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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.