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About The west shore. (Portland, Or.) 1875-1891 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 8, 1890)
194 WEST SHORE. UILKHCD IVIHY SATURDAY. WEST SHORE PUBLISHING COMPANY, PUBLISHER, L. SAMUIL, Ctnsral Managar, PORTLAND, OR., AND 8POKANE FALLS, WASH. Intent in Iht Poet Offlee (n Portland, Oregon, or trantmiuim through llumaUial Mcond dau rata. SUBSCRIPTION PRICE, $4.00 PER YEAR. Th Win 8hoi offer the Best Medium for Advertiser, of any publication on the Pacific Coast. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 1800. Tboss wen Noble sentiments Governor Hill received. The deadly parallel between free trade editorials and advertisements In the same papers is getting in its fatal work. Campaign poetry In Montana did not have as deadly an effect upon the democrat as the spring poem Mark Twain fired at the Indians. Americans should study the election returns from New York, Chicago, Illinois and Wisconsin, and then put on their thinking caps for a few min utes. Isn't it about time some other word than " Waterloo" were found to express the event of last Tuesday? How would " petered out " fit the oc casion? The United State now leads the world in the manufacture of Bessemer steel mils, the product for this year approximating 4,000,000 tons. This is better than buying them abroad. The solicitude of foreign statesmen for the unhappy condition of tills country under the new tariff bill Is beautiful to witness, and marks the dawning of the era of the great brotherhood of man. Smokers of the United States annually consume 150,000,000 imported cigars, though but 44,000,000 are actually Imported; which shows that the plurnix Is not the only bird that rises from its ashes. Under the heading " Positively Monstrous, " an exchange gives a de scription of an eihibit of vegetables, lesving ns in perplexing doubt whether the heading refers to the vegetables or the description. Those republican papers that prepared for the impending cyclone before election by saying tint there was no Issue before the people and that the election would signify nothing, are now patting themselves on the spine In self adulation. Governor Hill and Secretary Noble have exchanged long epistolatory compliments, which may be boiled down to " you are a census thief," and " you are a senseless liar." Neither letter is expected to become a text book for the public schools. Inability to get hold of the spproprlstion Is causing the loss of all the season for work on the Cascades locks. The fellow who wrote that stuff about the mills of the gods evidently never heard of government engineer ing enterprises. Members of the Knglish commons are becoming mercenary and de mand a salary. Before long they will begin speculating on their legislation, and then there will be little difference between them and our own congress men, except that they keep their hats on In the house. It Is estimated that 1:10,000,000 will be expended In Western Washing ton during the next two years in railroad construction. A large portion of this represents construction on line centering in Portland. In addition to Uils fully half as much more will be spent upon other lines leading east, south and west from Portland. The country will now wait with some impatience to see how the repub licans will conduct themselves towards the new rules in the next congress, and how many doors they will kick down. Humors of another great railroad combination point inevitably to the conclusion that in a few years the railroads of the country will be combined in half a doren huge systems. If this combination enable them to reduce fares and freights, all will be well, but if the power gained be used oppres sively, the inevitable result will be a government system of railroads. The democrats of Wisconsin are to be congratulated upon their success in carrying that state by a combination with a foreign element hostile to the public school, the corner stone of a free government ; and in this congratula tion is included every man in other states so lost to a sense of patriotism as to boast of a victory for his party under such conditions. How long will patriotic Americana fight each other in the old political parties, in view of such a condition of affairs in this country a was revealed by the election in New York city. The greatest city in the nation is ruled by an ignorant mass of exotic corruption. The same causes that have brought it about are at work elsewhere, and it is high time a remedy should be sought. It is generally understood that the salacious " Clara Belle " letters are written by a man with the assistance of a woman not a lady and that the man is responsible for their objectionable features; That it not where the responsibility lies. The writer of them is but a tool a contemptible one, to be sure, but only a tool and the responsibility lies with those " eminently respectable " papers that publish them. General Miles again calls attention to the defenceless condition of our lea coast in his annual report. He shows that land batteries are cheaper snd more effective than ironclads, and recommends a sufficient appropria tion for their erection be made, one-fourth of it to be available yearly for the next four years. He also urges the importance of a gun foundry on the Pacific coast. The mereBt fraction of the wealth exposed to destruction along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts would be ample to protect it all, and it Is reckless folly to leave it exposed to attack. Kansas courts have been called upon to decide whether a church raffle is a lottery under the recent anti-lottery bill. Papers are daily received by West Siiori containing matter that by a plain, common sense interpreta tion of the law should exclude them from the mails. If the courts hold that a rallle is a lottery, and that they should do so is plain, the question if dealing in futures on margins be not also a lottery is bound to come up. It Is to be hoped the courts will construe the term " lottery " most liberally, and make it embrace every form of hazard from the simplest to the greatest. Those who maintain that the Mormon leaders are not sincere In their official abandonment of polygamy, and claim that they are practicing a de ception, forget that, however much of craft and deceit they may charge to the priesthood, Die people at large are earnest believers in the faith, and such a course by the church authorities would tend to unsettle their confi dence in the Infallibility of their spiritual guides and the sacredness of their religion. In either event, then, good must come from President Woodruff's proclamation. It will either end polygamy or sow the seeds of distrust and Infidelity in the church. The Italian societies in New Orleans have all united in one organiiatlon. This assoclatin together in societies by various nationalities for the pur pose of fostering race sentiment and promoting clannishness, la wrong in principle and harmful in its results. When a man sets his foot upon Amer ican soil ss an emigrant, he should do so with the Intention of becoming an American ciliaen, of learning our language, adopting our customs and voting as an individual citiisn. Race orgauiiations are barriers in his way and are more potent causes than all others of the slowness of amalgamation of the constituent elements of our body politic. At a bull fight In the City of Mexico the spectators, not satisfied with seeing on man gored, demanded their money back and became more in furiated than the wild animals In the ring. They beat back the police and smashed the ring and building in their rage. Their thirst for blood and their brutiahnew are the direct result of being educated to such degrading sports. Valiant and blood-thirety as they showed themselves to be, they would run like jack rabbit before a squad of American police. Such men do not make soldiers and are but a poor bulwark for nation's defence. We find their counterpart on our side of the line in the prise fighter and their plug-ugly admirers, an element from which the nation has the least to hope in the hour of trial.