provided for it for such year, without the assent of two thirds of the qualified electors thereof voting at an election to be held for that purpose, nor unless before or at the time of incurring such indebtedness provision shall be made for the collection of an annual tax sufficient to pay the interest on such indebtedness as it falls due, and also to constitute a sinking fund for the payment of the principal thereof within twenty years from the time of contracting the same. Any indebtedness or liability incurred contrary to this provision shall be void." "No public work or improvement of any description whatsoever shall be done or made in any city, in, upon, or about the streets thereof, or otherwise, the cost and expense of which is made chargeable or may be assessed upon private property, by special assessment, unless an estimate of such cost and expense shall be made, and an assessment in proportion to benefits on the property to be affected or benefited shall be levied, collected, and paid into the city treasury before such work or improvement shall be commenced or any contract for letting or doing the same authorized or performed. In any city where there are no public works owned and controlled by the municipality for supplying the same with water or artificial light, any individual or any company duly incorporated for such purpose under and by authority of the laws of this State shall, under the direction of the Superintendent of Streets or other officer in control thereof, and under such general regulations as the municipality may prescribe for damages and indemnity for damages, have the privilege of using the public streets and thoroughfares thereof, and of laying down pipes and conduits therein, and connections therewith, so far as may be necessary for introducing into and supplying such city and its inhabitants either with gaslight or other illuminating light, or with fresh water for domestic and all other purposes, upon the condition that the municipal government shall have the right to regulate the charges thereof."

"Each stockholder of a corporation or jointstock association shall be individually and personally liable for such proportion of all its debts and liabilities contracted or incurred during the time he was a stockholder, as the amount of stock or shares owned by him bears to the whole of the subscribed capital stock or shares of the corporation or association. The directors or trustees of corporations and joint-stock associations shall be jointly and severally liable to the creditors and stockholders for all moneys embezzled or misappropriated by the officers of such corporation or joint-stock association during the term of office of such director or trustee."

"No railroad or other transportation company shall grant free passes, or passes or tickets at a discount, to any person holding any office of honor, trust, or profit in this State; and the acceptance of any such pass or ticket,

by a member of the Legislature or any public officer, other than Railroad Commissioner, shall work a forfeiture of his office." The State is to be divided into three districts, in each of which a Railroad Commissioner shall be elected by the voters. Some of the duties assigned to these Commissioners are thus stated: "They shall have the power, and it shall be their duty, to establish rates of charges for the transportation of passengers and freight by railroad or other transportation companies, and publish the same from time to time, with such changes as they may make; to examine the books, records, and papers of all railroad and other transportation companies, and for this purpose they shall have power to issue subpoenas and all other necessary process; to hear and determine complaints against railroad and other transportation companies, to send for persons and papers, to administer oaths, take testimony, and punish for contempt of their orders and processes, in the same manner and to the same extent as courts of record, and enforce their decisions and correct abuses through the medium of the courts. Said Commissioners shall prescribe a uniform system of accounts to be kept by all such corporations and companies. Any railroad corporation or transportation company which shall fail or refuse to conform to such rates as shall be established by such Commissioners, or shall charge rates in excess thereof, or shall fail to keep their accounts in accordance with the system prescribed by the Commission, shall be fined not exceeding $20,000 for each offense; and every officer, agent, or employee of any such corporation or company, who shall demand or receive rates in excess thereof, or who shall in any manner violate the provisions of this section, shall be fined not exceeding $5,000 or be imprisoned in the county jail not exceeding one year. In all controversies, civil or criminal, the rates of fares and freights established by said Commission shall be deemed conclusively just and reasonable; and in any action against such corporation or company for damages sustained by charging excessive rates, the plaintiff, in addition to the actual damage, may, in the discretion of the judge or jury, recover exemplary damages. Said Commission shall report to the Governor, annually, their proceedings, and such other facts as may be deemed important."

