IS
WEST SHORE.
USUSHED EVERY SATURDAY.
L. SAMUEL, Publisher,
MOnd Yamhill tit., RORTLAMD, OREGON,
Main St..no8tl., IPOKANI FALLS, WASH.
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The Wist 8hore offers the Bast Medium for Advertisers of any
publication on the Pacific Coast.
HATUHDAY, AUOUHT ti.l, 1WOO.
rPIIE suuabble in Central America has been going on for a
T
month now and seems no nearer settlement than at the be
ginning. As more light is thrown upon it the true nature
of it in revealed simply a many-sided contest of various lead
ers seeking political powor for their personal gratification. Spanish-American
republics are noted fur their revolutions, and yet
scarcely one of the many upheavals lms been founded upon pa
triotic motives and a desire to reform an evil, or to institute a
better system of government. Personal ambition is the moving
power behind them all. This is notably the case in the present
war in that country. Not only was it precipitated by the desire
of Harillos to become president of a confederacy, which was in a
, fair way to be defeated by tho seizure of the government of San
Salvador by Kzota, but lesser leaders in both Guatemala and Sal
vador have seized the opiwrtunity to start their own little booms
by getting a handful of followers to aid them in a revolution.
And thus it goes from one end of Central America to the other,
and that unhappy country is being torn up by these contending
factions, simply to gratify the personal ambition of a few men.
This ought to be stopped. In the interest of humanity, good
government and the people of those republics themselves, the
I'nited States should stretch out her hand and put an end to the
whole wretched business. It is only a few months since repre
sentatives of those republics met representatives of our own gov
ernment in Washington, and endorsed the principle of interna
tional arbitration on this hemisphere, Now let tho I'nited States
make them put it into practice. All she has to do is to call a
halt and tell them they must arbitrate and it will be done. She
has the power to enforce it. The nations of Europe view that re
gion with covetous eyes, and the longer this cut-throat warfare is
permitted to continue, the more dillicult it will be to prevent
their interference with the hope of gaining a foothold there. It is
a duty the greatest nation in America owes to the lesser ones to
stop such needless strife.
Of all pension advocates (!en. Hussell A. Alger, who has just
retired from the oiiice of commander-in-chief of the (irand Army
of the Republic, is the most ultra, though it is well known that
his radical speeches tin the subject are of the demagogic order,
looking towards the presidential chair. At the reunion in l!os
ton, in his annual address, lie said that the last pension act
grants a ension to every jierson disabled, whether as the result
of his service or not, or whether lie have a fortuno or not, and
that it was a good law, "thnmjh (Acy hart not ijirtn u all ur uk''
(ieneral Alger is a millionaire. If by any chance he should
Uvome physically disabled he could draw a pension from the
government, notwithstanding his wealth. What more than this
can I asked t It is utterly absurd. The entire theory of our
pension laws is wrong. Disabled soldiers who are unable to sup
port themselves should be supported by the government, and no
others. General Alger's radical position on the pension question
may avail to secure him the republican nomination, though that
is a matter of great doubt ; but he should remember that the
voters of the nation are as thirty to one to the members of the
Grand Army, and they have become sick, tired and disgusted
with this demagogic, conscienceless and unpatriotic outcry by
pension agitators.
Last week the members of the Oregon Press Association were
entertained by the citizens of Portland in 60 pleasant a manner
to both hosts and guests that the bonds of fellowship between the
metropolis and the rest of the state must have been drawn closer
and made more secure. The association contains 115 members,
representing eighty papers, and is a body of extremely able and
energetic men. At the business sessions several important'ques
tions were discussed and harmony of action upon them secured.
Much good will result from this interchange of thought upon
subjects of vital interest to publishers, aB well as from the more
friendly sentiments engendered by the social intercourse. The
association selected Mr. L. Samuel, publisher of West Shore,
for the honorable position of president of the body for the ensu
ing year, and re-elected Mr. E. C. Pentland, of the Independence
Went Side, secretary. E. Hofer, of the Salem Journal, D. I. As
bury, of the Canyon City News, Mrs. E. C. Casey, of the Pacific
Farmer, C. S. Jackson, of the Pendleton Eaut Oretjonian, and S. C,
Beach, of the Lakeview Examiner, were elected vice presidents.
S. S. Train, of the Albany Herald, was chosen treasurer, and R. J.
Hendricks, of the Salem Slalemnan, sergeant-at-arms. The next
session will be held at Astoria.
It is one of the boasts of this country that every native born
youth who follows the plow, handles the saw and hammer, sets a
stick of type or twists a brake on a freight train has a chance to
become president of the United States. Of such have a majority
of our presidents been made. But the conditions that have made
this possible aro rapidly disappearing under the influence of
tradesunionism, which uses its power to curb individual effort as
injurious to the interests of others and to reduce all to the level
of the average. A great deal is said about the honor and dignity
of labor, but when the laborer of to-day ceases to be the gentle
man of to-morrow, when gentlemen are born as such and laborers
are born and remain laborers, the main support of the dignity of
labor the self respect of the gentleman who was once a laborer
will have been destroyed, and the distinction of class and caste
will be sharply drawn. The union of tradesmen for mutual
benefit and help is susceptible of much good, but when those
unions are dominated by the headstrong, the selfish and the igno
rant, as is often the case, they become engines of destruction that
do their greatest damage to the cause of free labor itself.
A few days ago 300 men deserted from the Chicago and the
Mania in New York harbor. The navy seems to be a sharp
rival to the army in the matter of desertion and offers a splendid
field for investigation. The popular opinion is that it is com
posed of czars and serfs, and it is little wonder the latter desert.
In impugning the quality of enumerators in an Oregon county
a correspondent says one of them was "a democrat and drunk
half the time." It does not appear which he considers the worse
offence, democracy or drunkenness.
It is a matter for congratulation to Oregon and Washington
that political wrangling has not killed the river and harbor bill.