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About The west shore. (Portland, Or.) 1875-1891 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 20, 1890)
82 WEST PUSLISH10 (VKV SATUAOAV. WEST SHORE PUBLISHING COMPANY, PUBLISHER, L. IAMUIL, Conornl Manager, PORTLAND, OR., AND 8P0KANE FALL8, WASH. Kntmi In tkt Port Offlct In Portland, Origan, for trtmmiuim through Iht mollo at mond cUut rnlrt. Out Yoor, III Month lUIICKirriON HATII Itrlotlj In Adnnot, . . I4.0 Thrto Monthi, Unfit Coplf 1, IMS .10 RtjtcUd mnnuocrlpt will not bo returned union ottmpo hivo boon not to pay poitoio. The Wiit 8HORI efTor the Best Medium for Advertiser of any publication on the Paclflo Coast. SATURDAY, 8KPTKMHKH UO, lDO. 1)IXKEUTOX'S dream, as depicted on the Inst page, is not bo much a work of imagination as one might think who has givon the subject but little attention. If the l'inkertons can enlist an army of .100 men, arm them with rilles and revolv ers, and use them as a private armed force not under the con trol of tho constituted authorities, they can have an army of 5,0(10 or 50,000. The right to bear arms is abused by such an organization of mercenaries maintained by private persons for the use of corporations and individuals wealthy enough to pay for their services. The American people are law abiding to the highest degree and they believe fully in the right of self defense, but they desire to see tho law upheld by the regular authorities, and they are willing to help them do so to the laying down of their lives if necessary. It is time now that in every stato in the union thoro should lie a law prohibiting any armed body of men not organized in due process of law as a portion of the govern ment. Conditions are such now that whenever any corporation has a dilliculty with its employes the Pinkertons are called in, and thoso worthies immediately enlist a lot of brutal and unprin cipled men who are willing to shoot their fellow men for hire. Tho crimes committed by them for the shooting of persons under such circumstances is surely a crime are in reality the crimes of their employers, who, instead of posing ns field mar shals of an army of cut-throats, should be behind the prison bars for crimes already committed in their service, Let the law abid ing citizens of every state say clearly and emphatically through their representatives in the legislatures that no private armies will bo tolerated in America. SHORE. The barbarity of the dark ages never produced a more revolt in. 8 ene than tl.it witnessed in the capita! .of Spam a few days g was left, a horrible and repulsive spectacle exposed to the vul iargazeofthe public for ten hours. A people that can employ Ll a brutal method for executing prisoners and maintain such a hideous custom of exposure after death to the gaze of the popu lce, can not expect to make much progress as a nation eras individuals. It is to eliminate as much as possible rom legal extinction of life all that is brutal in its nature and demorahz ing and embruting in its effects upon the people, that .electric exe cution is urged so strongly by men of sound thought m this coun try To give a criminal a painless death is far less necessary than to give him a mode of dispatch that shall help to lessen the brutish and savage instincts in our nature as a peoplo. For the welfare of those outside of jail, rather than for those inside, the hang man's noose, the guillotine, the garroting collar and the knout must go where the red hot iron, the rack, the wheel and the headsman's axe have preceded them. The reasoning of a contemporary that the formation of a third party at this time is unwise because there is no great crisis to call it forth, is not based upon political history or sound thought. Form the party now so that when the crisis conies it will have gathered strength enough to meet it, is both the teach ing of the history of the past and the dictation of prudence. The republican party was not formed during the crisis of 1861, but five years before. If ever the evils that menace the welfare of the nation are to be overcome, the party that is to do it must organ ize and prepare for the battle before the contest actually begins. Politics is the absorbing question in Idaho now. Not less important than the contest for representative and state officers will be the influence the election will have upon the subsequent choice of United States senators. Undoubtedly the best selec tions that can be made are Hon. W. J. McConnell, of Moscow, who took such a prominent part in pressing the claim of the state for admission, and Hon. Fred DuBois, who, as member of the house, fought the battle to a victory. With such able men to represent her Idaho may well feel content. Kcprcscntative Hermann thinks that reciprocity is, in a measure, inconsistent with our hostile position on the Chinese question. So it is; but if we are to have either we had better take the cheap goods than the cheap lalxr that made them. The crying evil of our protective system is that while we protect our manufacturers against the cheap goods of Euroe, the cheap laW of Kuww that makes those goods is admitted free to drive our own workmen from their benches, gradually producing hero the name degraded condition of labor whose existence in Europe is the protectionist's most powerful argument. Men, not products, make a nation, and if we expect to improve, or even maintain tho standard we now have, we must be careful what manner of men we rweivc from abroad. We have (5,000,0(X) people now, and the necessity of increasing their numbers is not so great that we should do it at the exHnse of the happiness and prosperity of those who toil daily for their bread, or the lowering of the general average of intelligence, morality or sterling American manhood. Disgusted with the failure of Uncle Sam to protect them, the seals have practically abandoned Behring sea and the Prybalov islands. When their new rookeries are found, which may not be for several years, they may be located where poachers will have some other nation to deal with. The only explanation of the remarkable diminution in numbers this year is that they have gone somewhere else. It would be worse than the proverbial barn door if England and America should come to blows over something that had ceased to exist. Mexico is seeking some means of reducing hor army without offending her hundred and fifty generals. As this is about a hundred and forty more generals than she has any use for, she might make lieutenants and captains of them, or let thorn emi grate to Guatemala, where they need a few hundred more gener als to execute. The Oregon State Fair, at Salem, closes to-day after the most successful exhibition in its history, both as to the character of its attractions and the number of peoplo in attendance. The fair is of great benefit to the state, both as an educator of the people and as a splendid showing to visitors from abroad of the resources of Oregon.
