WEST SHORE.
99
caption of the magnitude of the World's Fair knows that they can not pos
sibly do the state justice. The whole subject is too large for them. It is
beyond their mental grasp. It is entirely outside all their experience,
knowledge or train of thought. Under their management Oregon's exhibit
will be a nonentity, an indistinguishable atom in the great mass of the
world's products assembled at Chicago.
Here is a significant incident. A few weeks ago the Chamber of
Commerce appointed five of the live business men of Portland to represent
it in this matter, and these gentlemen addressed a letter to Commissioner
Wilkins asking for a conference. The repl", from the " Forks of the Wil
lamette," duly forwarded by stage and train, was written in lead pencil on
a piece of brown paper. Tbey thought this was flying pretty high, but
were totally unprepared for the magniflcsnt ideas the commissioner devel
oped when they met him. With much enthusiasm, but in a somewhat
cautious tone, as though he feared the effect of the shock upon their sys
tems, he said that in his opinion Oregon ought to spend (20,000 on her
exhibit. As the committee had been discussing the practicability of rais
ing (250,000, they managed to retain their breaths. Nothing at all credit
able to Oregon can be expected through the medium of these officials. Live
men, with modern ideas and a comprehension of what the fair will be and
what must be done to attract attention, should have this matter in charge.
There is no particular objection to these gentlemen trotting back and forth be
tween Oregon and Chicago at the government's expanse, although men that
would command more prominence for the state in the management of the
fair might have been selected ; but there is a decided obj tction to entrusting
to them the preparation and management of the state exhibit. It would be
fatal to do so. We can not afford to make such a mistake. We are out o f
the old rut; let us stay out.
An Oregon state board of trade will be organised this week. Its first
duty should be to take this matter seriously in hand. Plans should be
made for raising the necessary funds. Proper steps should bs taken for
the appropriation of a large sum by the legislature next winter, to be
expended by the agency to be selected by the people of the state, and not
by these politically appointed incompetents. The newspapers in every
county should take hold of the matter with a vim. Their power and influ
ence will be more effective than anything else to arouse the people to action
on this subject. Men with ideas should make designs for the exhibit and
explain them through the press. This is not a time for diflidence and hang
ing back. Let every one come to the front who has anything to say. He
will find the columns of the press open to him everywhere. Wist Shori
intends to keep this matter before the people. It will express its ideas
freely and often, and will give designs for various displays. It hopes the
pther papers will equal, or even excel, it in the work they will do for a cause
it deems the most Important for the material interests of the state now
calling for attention.
Tiiiri seems to be a little misunderstanding as to the position Wiht
Shori holds on the pension question, and some thoughtless persons have
even accused it of " casting flings at old soldiers "something it has never
been guilty of doing. No one can exceed it in the quantity and quality of
its respect for the men who withstood the shock of battle, with the divine
fire of patriotism and devotion to duty shining in their eyes; nor can any
one exceed it in its contempt for that class of men who are bringing shame
and dishonor upon the soldiers by their intemperate language, blatant bom
bast and purely mercenary efforts to bleed the government in their name.
The wonder is that so many brave and honorable veterans are deceived by
these men, who are working upon them for their own private ends. The
Grand Army of the Republic is a noble order, and has in its ranks men of
sterling worth, who have rendered the nation such a service as can never
be computed in dollars and cents. It has given the country a most beauti
ful custom, when, on Memorial Day, the hearts of a grateful people go out
to those who have laid down their lives that their country might live as the
chosen home of liberty on this despot-ridden earth ; when we strew flowers
upon the graves of the patriot dead as a visible expression of love and grat
itude for what they have done, and a pledge that we and our children shall
preserve the precious jewel of liberty untarnished, and, if need be, will lay
down our lives also in the same noble cause. For this we honor the Grand
Army, and for this we feel doubly ashamed and humiliated when they per
mit themselves to be used by mercenary schemers and conscienceless dem
agogues. Wist Shori believes that every old soldier who is unable to
support himself, or has no income, should be supported by the government ;
that his pension should be ample for this purpose not the little driblet he
now receive and that to make it sufficiently large the pensions drawn by
three men who do not actually need them for their personal support should
be given to the fourth man who does need the money. It can not but
question the quality of the patriotism, or, if the facts could be ascertained,
the actual value of the services rendered, of the man who has so little sense
of what is honorable, of what is manly, of what is patriotic or of what is
due to his own self respect, to demand more than this, or who, while claim
ing that he saved the country in 1861 is willing to ruin it in 1890. It believes
in sterling manhood and in genuine American patriotism that is glad to
serve its country because it is its country, and is proud enough and patriotic
enough to feel that its services were above any possible reward other than
the sense of duty well performed. Of such there are thousands. They out
number by far those who have so much to say about their services and who
are bringing undeserved odium upon them ; but their modesty and self
respect have kept them in the background. It is time, however, that they
break their long silence, and indignantly repudiate those who are smirching
the honored name they and their dead comrades so nobly won.