Land and improvements thereon shall be separately assessed. Cultivated and uncultivated land, of the same quality and similarly situated, shall be assessed at the same value.

"The Legislature shall have the power to provide by law for the payment of all taxes on real property by installments." "The Legislature shall by law require each taxpayer in this State to make and deliver to the county assessor annually a statement under oath setting forth specifically all the real and personal property owned by such taxpayer, or in his possession, or under his control, at 12 o'clock

meridian on the first Monday of March." "All property, except as hereinafter provided, shall be assessed in the county, city and county, city, town, township, or district in which it is situated, in the manner prescribed by law. The franchise, roadway, road-bed, rails, and rolling stock of all railroads operated in more than one county in this State shall be assessed by the State Board of Equalization, at their actual value, and the same shall be apportioned to the counties, cities and counties, cities, towns, townships, and districts in which such railroads are located, in proportion to the number of miles of railway laid in such counties, cities and counties, cities, towns, townships, and districts; and all other property of railroads shall be assessed by the counties in which such property is situated."

"Income taxes may be assessed to and collected from persons, corporations, joint-stock associations or companies resident or doing business in this State, or any one or more of them, in such cases and amounts, and in such manner, as shall be prescribed by law." "The Legislature shall provide for the levy and collection of an annual poll-tax of not less than $2 on every male inhabitant of this State, over twenty-one and under sixty years of age, except paupers, idiots, insane persons, and Indians not taxed. Said tax shall be paid into the State School Fund."

"The Legislature shall not, in any manner, create any debt or debts, liability or liabilities, which shall, singly or in the aggregate with any previous debts or liabilities, exceed the sum of three hundred thousand dollars, except in case of war to repel invasion or suppress insurrection, unless the same shall be authorized by law for some single object or work to be distinctly specified therein, which law shall provide ways and means, exclusive of loans, for the payment of the interest of such debt or liability as it falls due, and also to pay and discharge the principal of such debt or liability within twenty years of the time of the contracting thereof, and shall be irrepealable until the principal and interest thereon shall be paid and discharged; but no such law shall take effect until, at a general election, it shall have been submitted to the people and shall have received a majority of all the votes cast for and against it at such election; and all moneys raised by authority of such law shall be applied only to the specific object therein stated, or to the payment of the debt thereby

created."

Article XIX. contains the following provisions relative to the Chinese:

SECTION 1. The Legislature shall prescribe all necessary regulations for the protection of the State, and the counties, cities, and towns thereof, from the burdens and evils arising from the presence of aliens who are or may become vagrants, paupers, mendicants, crimials, or invalids afflicted with contagious or infectious diseases, and from aliens otherwise dangerous or detrimental to the well-being or peace of the State, and to impose conditions upon which such persons

may reside in the State, and to provide the means and mode of their removal from the State upon failvided, that nothing contained in this section shall be ure or refusal to comply with such conditions; proconstrued to impair or limit the power of the Legisla ture to pass such police laws or other regulations as it may deem necessary.

SEC. 2. No corporation now existing or hereafter formed under the laws of this State shall, after the adoption of this Constitution, employ, directly or indirectly, in any capacity, any Chinese or Mongolian. The Legislature shall pass such laws as may be necessary to enforce this provision.

SEC. 3. No Chinese shall be employed on any State, county, municipal, or other public work, except in punishment for crime.

SEC. 4. The presence of foreigners ineligible to become citizens of the United States is declared to be

dangerous to the well-being of the State, and the Legislature shall discourage their immigration by all the means within its power. Asiatic coolyism is a form of human slavery, and is for ever prohibited in this State, and all contracts for cooly labor shall be void. All companies or corporations, whether formed in this of such labor, shall be subject to such penalties as the country or any foreign country, for the importation Legislature may prescribe. The Legislature shall delegate all necessary power to the incorporated cities and towns of this State for the removal of Chinese without the limits of such cities and towns, or for their location within prescribed portions of those limits, and it shall also provide necessary legislation to prohibit the introduction into this State of Chinese after the adoption of this Constitution. This section shall be enforced by appropriate legislation.

