chinese, if they were once permitted to land in 

 this country, they might remain here permanently. 

 Against this new danger the people of this coast will 

 depend upon their representatives in Congress to 

 guard. 



The congregate system of imprisonment, which, 

 owing to the peculiar construction and want of cell- 

 room in our prisons, is necessarily in vogue therein, 

 is, in my opinion, not conducive of the moral well- 

 being of the prisoner. The most important object of 

 penal confinement ought to be to effect a reformation 

 of the prisoner. 1 would respectfully recommend that, 

 if practicable, a system of isolation and solitary con- 

 finement be instituted among those of the most vicious 

 character. In the absence of such a system of isola- 

 tion, San Quentin Prison, from its geographical posi- 

 tion, might be made a distributing prison. All con- 

 victs should be sentenced to that institution in order 

 that they may be registered and graded, the prison 

 directors selecting those for distribution to Folsom 

 and any other branch prison hereafter established. 

 After careful study and examination of past records, 

 the comparatively good should be retained and the 

 vicious and incorrigible confined at another prison, so 

 far as the interests of the State may permit. This 

 system, strictly carried out, would form a perfect rec- 

 ord of the antecedents and disposition of all convicts 

 within the State. This system is not only essential 



for the good of the prisoner and for the guidance of 

 the directors, but would enable the district attorneys 

 of each county to be always able to procure a complete 

 record to embody in their information or indictments 

 the number of convictions of each defendant, it' any 

 such there be, as they are now compelled by law to do 

 under what is known as the " Prior-Conviction Act." 

 In a large portion of the State, agricultural interests 

 are being developed by the aid of irrigation. The 

 history of all countries dependent upon irrigation 

 shows that this practice has necessitated the enact- 

 ment of laws especially designed for the protection 

 and regulation of irrigation, the maintenance of order, 

 equity, and economy in^the appropriation and use of 

 waters, and that the subject has been one of the most 

 difficult to deal with in legislation. Our own experi- 

 ence,, limited though it be, is sufficient to establish 

 this fact, as our courts arc crowded with litigation 

 growing out of irrigation practices, which constitute a 

 serious drawback to our prosperity. 



Finances. The receipts for the thirty-second 

 fiscal year (1881) were $4,751,573.66, and for 

 the thirty-third fiscal year (1882), $4,698,- 

 654.41. Of these, for the thirty-second year, 

 $3,636,008.23, and for the thirty-third, $3,- 

 685,367.60, came from property-taxes; and 

 from poll-taxes, for the thirty-second year, 

 $316,869,48, and for the thirty-third year, 

 $248,816.30. 



During the two years the disbursements on 

 account of the State were : 



For the thirty-second year the disbursements 

 exceeded receipts $633,317.90, but forthe thirty- 

 third year the receipts exceeded disbursements 

 $280,292.28. The Comptroller says, " The nat- 

 ural inference to be drawn from the fact that in 

 any one year the disbursements exceeded the 

 receipts, is that the finances of the State were 

 not in a healthy condition, but this would be 

 unjust, as such disbursements were made from 

 not only incoming moneys, but from moneys 

 accrued in previous years to the funds where 

 the discrepancy occurs." 



It cost $16,101.90 to carry convicts to prison 

 in the thirty-third fiscal year, and $22,500 for 

 transportation of insane patients to the asy- 

 lums. 



