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.