Among the miscellaneous provisions of the Constitution are some new ones. Any citizen of the State "who shall, after the adoption of this Constitution, fight a duel with deadly weapons, or send or accept a challenge to fight a duel with deadly weapons, either within this State or out of it, or who shall act as second, or knowingly aid or assist in any manner those thus offending, shall not be allowed to hold any office of profit, or to enjoy the right of suffrage under this Constitution." "All property, real and personal, owned by either husband or wife before marriage, and that acquired by either of them afterward by gift, devise, or descent, shall be their separate property." "Every person shall be disqualified from holding any office of profit in this State who shall have been convicted of having given or offered a bribe to procure his election or appointment. Laws shall be made to exclude from office, serving on juries, and from the right of suffrage, persons convicted of bribery, perjury, forgery, malfeasance in office, or other high crimes. The privilege of free suffrage shall be supported by laws regulating elections and prohibiting, under adequate penalties, all undue influence thereon from power, bribery, tumult, or other improper practice.' chanics, material men, artisans, and laborers of every class shall have a lien upon the property upon which they have bestowed labor or furnished material, for the value of such labor done and material furnished; and the Legislature shall provide by law for the speedy and efficient enforcement of such liens." "Eight hours shall constitute a legal day's work on all public work.” "No person shall, on account

"Me

of sex, be disqualified from entering upon or pursuing any lawful business, vocation, or pro

fession."

The following most ample provisions were made for the election relative to the Constitution:

SEC. 4. The Superintendent of Printing of the State of California shall, at least thirty days before the first Wednesday in May, A. D. 1879, cause to be printed at the State printing-office, in pamphlet form, simply stitched, as many copies of this Constitution as there are registered voters in this State, and mail one copy thereof to the post-office address of each registered voter; provided, any copies not called for ten days after reaching their delivery office shall be subject to general distribution by the several postmasters of the State. The Governor shall issue his proclamation, giving notice of the election for the adoption or rejec tion of this Constitution, at least thirty days before the said first Wednesday of May, 1879, and the boards of supervisors of the several counties shall cause said proclamation to be made public in their respective counties, and general notice of said election to be given at least fifteen days next before said election.

SEC. 5. The Superintendent of Printing of the State of California shall, at least twenty days before said election, cause to be printed and delivered to the clerk of each county in this State five times the number of properly prepared ballots for said election that there are voters in said respective counties, with the words printed thereon, "For the new Constitution." He shall likewise cause to be so printed and delivered to said clerks five times the number of properly prepared ballots for said election that there are voters in said respective counties, with the words printed thereon, "Against the new Constitution." The Secretary of State is hereby authorized and required to furnish the Superintendent of State Printing a sufficient quantity of legal ballot paper, now on hand, to carry out the provisions of this section.

It was provided that the Constitution should take effect and be of force on and after the 4th of July, 1879, at 12 o'clock meridian, so far as related to the election of all officers and the commencement of their terms of office and the meeting of the Legislature. In all other respects and for all other purposes it should take effect on January 1, 1880, at 12 o'clock meridian.

The Convention adjourned on the 3d of March, about two months previous to the election, and a vehement campaign against it was commenced. It was conducted with so much virulence that it probably in the end produced, as is usual in such cases, a reaction in favor of the instrument. A canvass of the position of the press of the State on the question, including some papers of neighboring States with business interests closely identified with California, showed on April 19th one hundred and fifty papers arrayed against the Constitution, and only forty-seven urging its adoption.