Thkrs is another subject upon which some people who speak first and
do not think afterwards have criticised Wist Shori. Anyone who has
read these columns understanding knows that they have stood up boldly
for the right of the people who gain their daily bread by toll, and have
championed the cause of true American manhood, whether assailed by
trusts of money or trusts of organisations. It can not see wherein a com
bination of capital that crowds out other capital is any worse than a com
bination of labor that crowds out other labor, or a trust of capital that can
dictate ruinous terms to labor worse than a trust of labor that dictates ruin
ous terms to capital. All trusts and organisations that are selfish, dicta
torial and despotic in their nature are essentially un-American in spirit,
undemocratic in principle, barbarous In their practical workings and ruin
ous in their effects. The boycott, as adopted and practiced by labor organ
isations, is a boomerang that deals its severest blow upon the head of the
workingman himself. At the behest of some one in authority the poor
laborer abandons his employment, cripples his employer's business, para
lyses trade, sees his wife and children suffer for the necessaries of life
something they never did before and, even when the point at issue is
gained, is in no sense better off than before, though a year's labor may not
suffice to recoup his losses. Take such an instance as that of the strike on
the Spokane Falls exposition building, when, because the necessity of com
pleting the structure, which is a publio enterprise, compelled the directors
to purchase a small lot of boycotted lumber, the union carpenters left their
work, regardless of the consequences. This was esiecially shortsighted, as
the increased building activity that would undoubtedly follow a successful
exposition would be of great benefit to the carpenters themselves. Blind
obedience at a personally ruinous sacrifice to the orders of a superior who
has a selfish motive tor his action has Just been exhibited in the strike of
the Knighta of Labor on the New York Central. Chief Powderly, who
draws a princely salary and must constantly stir up strife in order to hold his
position, sits on a throne built upon human blood and ruin as surely as did
ambitious Bonaparte. Wist Shori believes in trade organisations and in
strikes, too, when some actual wrong is to be righted, and the strike is
ordered by the men who are to suffer from its evil effects and not by those
who fatten upon it ; but it does not believe in trusts and combines formed for
purposes of monopoly and dictation of prices and industrial conditions, either
of capital or labor.
A VISION,
Adown his path of splender sped the sun,
As round me came the darkness on a run,
It seemed to my poor, diuy, wearied brain ;
My wounded heart was sore and I would fain
Have felt it cease to carry life along
Although the suicidal thought were wrong!
My youth was broken, and Ambition lay
Dead at my feet, and wherefore should I stay
Just on the border of my grave, when I
Had nothing else to do except to die T
And yet I was afraid ; the feeble breath
I loathed to draw I would deny poor Death,
Though he stood pale and breathless to my face
And begged it of me i s one begs for grace.
Before me came an angel as I stood
And thought upon my base Ingratitude.
I low beautiful It was I And it did speak
To ins and said if I were very weak
Itself would give me strength ; that I might rest
Anon my weary head upon Its breast.
" And who are youT " I gasped, with taint, short broath ;
And then it answered me : " They call me Itath t "
I shook and woke from dreamy slumber deep,
And now I fear no more the dreamless sleep.
Lu Faihchii.i).