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13(5 TH'E WE.
THE WEST SHORE,
ILLUSTRATED,
I'UBI.ISHKII KVKKY SATlllllAV, AT TDK ( OKNKK t)t (OUMHIA AND tt'ATKH STKKKTS,
1-ORTI.AXI), OKKIiON.
Nkw Yiiuk Omen, No. 48 Twhisk IIuii.iiimi.
Subscription Price, Four Dollars per Year. Single Copy, Ten Cents.
AODHM AU 0OIUlCATlOfl MO MKI AU RlMlTTAHCfi PAVAiU TO
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l-OKTI.AXI), OKKIHIS.
IMIIIKO AT Tnl W Of, KM AT KMTLANO, OMOON. tOH TNAMMlMKM tMBOUOH TMI MAHJ AT MOON) fAAM AATI1.
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 1891.
With lliis issue THE West Shone apR-ars in its new form, with a new
heading, new type and new styles of engraving. The substitution of photo
mechanical engravings in half tone for the former lithographs not only, when
combined with the lighter and handsomer faced tyc, gives it a neater and
more artistic apicarance, but the engravings, being exact photographic repro
ductions of idia ink wash drawings, oil paintings in black and white and
photographs direct from nature, add to the realistic appearance of the illustra
tions, thus increasing their interest and value as truthful representations of the
subjects treated. The Pacific coast now holds an enviable place in the illus
trated journalism of the country, which is doing more to remove the false
impression prevailing elsewhere as to the social, moral, intellectual and indus
trial condition of our eople than all other causes combined.
So it lias been decided by that personification ol the aggregated moss
backism of the state, the late and unlamented legislature, whose final adjourn
ment was the greatest cause of gratitude it gave a disgusted people, that the
Lethean slumbers of Oregon arc to continue for at least two years more.
The profound similiter of the Seven Sleeers was but a cat nap to the chronic
somnolency of the Oregon mossback. Before and during the legislative ses
sion the press of the stale made a din that would have aroused the spell bound
Sleeping Beauty, but its only ellcct UHn the mossback, as exemplified in this
august body, happily now gone forever as an entirety, though its constituent
units, or fractions of units, still remain to perplex us, was to cause him to
emit a sulxlucd growl of protest at being disturbed and then to roll over and
compose himself for another two years' snoeuc. There let him lie, and if,
perchance, the death angel come while still he slumliers, no attending physi
cian will lie reipiired nor will there be any demand for lamentations.
Portland, however, can not, and will not, accept the condition of lethargy
the remainder of the state insists upon retaining. She has learned the folly
of wasting lime and substance in seeking to clcctrily a corpse, to galvanize
dead nerves and muscles, and in the future will turn her energies to a better
purptnr and exiend her vital lorces in her own Itchalf. Leaving the dead to
bury the dead, she will turn her eyes towards the light and direct her footsteps
in tlie path that leads to life and prosperity. It is a matter of profound regret
that tuch a situation has been created through the assinine stupidity and will
ful ignorance of those charged with looking after, and providing for, the wel
fare of the state. Portland was, and still is, most deeply solicitous for the
future prosperity ol the whole stale, and regrets the present situation far more
than the sections that will sutler the most, because she realises it more acutely,
but she knows that regrets are vain and that for her own good she must be
up and doing. So far as is within her power she will rise superior to the
adverse conditions that surround her. She must suffer, and that deeply, from
the insufferably stupid and incalculably damaging assessment law, from which
no act of hem can give relief, but she can not lie held in the stagnant pcxil of
mossluikisin the rest of the state seems to delight in.
One of the evil elfivts of this will lie to emphasiie still more strongly
during the next two years the marked difference lieiwccn the metniHilis and
the state at large. Pulsating with life and energy, not only seiiing oppor.
tunnies as they apear, but making them, reaching out with a linn and lilx r.il
hand to graxp thai which can be had for the taking, she will grow in prosperity
and wealth while the rest of the state stands still. It must not for a moment
lie supKisnl (hat Portland will remain unrepresented at Chicago, She pre
ferred that the slate nf Oregon should nuke a display as a whole and derive
lite enormous bctielit from to doing tliat would certainly result, but, now tlut
this can not lie done, she will go ahead herself and make such a showing as
will convince the people that however dead Oregon may lie, her metropolis is
eslirmrly alive. She will spend both money ami effort freely, ami though
she will not receive to much benefit as would otherwise lie the case, and the
;ST SHORE.
state still less she will at least have the satisfaction of demonstrating the pos
se'ssion of acute vitality and a mental endowment capable of comprehending
the conditions that lead to prosperity and power. .