A Republican mass meeting on March 19th, at Sacramento, adopted the following among other resolutions:

Fifth. That, inasmuch as the ruffian king of the sand-lots has ordered his followers to support the new Constitution, and has, through his brutal speeches and his self-appointed and unscrupulous newspaper organ, made support of that instrument the test of membership in his so-called Workingmen's party; and as the proposed new Constitution is dangerous in

its tendencies, experimental in its main provisions, spicuous for its sins of omission, and generally unlacking in the essential qualities of a Constitution, conworthy the confidence of the people, we call upon all good citizens to unite in defeating him and his schemes and Constitution, believing that the adoption of the rew Constitution under such auspices would work irreparable damage to California; that as Republicans we oppose it, as citizens we oppose it, and we ask the party and people to aid us in defeating Kearney and the new Constitution at one and the same time.

One speaker said: "The election of May 7th for or against the new Constitution was to be the most important one in which the people of California were ever called upon to take part. The Kearney party had made the adoption of the new Constitution a party plank, and the Republican party must declare against it and defeat Kearney and his Constitution also; for a victory for Kearney in May would go far toward giving him victory in September, when Congressmen are to be elected and a Legislature chosen. The people must in May decide whether they will leave the safe retreat in which they have prospered for thirty years, and sail away into experimental seas under a Constitution which the men who made it can't explain and the people who read it can't understand. The Republicans of the State must take position against the instrument, this mongrel Constitution which it is sought to crowd down the throats of the people."

The vote on the Constitution was a very full one. In the counties of the State which were equally settled, the vote cast was nearly as large as that given at the Presidential election in 1876. The following counties serve as an illustration:

The vote in San Francisco was 3,760 behind that of 1876, although three years' growth should be added.

The vote on the Constitution, as canvassed by the Governor and other officers, lacking the returns from Mariposa County, was 77,959 for the Constitution, 67,134 against the Constitution; total vote, 145,212. Majority for the Constitution, 10,825.

Grand demonstrations of the Workingmen in San Francisco and Sacramento were made on the adoption of the Constitution. The resolutions adopted by the former related chiefly to some local grievances. Those adopted by the latter are expressive of the sentiment of the meetings, some of which were as follows: Whereas, The Workingmen's party is the party of reform, honesty, integrity, and manhood;

Whereas, The new Constitution emanated from the Workingmen's party, and through its instrumentality and by its votes became the law of the land; there

fore,

Resolved, That the Workingmen are the men to administer the government of California according to the Constitution we have given her, a right we must and shall enjoy; and be it further Resolved, That we thank our brothers in New York and Chicago, the Internationalists and Socialists, for the sympathy generously tendered us, and the admiration expressed for our noble and gallant leader, Denis Kearney.

The political divisions of the State have been greatly modified by the new Constitution. There are to be no more judicial districts. Every county in the State is to elect a Superior Judge, with the following exceptions: Yuba and Sutter are to elect one; San Francisco is to elect twelve; and Sacramento, San Joaquin, Los Angeles, Sonoma, Santa Clara, and Alameda, two each. In addition there are three railroad districts, as follows: First Railroad District-Alpine, Amador, Butte, Calaveras, Colasa, Del Norte, El Dorado, Humboldt, Lake, Lassen, Mendocino, Modoc, Napa, Nevada, Placer, Plumas, Sacramento, Shasta, Sierra, Siskiyou, Solano, Sonoma, Sutter, Tehama, Trinity, Yolo, and Yuba. Second Railroad District-San Francisco, Marin, and San Mateo. Third Railroad District-Alameda, Contra Costa, Fresno, Inyo, Kern, Los Angeles, Mariposa, Merced, Mono, Monterey, San Benito, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Joaquin, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Stanislaus, Tulare, Tuolumne, and Ventura. The Legislature has the power to alter or change in any way that it sees fit these listricts. The other district officers to be elected are the members of the Board of Equalization, who are four in number, with the Comptroller as chairman. They are to be chosen from the Congressional Districts, which are as follows: First Congressional District

