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WEST
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WEST SHORE PUBLISHING COMPANY, PUBLISHER,
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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.