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.