San Francisco. Second Congressional District -Contra Costa, Alameda, San Joaquin, Calaveras, Amador, El Dorado, Sacramento, Placer, Nevada, Alpine, and Tuolumne. Third Congressional District-Marin, Sonoma, Napa, Lake, Solano, Yolo, Sutter, Yuba, Sierra, Butte, Plumas, Lassen, Tehama, Colusa, Mendocino, Humboldt, Trinity, Shasta, Siskiyon, Klamath, and Del Norte. Fourth Congres sional District-San Diego, Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Tulare, Monterey, Fresno, Kern, Merced, Mariposa, Stanislaus, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, San Mateo, Mono, and Inyo. The members of the Board of Equalization are to be taken from these districts, while the Railroad Commissioners are assigned to larger and different groups of counties. The Third Railroad District takes in more than the Fourth Congressional District. The Second Railroad District is larger by two counties than the First Congressional District, while the First Railroad District very nearly embraces the Second and Third Congressional Districts. These divisions within divisions will require much forming and reforming on the part of the State Conventions. Having made the nominations for State officers, they must separate first into three parts to nominate Railroad Commissioners, and then into four parts to nominate members of the Board of Equalization and members of Congress.

An active campaign preparatory to the State election was immediately commenced. Five distinct parties soon held their conventions to make nominations for State officers and a declaration of their principles.

The State Convention of the Workingmen's party assembled at San Francisco on June 3d for the nomination of candidates for State officers. Denis Kearney, president of the party in California, presided. The following ticket was nominated: For Governor, William F. White; for Lieutenant-Governor, W. R. Andrus; for Secretary of State, A. A. Smith; for State Treasurer, L. B. Clarke; for State Comptroller, Hugh Jones; for Attorney-General, C. W. Cross; for Surveyor-General, H. J. Stevenson; for Superintendent of Public Instruction, H. D. Trout; for Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, R. F. Morrison.

The following platform was reported by the Committee, considered seriatim, and adopted with some additions:

The Workingmen of California, in convention assembled, do adopt and proclaim the following as their platform and declaration of principles:

1. That we recognize the Constitution of the United States of America and the Constitution of the State of California as the great charters of our liberties and the paramount law of the land, and California as an inseparable part of the American Union, and the system of government thereby inaugurated as the only wise, free, just, and equal government that has ever existed-the last, best, and only hope of man for self

government.

2. The letter and spirit of the new Constitution must be enforced.

8. We utterly repudiate all spirit of communism or agrarianism.

4. No land or other subsidies shall ever be granted to corporations.

5. Vested rights in property must be respected, but land monopoly must be prohibited.

6. Money, mortgages, and bonds must be taxed. 7. The dignity of labor must be upheld, and labor of male and female, when of equal valué, must be equally compensated.

8. Any official who shall violate the pledges given to secure his election should be punished as a felon.

9. The contract system of labor of criminals should be abolished, and criminal labor so regulated as not to conflict with free labor throughout the United States.

10. All public officers shall receive fixed salaries, and all fees must be accounted for as public money.

11. That the honors and legal pay of all officials should be considered equivalent for the best services they can render the State, while official jobbery, bribery, or corruption must be visited by sure and severe punishment.

12. All labor on public works shall be performed by the day at ruling rates, and eight hours must constitute a day's work.

13. A system of compulsory education for children between the ages of eight and fourteen years must be adopted; education free in public schools, and all books paid for by the State. That the State should acquire a copyright for school text-books, which must be the property of the State for ever, and the State print the same at the State printing-office.

14. We pledge this party to maintain in its purity the public-school system authorized by the Constitution, and will, when in our power, establish in connection therewith departments for industrial education.

15. Article XI. of the Constitution must not be construed in favor of the appointment of public officials whenever their election by the people direct is at all practicable.

16. Lobbying having been declared a felony in the new Constitution, we demand that the Legislature shall enforce said provision of the fundamental law by the most stringent enactments.

17. Foreigners ineligible to citizenship shall not be licensed to peddle goods or commodities of any character throughout the State of California.

