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About The west shore. (Portland, Or.) 1875-1891 | View Entire Issue (July 12, 1890)
WEST SHORE. 8G7 If there are between 200,000 and 300,000 unclaim ed patents "covered with dust and cumbering the pigeon holes" in the general land office at Washing ton, then there has been a great wrong done to a mul titude, of people in the United States through official incompetency, an incomplete system or an utter lack of regard for the rights and interests of settlers upon the public domain. When a settler upon public land, under either of the various land laws, has complied with all the provisions of the law, the regulations of the land commissioner and the red tape of the depart ment, and has paid all fees and charges, he certainly is entitled to a prompt issuance and delivery of his patent. It seems incredible that such a vast number of them should be held in Washington for lack of a proper effort to deliver them to their owners. Con gress should promptly pass the proposed bill for that purpose. It is only when some one gives the depart ments a vigorous prodding that the people at large learn in how many ways their interests are being neg lected. Settlers who have tried in vain to secure their patents have now the satisfaction of knowing that they did not get them because it was too much trouble for the department to deliver them. In view of this great outcry by western cities about their census returns there seems to be some point after all in that old joke about the enumerator taking the " senses " of the people, for they have certainly gone somewhere. One can but admire the true grit of the Montana supervisor who telegraphed to Washington, in answer to complaints, that his work was correct and he did not propose to keep up with the inflated ideas of newspapers and real estate boomers. As a matter of fact, except for boom purposes and the op portunity it may offer for bragging, it matters but lit tle whether a city is credited with its full population or not. To bo sure, to be of value the census should be as nearly correct as it is possible to make it, but that is a matter of national concern rather than local. This great local complaint and show of indignation has its foundation solely in boom circles, backed by that trait in human character that likes to boast of having a lightning rod higher than anyone else in the neighborhood, or owning a dog with the crookedest legs and the stumpiest tail in the county. Again is there a promiso from Washington of an early passage of a land forfeiture bill that shall in clude the grant made to tho Northern Pacific from Wallula to Portland, which the company relinquished all hopo of acquiring years ago. As has been said be fore in these columns, these lands would have been restored to the public domain years ago, had it not been for tho conduct of certain demagogues in con gress who insisted upon tacking upon the bills intro duced by Oregon senators for that purposo, amend ments including other grants over which there was a contest. The people who have suffered through this long withdrawal of lands from settlement can thank the demagoguery of their special, self-constituted con gressional champions for the evil consequences of it. That it has beon a serious drawback to this entiro ro gion is not questioned, but tho real interests of tho settler have to give way to the manufacture of politi cal capital when important questions fall into tho hands of congress. Tho question of co-education of the sexes was much discussed at the national council of education in St. Paul, and the fear was expressed by some that the association of boys and girls at college might lead to improprieties. The experience of many of our smaller colleges and state normal schools, where tho sexes are admitted upon even terms, does not justify this fear, while it does demonstrate tho quieting and refining influence of tho girls upon the rowdyish ten dencies of the other sex. It is safe to say that if Harvard admitted girls into full fellowship, tho stu dents would conduct themselves less like an aggrega tion of hoodlums than they have beon doing of late. By the signature of the president Idaho becamo tho forty-third state of tho union on tho third of July, as near to the nation's groat natal anniversary as it was possible to make it. The celebrations in Idaho on the fourth had a double significance, and were marked by more than twice tho usual fervency and enthusiasm. Thoso people who, from ignoranco, have supposed that Idaho lacked tho elements of a great state, will soon see their error, for tho time is not far distant when tho "Gem of tho Mountains" will far outstrip many older and now moro populous states on tho road to prosperity. Now that Han Francisco has coasod temporarily at leastto offer her hospitality to prize fighters, tho pro-' posed great contest between Sullivan and Jackson is indefinitely postponed. However, tho " Puritan" Ath letic club is anxious to bring thoso representatives of Boston culture and Australian intellectuality together on Long island, and may succeed. If tho fight takes place under Puritan auspices, no doubt black and blue laws will govern. If the Germans who live in America boat tho Ger mans who live in Germany at shooting this week, it will prove something, no doubt, but just what has not boon stated possibly that beer made with American hops is tho lest in tho world.