, 1874-06-04
gaget So,tud 3ispateh.
Man the Brakes!

There may be crisis in the affairs of
any and every community when no indi-
vidual can properly say: " What have
is my own. and I have right to do as
please with my own" Social and po-
hticai. organization is essential to the
protection of life, liberty and proper
ty, and life, liberty and property are
pledged to its main,ainance. That man
is voluntary outlaw. not entitled to
the protection of the law, who refuses
to conform to the law; and this rule ap-
plies equally to the social as to the civil
law; society may punish, by social os-
tracism, offences which the civil law
fails to recognize, and in times of public
peril when the common interests are in
jeopardy, or great public benefit is to
be attained by the united action of the
community, necessity becomes the par
amount law. and individual rights and
opinions must yield to the common de.
mand, or take such consequences as the
predominant sentiment of community
the law of public opinion-may impose.
If invaded by armed hostility. every
man is bound to bear arms and furnish
supplies for the common defence, with
the right of the people to administer
condign punishment to the deserters.
If confagration is raging, all are bound
to man the brakes, and fight for the
preservation of the property of others
as he would fight for his own. The
citizen who seeks to evade or avoid
these common obligations upon the
ground that he is not Immediately in
terested in the issue, is very properly
an object of detestation and contempt
in all well regulated communities; and
like public odium appertains to the
man who evades his public duties to aid
according to his means, and according
to the share of the benefits which will
accrue to him from the same, in any
work which is indisputably of common
advantage.
These are universally accepted truths,
which no one will deny or attempt to
gainsay. Now let Us apply them to the
great project which the people of Seattle
have in hand, and upon the success of
which every ono will admit the imme.
diate future prosperity of our town in a
great measure hangs-the Seattle and
Walla Walla Railroad. For years the
unparalleled natural resources of this
place have laid dormant, the growth
and prosperity of the town and sur
rounding country held in allegiance,
waiting and hoping for the Northern
Pacific Railroad to develope and utilize
these resources and give vitality to bu-
siness. When those well-founded ex-
pections were dispelled, and the people
were thrown upon theft own resources
for relief, this project was conceived and
inaugurated as affording the relief re-
quired. No one has ever expressed
doubt that the completion of this rail-
road would be the means of making
Seattle large and fourishlng CONNER
cial and manufacturing city. Tie only
question has heretofore been as to how
it could be DONE. That question the
people of Seattle now have it in their
power to solve. Nothing is more GER
tain in the calculation of future events
depending upon human agency, that
when the people of Seattle build the
firs3 section Of fifteen miles by their own
means, free from debt. they will have
laid foundation and established cred
it upon which means can be obtained
for completing the road in the shortest
time practicable. Without such an ear
nest on the part of the people most in
terested, the thing may in the calcula-
ton of chances, be set down as q failure
Of the most disastrous character, worse
than If the project had never been
broached. Who dare take the respon-.
sibility Of defeating this project through
the sheer meanness of refusi ng to meet
his just share Of the liabilities incurred
in work from which he will receive,
his full share of the common benefits?
We do not envy that man, or his future
in this community. He may prosper in
worldly gain, but the finger of public
scorn will surely point him out as an
object for public contempt. e, s.@
l'i
FThe Lewiston Signal says: About
forty townships have been subdivided
in North Idaho, outside of the Nez Perce
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