18. Land monopoly being contrary to the spirit of republican institutions and detrimental to the progress of society, and conducing to the creation of a wealthy class of landholders side by side with a landless multitude, therefore we hereby declare ourselves in favor of adopting every legitimate means to prevent the monopoly of the soil in a few hands.

19. Malfeasance in a public office must be punished as a felony.

20. That the laws now existing for the punishment of buying and selling votes are insufficient, in that, both the buyer and seller being equally guilty, neither can be obliged to give evidence of the guilt of the other. We therefore favor the enactment of laws by which the person bribing or attempting to bribe an elector shall alone be punished.

21. We demand that the fullest investigation be had, under the authority of the ensuing Legislature, into the alleged scandalous character of the opposition to the adoption of the new Constitution; and if the charges prove true, that condign punishment be visited upon the guilty ones.

22. The Legislature should cause to be examined and prosecuted land frauds in the State of California. 23. The same value should not be taxed twice the same year under the same system of taxation.

24. Interest on money should not exceed 6 per cent. per annum.

25. We demand the immediate restoration to preemption and sale of all forfeited railroad lands, and that no further extensions be granted.

26. We condemn the action of our Senators and

Representatives in Congress in depriving this State of representation for one year, while her most important interests are at stake, as an unwarrantable perversion of their official duties, made under a false pretense of economy, but really in the hope to gain a political advantage over the W. P. C.

27. That we condemn the inaction of our Senators

and Representatives in Congress not attempting to have the withdrawal from preemption and sale of lands illegally claimed by the defunct Atlantic and Pacific Railroad Company removed, and said lands restored to the people and reopened to preemption and sale.

28. We condemn the "Desert Land Bill" and all other land-grabs, under whatever name or on whatever pretense.

29. Contracts by debtors for the payment of fees of the attorneys of creditors should be prohibited.

30. Laws should be passed providing for deductions of debts due bona fide residents from unsecured credits in matters of taxation.

31. That notaries public should be elected by the people, one from each county. That the best protection of our frontier will be a population of settlers owning their own lands, and that it will be the part of wisdom for the Government to expend the money now squandered for such protection by settling the people on the unoccupied land.

Whereas, Great apprehension exists in the mining counties that some legislation under the new Constitution might be unfavorable to mining interests, we declare that under the protection of our party their vested rights shall be respected.

That the President and Vice-President of the United States and United States Senators should be elected by direct vote of the people, and that no man should be elected to the office of President or VicePresident of the United States for two consecutive terms.

We are tired of the dreary discussion of dead issues in our National Congress, while great living issues are confronting the country. The people want bread and not stones. We hail the awakening of the oppressed workingmen and impoverished farmers to a sense of their power and the cause of their sufferings as the harbinger of a new revolution in behalf of human rights against vicious systems and dishonest politicians.

That the national bank law should be repealed, and all moneys issued by the United States be a full legal tender for all debts public and private.

Congress ought to pass fare and freight bills and bills to prohibit unjust discriminations and other abuses in the management on the overland routes.

That the Government of the United States should establish throughout the States a system of postal savings banks.

Charges for freights and fares on railroads and for the use of water, gas, etc., must be so regulated that there shall be no discrimination between persons and places, and that capital actually invested in railroad, water, and gas rights should yield no greater net income than capital invested in farming and other productive industries. The Legislature must pass faws to carry into effect the police power of the State in order to prevent the importation of Chinese, and Congress should abrogate all treaties that come in conflict with the nineteenth article of the new Constitution.

We hold that the State and county tickets formed under the auspices of the W. P. C. must be made up of friends of the new Constitution, irrespective of party predilections. To further secure the efficiency of the new organic law, we will attack its opponents with the most effective weapons; but among ourselves, in difference of opinion, we will allow liberal discussion, give considerate attention, and exercise the largest charity. To these ends we invite the cooperation of all the friends of the new Constitution. We must do all in our power as a party to prevent any conflict between the interests of mining and agriculture, by just laws, engineering skill, and public aid.