WEST SHORE.
026
PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY.
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Saturday, July SO, 1890.
I I HILE there is little doubt that the final fate of
jj the American aborigine will be total extinc
tion, as a race, the question of what part,
either active or passive, the Caucasian race in
America is playing is an important one. The history
of the conflict of civilization with barbarism in this
country is one that civilization can never contemplate
with the least approach to pride. The poor Indian
has been deceived with false promises, robbed of his
patrimony, crowded out of the homes of his fathers,
wronged in his domestic relations, insulted and injured
in his person, knocked about from pillar to post, con
quered into subjection by superior power whenever
his outraged feelings have led him to rebel, placed on
reservations and deprived of his usual means of pro
curing a livelihood on the one hand-and robbed by of
ficial incompetence and dishonesty of the means in
tended by tho government to bo provided for him on
the other, and in a thousand ways has been so treated
that where- once there were millions now there are but
thousands. The chief characteristic of all this is the
utter disregard that has been shown for tho true wel
fare of tho Indian himself. He has been looked upon
as simply an incumbrance, and generally as a danger
ous one, and the leading idea has been to get rid of
him as speedily as possible. Perhaps this is right
and in accordance with the law of nature that the
higher forms shall drive out the lower, but the Ameri
can people can not congratulate themselves that in
obeying this law they havo done it in tho way the
higher civilization they claim to represent demands.
But homilies upon this subject are well-high useless.
Tho American Indian policy has been settled by years
of precedents, and doubtless Poor Ix will be crowded
from his reservations as fast as the land is required by
settlers, and forced about the country hither and
thither until, like the Son of Man, he will have no
place to lay his head, and will be worn away by attri
tion, until the last full-blood Indian shall find an un
remembered grave. A desirable result? Yes, per
haps it is ; but what of the means by which it is at
tained ?
Fulfillment of prophesies that when first stated
were so self-evident they could scarcely be classed as
such, call for but little comment, yet West Shore can
not refrain from calling attention to the happy con
trast between the deluded boomers of Oklahoma and
the more fortunate men who, at the time of the Okla
homa' excitement, had enough good sense to turn their
backs upon that arid region and seek homes in the
Pacific northwest. Reports from Oklahoma are to the
effect that crops are a failure and destitution and mis
ery are the common lot of all. Here we are blessed
with a bountiful harvest and a cool, comfortable sum
mer, not at all unusual, but a little better than the av
erage. Every industrious man who came here during
the Oklahoma excitement has reason to be thankful
for the circumstances that turned his feet northwest
ward, and the sun-scorched boomers in that land of
delusion will be better off a year from now if they
abandon their claims and seek new homes in this land
of sure crops and genial climate.
The Society of California Pioneers have declined to
participate with the Native Sons in celebrating the
fortieth anniversary of the admission of the state into
the union, and are candid enough to admit that they
do it because they fear the younger society will out
shine them. This jealous pique is very childish.
The Pioneers have not' done any more than have the
Native Sons to make California what she is to-day, yet
they might, if they would but preserve their dignity
and recognize the fact that they are fast diminishing
in numbers, and must of necessity relinquish the
management of these celebrations to younger hands,
remain the central figure and occupy the post of honor
on such occasions till the last member of their society
is laid to rest forever.
The Farmers' Alliance, of Minnesota, has com
bined with the labor organizations to put an indepen
dent state ticket in the field. This is claimed by the
enthusiastic president of the alliance to be the found
ing of a new political party. New parties are very
much like new papers easy to found, but hard to
keep alive.
With commendable enthusiasm for peace, if not
with extreme modesty, the pope has offered to become
the arbiter for the whole world.