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About The west shore. (Portland, Or.) 1875-1891 | View Entire Issue (March 14, 1891)
108 THE WEST SHORE, ILLUSTRATED, I'UaLKHKU KVKKV SATUKIMV, AT THE C(NKI OK COIXMMA AND tt'ATEIt SHEETS, PORTLAND, ORKUON. Sew Yovk Okkice, No. 48 Tbibine Building. THE WEST SHORE. ui.hin nrooer bounds. There is little danger 01 .ana ioans, nat Subscription Prict Four Dollars per Year, Single Copy Ten Cents. AOOMM Au OOMIWNiCATiONt MO MKI Au NlHItTMtOIt ftWAWJ TO THE WEST SHORE PUBLISHING COMPANY, . 1 PORTLAND, ORKUON. UmillO AT Tf4 mi xtx at pmtiano, owaoN. r trammimim thnouom t haiu at moono oau aatu- SATURDAY, MARCH 14, 1891. The Pacific coast will be well represented at the Columbian exposition. California has appropriated $300,000, Washington $100,000, Montana $50, 000 and Idaho $20,000 1 but Oregon leaves them all in the shade by a cool $0,000,000. Portland's chamber of commerce has taken up the question of an open river in a way that indicates a determination to do something more than mere ly pass resolutions, a harmless, if not efficacious, duty sundry conventions have performed at various times in the past To repeat what was said in these columns a week ago, it is imperatively necessary for the welfare of the entire region bordering the Columbia and Snake rivers, that tome temporary means of passing the obstructions at the dalles be provided, in order to give the inland empire a measure of relief until the permanent Improvements to be made by the government shall be completed 1 and at Portland is the one place most interested, it is proper that from this city should emanate the movement The time for resolutions has passed, and nothing now but self help and prac tical accomplishment should be considered. Senator Stanford's scheme of manufacturing money and lending it to the people at two per cent, interest finds now but one earnest advocate on the Pa cific coast, the San Francisco Argonaut, and it it a question whether that pa per be not more an advocate of the senator than of his scheme. Just why that paper, once considered to be one of genuine independence of opinion, should nestle so closely under the wing of California's plutocratic senator is known only to it and the senator. They, too, only know why it is that when it pleases the senator to say " bow I " the paper instantly responds with " wow, wow 1 11 in order to complete the bark. The dark cloud of the fanners' alli ance hanging over the Mississippi valley may contain jagged streaks of presi dential lightning, but it is tcarcely possible that the senator's cheap money kite, with this newspaper attached to the tail to guide it, will be able to draw the potential fluid into his gold-mounted, diamond-corked bottle 1 but until events shall demonstrate that it can not the senator and the organ will doubt Iris continue their pleasant pastime of " bow wowing," to the infinite amuse ment of those who know how the sound is produced. From one end of the country to the other there are thousands, who, while not subscribing to the fiii.mci.il heresies and class legislation tenets ol (he farmers' alliance, can see in that great combination of the producing classes promise of much good to the country. To be sure, rabidly partisan paer, and esecially those of the republican slrie, will abuse and misrep resent the alliance, just as they have the prohibitionists and others who have lieen instrumental in lessening the republican vote, but the fact will still re main that the abused alliance will exert a powerful influence in shaping public opinion the next few years. While there is little danger tlut the special objn-ts of the alliance will be attained, for which the country can thank its own good common sense, it is certain thai the movement will result in a reaction against the tendency towards monopoly, plutocracy and political bossism, from all of which the country sadly suffers and which must be checked in their growth if popular government is in future to be more than a mere name. Authority in this country is rapidly gelling farther and farther away from Its fountain head, ihe people, and the tendency of the alliance and kindred movements is to bring It back again, and for this ever)' lover of true Americanism will welcome them, while at the same time he will seek to re- . , . onntH hv the country, while there is ereat money ana ciass legisiauun "en's "r- - hope of at least a temporary check in our progress towards a government of plutocracy. So our cousins across the invisible border have decided that they want no closer relations with us than those they now enjoy, the benefit of which is all theirs and none ours. The Canadian Pacific railway, which seems to be but a synonym of the government of Canada, at present enjoys special privi leges that this country can no longer afford to give it, and since that company has succeeded, for the present at least, in committing the dominion to the pol icy of non-reciprocative intercourse with the United States, it is high time this privilege were withdrawn. Our great transcontinental railroad systems are among the most important industries of the country, and are as much en titled to the benefit of our national protective policy as the manufacturers of pig iron and woolen clothing. It is absurd for us to give the subsidized, tax-exempt Canadian monopoly a special privilege that enables it to compete with our own railroads in the transportation of our domestic products from one place to another in our own country. We need our great railroad sys tems 1 they have developed the country and been the means of adding billions of dollars to its wealth and many new states to our great union ; and they are deserving of equal protection with other great employers of American labor. It is very doubtful if we ever want sufficiently close relations with Canada to get ourselves in the least degree into the clutches of the great octopus which now holds Canada helpless within its grasp. One thing is certain, with the markets of the United States closed to it and this corporate monster clutching it, the condition of Canada the next few years will be far from enviable. As was anticipated, those eastern papers that make a profession of philan thropy and take every opportunity possible to defame the army and its con duct of campaigns, have seized upon the statements made in Washington about the Wounded Knee affair by the Sioux chiefs who were sent there on a junketing trip, and are most unreasonably and vilely abusing the officers and men whose duty, unfortunately for them, brought them into unenviable noto riety in that affair. Fighting Indians is but a thankless task at best. The glory and honor a soldier earns in combat with a civilized foe can not be acquired, but the danger is there none the less, and with it the smart of having to remain silent under the abuse of well meaning but ignorant and misguided philanthropists. It is a fact that no army in the world would have used so much forbearance, so much humanity and so much delicacy in dealing with hostile savages as has the army of the United States during the last twenty years. One has but to turn to the record of other nations in their treatment of savages under their dominion to be thoroughly convinced of this. In fact, so careful has the army been about precipitating a collision when hostiles were actually on the warpath, and such pains have its commanders taken to induce marauding savages to return to their reservations without bloodshed, that they have always been roundly abused for their dilatoriness by citizens whose lives and properly have been placed in jeopardy by the hostiles. Between these two fires the army, with dignity and consciousness of being in the right, has pursued its course, and has earned the commendation of every sensible citi zen. But the howl of over-zealous philanthropists about the Wounded Knee affair is sickening. Contrary to all the rules of evidence, they accept the prejudiced statements of hostile and embittered savages, founded solely upon hearsay, n preference to the competent testimony of intelligent and honorable white men who were present and saw the whole affair. They would have it apear that the soldiers of the Seventh cavalry, in revenge for the death of Custer,' wantonly shot down unarmed Indians, and even massacred helpless women and children after they had surrendered under a direct promise of protection. All this Ins not a shadow of competent evidence to rest upon, while the death of thirty soldiers and the wounding of twice as may more fully refute the charge that they wilfully slaughtered unarmed men. That the Indians have been abused, deceived and defrauded almost beyond endurance and that by these means they have been goaded into taking the only re course their savage nature and traditions suggest, is true, and shamefully so, but the fault is not that of the army. It is chargeable to our wretchedly cor rupt political syslemi and if these purblind philanthopists would do some thing practical for the Indian they would turn their guns from the army and train them UH.n the Indian bureau. Give the Indian less politics and he will get more justice. If you want frt trip to tho Yollowttont Park, road tht condi tions on Pago 179,