Two years hence, when another legislature shall convene, the consolidated
city of Portland will contain nearly 100,000 people, almost one-third the entire
population of the slate, and its wealth, now more than one-third, will have
increased to one-half. It may be that by that time the situation will be better
appreciated by the men who shall be selected to represent the concentrated
wisdom of the state. They may then catch a few strains of the music at the
head of the procession, fall in the rear and plod along the dusty way with
vigorous effort to catch up with the column. But he would be rash, indeed,
who would predict such conduct. At best it can be but a hope, doomed,
probably, to disappointment. One who has witnessed the unvarying stolidity
and persistent unprogressiveness of the mossback for, lo, these many years, is
not encouraged to hope that any power save death can move him, and for that
we may have years to wait. Yet " hope springs eternal in the human breast,"
and dry as the fountain may now appear, the life-giving fluid will doutless soon
struggle to the surface.
The final failure of Raley's bill for a portage railway around the dalles,
after it had reached such a stage as was supposed to render its passage sure,
is an example of the uncertainties of legislation. It is also an example of how
little legislators can be depended upon to obey the well-known will of the peo
ple. The sentiment that some provision must be made for a temporary re
lief of the inland empire from its transportation burdens, was universal and
agressive in the counties bordering the Columbia or lying east of the Cas
cades, while there was no active opposition, but rather passive assent, in the
counties further south. The failure of the world's fair bill and the veto of the
wagon road bills left no excuse for adverse action on this measure on the
ground of excessive appropriations, and should have insured the passage of
the bill. Its failure is a sad blow to the sections directly interested, including
Portland, aud indirectly to the entire state. Two years more must now be
wasted before an effort of relief can be made, during which time farmers of
the blockaded region will pay ten times as much for freight as the improve
ment would have cost. It is folly to hope for an immediate completion of
the government improvements. At the best, the Cascade locks can not be
finished in less than four years, and doubtless twice that time will be con
sumed, while as to the dalles, even the form of improvement has not yet been
decided upon. For the next two years the opening of the Columbia should
be made the object of political endeavor in every county interested, and every
candidate for the legislature at the next election who will not pledge himself
to work (or that end should be buried beneath a storm of ballots of the gen
uine Australian variety.
A few years ago the Portland council passed an ordinance forbidding the
distribution of circulars on the streets, and straightway a job printer procured
himself to be elected to tliat honorable body, by those devious and mysterious
ways known only to the city boss and his satellites, and the obnoxious to
job printers ordinance was repealed. This incident is related simply to show
why the job printers are open to the charge of having influenced the signal
service lo use the word " cyclone " in its reports. "No cyclones nor blizzards
are known in this region " is a sentence appearing in large type in every one
of the hundmls of immigration pamphlets published on the Pacific coast, and
yet the signal service reports and predictions give the lie to the statement con
tinually. Our innocent citizens may not be aware that there was a cyclone in
our midst last week, unchained and unapprehended in all the shades of
meaning of the latter word but such the signal service report asserts to have
been the case. Of course, such a birefaced lie must be stricken from the
immigration literature, and thousands of dollars must be paid the job printers
for new pamphlets that acknowledge the fact that we have cyclones of a
strictly scientific character, observable only by experts cyclones that come
like a thief in the night, but, unlike the thief in the night, take nothing away
with them. We must either do this, or else we must prevail upon the signal
service to explain to the people the difference between a cyclone organized
simply for the purpose of smng nxf obsrrVfd by a onf
orgaimed slncily for business, such as inhabit the wilds of Kansas and Iowa..
Now tlut the Wisconsin legislature has decided that the English Ian
guage ,s no, wanted in that state, it will be in onler for it to supply the schools
with ollapuk grammars.
The proudest beast a citizen ol Oregon can make is that he was not a
menilier of the late legislature.