Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About The west shore. (Portland, Or.) 1875-1891 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 30, 1889)
WEST SHORE. PUilUHCD IVIRY SATURDAY. L SAMUEL, Pub., 171-3-0 Second St., PORTLAND, OR. Knlrrtd In th Pmt Offlrt In Portland, Orroonjar frarumiw'on through Iht Mii'i nt -corut riua rata. SUBSCRIPTION RATE Sulotly In Advance. Ont Vtir, III Months, I4.00 1 Thrit Months, - 1.1 I Singlt Copiei, 1.15 .10 trCoplt will in no cut b wnt to lubKribtn byond the term paid for, The Wist Shori offers the Best Medium for Advertls rs of any publication on the Paclflo Coast. Portland, Okkuon, Sati kday, Nuvkmiikr 30, 18811. A FEW days ago a man Kitting uttly in the office M of one of Portland's hotels was fatally nhot by ' tint discharge of 11 revolver that accidentally Ml iiKin the floor from nnotlier innn'H pocket. Thin iH luit one of ninny incident)! of tlmt kind occur ring daily u!l over the eountry, and hIiovvh how perni cious and utterly useless in the hal.it of carrying weap ons of any kind. We have lawn against carrying con cealed weuixMiH, hut they are rarely enforced. It is all a matter of public opinion. So far as our western cit ies are concerned, there are no more weapons carried in them than in ciiKtern cities, save hy k( rangers from the cant, who, as soon as they divide to go went, at once equip themselves with a rovolver. Co among the jht manent residents of our cities and you will find no weapons on their vrsons; hut make a canvass of the floating imputation and you will find them plentiful. This suggests the question, Why should a man who uimr 1 t home put a revolver in his pocket when he travels? The .New York man. who f.vls safe in (Solium, arms himself when he visits Chicago, and the Chicago man do. the same In-fore he trusts his precious lif,. in San Francisco. It is all absurd and wrong. Where one man finds a legitimate use for a revolver ninefy-nine n grt into trouble, simply be cause they are Ulish enough to carry one. There lies in the Portland jail to-day a man who would not be there but for the fact that at a certain time he happened U havo a revolver in his pocket W,re it not for that fact, (lihU would lw ft free and happy man to-day and young MclVvitt would still be alive to I the pride nd joy f his parents. The constitutional right to bear arms uVs not involve the conversion of the uHv plo into walking arsenals. The great majority who do not carry weajM.ns, and wh.e lives are constantly en dangered by the minority who do, have a right to de mand that every person except olueer of the v00 1, prohibited from carrying weapons, and should exercise that right to the extent that the laws we have, or can easily secure, shall be rigidly enforced. We prohibit an apothecary from selling poisons to any onenothuv ing an order from a reputable physician, while dealers in amiH sell revolvers unrestrained, and yet where poi son takes one human life the deadly revolver termi nates a hundred. No dealer should be permitted to sell a revolver to any person not having a permit from the authorities to carry it, and any person not having such a permit, if found with a weapon on his person should be punished by a fine large enough to make its imposition cflective. To be sure, this would cut down the sales of dealers and would somewhat curtail the perquisites of the coroner, but, as a matter of economy merely, the county could better afford to buy all the revolvers sold, and give the coroner a good, fat salary, than pay the cost of inquisitions and criminal trials imposed upon it by this habit of carrying weapons by men who havo no legitimate use for them. Public sen timent ought to be strong enough in this matter to practically abolish the revolver habit. The trick of making horizontal reductions of as sessment valuations is one in which Oregon county Ixiards of equalization are adepts. Everybody howls altout the ridiculously low valuations placed by assess ors on taxable property in Oregon, and still, when it comes to levying the tax, there is often a horizontal cut of a large per cent, of the total on the assumption, supported or unsupported by evidence, that the coun ty's valuation is out of proportion with that of other counties. Last year Marion county, in which the cap ital of the state is situated, made a staight cut of twenty-five Mr cent., and this year it is announced that the assessor's report from that county shows a gratify ing increaseincrease over last year's perfectly arbi trary reduction. This year there is another instance i" Clatsop county, in which the booming city of Asto ria is located. The assessor performed his duty, made his report on oath; then came the equalization board ami reduced the total valuation thirty per cent. Why "top at thirty per cent.? Do the people of Astoria wish to convey the inferenco that their proerty is re "y not f mueh valuo after all ? There is but one ) to make an equitable assessment, and that is upon the whole value of all taxable proiwrty. There "uld be ..onie method of state equalization that would prevent the arbitrary reductions so often made y the county equalizers for the'purpose of lessening the contributions of their county to the state govern ""'it. The Oregon assessment laws need remodeling K-vcral important particulars, and proxrty owners t0 U' nhK to a senso of more exact ju-iirt "an now prevails.