OCR Text |
Show A RABID PAULT-FINDER, The Portland Orcgonian seems to have gone stark, staring mad in its fault-finding with everything and everybody. every-body. A short while back it cited the discharge of tho Chief of Police in this city by tho court, as a cruel outrage on justice. WJion we poinicd out to it that Chief of Police Sheets was brought into court ou a charge classed as a misdemeanor, and upon that charge the prosecution undertook to convict him of a felony, and that therefore the caso i had to be dismissed in-that form, the Oregonian still protested that it was an outrage. That is to say, it is an outrage for a court to discharge a man charged with a misdemeanor when the prosecution undertakes to convict him of a ielonj'. In other words, you may bring a man into court on a charge of assault and battery and proceed to try him on a charge for homicide. Any court in any State which .would indulge in-dulge in tho practice which the Oregonian Ore-gonian urges in this respect; that is to say, haling an accused into court on one charge and proceeding to try him on another, would be subversive of natural rJghts everywhere; and no such practice could be sustained by the higher high-er courts c-f any -State. Again we note a crazy sort of an editorial ed-itorial in tho Oregonian calling an imaginary im-aginary roll of "Undesirable Citizens in Plenty." Among these, after naming nam-ing a lot of the labor leaders, it includes in-cludes in general terms, City Councils, without reserve, and Legislatures, without with-out exception. It proceeds to call a roll of such criminals as Schmitz, Ruof, Tweed, and others. And it includes Hill, Odell, Hearst, Piatt, and Depew of Now York in the same criminal list; in Pennsylvania it names Quay and Penrose; in Rhode Island, Aldrich; in Colorado, Patterson; in Idaho, Dubois; Du-bois; in Washington, Turner; in Kansas, Kan-sas, Burton; in Cincinnati, Cox; in St. Louis, Butler; and so on. The noticeable feature in this is tho indiscriminate massing together of criminals with men who are entirely guiltless of any criminal act, or of even any criminal charge. They simply sim-ply have done things which the Orcgonian Orc-gonian docs not approve; therefore, they are to be classed as criminals and scoundrels. Such classifications as these defeat all purposes of fair review re-view or of: reform tactics. It is absurd, ab-surd, for instance, to class Hill, in New York, with Tweed. Tt is vnonscnsc to class Quay and Penrose with Schmitz and Ruef. T.t is infamous to class Dubois Du-bois with Butler of St. Louis, who was convicted of the grossest election crimes. Tho publication of such an article as that in the columns of the Oregonian must go far to lower tho dignity of that, paper and diminish the esteem in which it has been held throughout tho Northwest. The indiscriminate indis-criminate abuse of persons guilty of no crime and the ranking of public men with notorious criminals certainly can effect no good purpose. There is not a bit of excuse for any such dirty , work. Senator Dubois certainly has committed com-mitted no crimo; on the contrary, he has made it his special mission to fight law-breakers and criminals, and especially espe-cially those who make their boast and their practice a public nuisance nnd scandal. It would bo much more to the purpose if tho Oregonian classed the leaders and priests which Senator Dubois Du-bois scoks to bring within decency and law among the criminals, thnn to class Dubois himself thorc. The Oregonian might just as well class Governor Polk with Butler and the gang that; ho prosecuted prose-cuted and sent to prison, as to class Dubois with those criminals whom lie has sought to reform and to bring to a sense of their own moral and civic obligations. It is far better for a nowspnper to let a matter alone altogether than to have such an insane mix-up as the Orcgonian Orc-gonian lias presented to tho public in this foolish editorial. Tho editorial, as a mutter of fact, is moro than foolish; fool-ish; it is criminal writing of tho worst sort. It dostroys all sense of propor-ton propor-ton or propriety, and of fairnoss, to class upright, decent citizens, against whom no possible crime can bo charged, with notorious felons and jailbirds. Wo are surprised that the Oregonian should lower itseif to so great an extent as it did in that editorial. T, shows unthinking un-thinking zenl run mad lo indulge in such foolish diatribes, which arc in themselves certainly as reprehensible as, anything that has ever boon dono by Senator Piatt, Senator Dcpcw. Senator Sen-ator Aldrich or any of the public men wiio have fallen under the condemnation condemna-tion of the Oregonian. There should bo moderation and decency in all things; and certainly no good can bo expected from such rash, idiotic classifications as the Oregonian has made. The first thing tho Orcgonian knows it will itself be classed as an "undesirable" "unde-sirable" nowspaper. And much moro properly so than a number of the persons per-sons whom it classified can rightfully bc called "undcsirablo citizens." |