The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1876-04-28

beauty.
Many of the lesser lights in the polit-
ical heaven have gone down in
this unholy race for gold and place and
power. Nor is dishonesty the only de-
feet in our Congress. There seems to be
a want of efficiency to meet and grapple
with the great questions now pending
before that body. The grand muddle of
the currency question betrays woeful
absence of knowledge to deal with the
subject or find a solution of the problem,
and no less than dozen members have
brought forward bills, each claiming a
panacea for the pecuniary ills that affect
the body polite. Still the farce goes
on, while in the meantime the people
are suffering from unwise legislation.
Our people here are very much ex-
cited on the Chinese question, which
gives promise of being feature in the
coming campaign on this coast. Taken
together with the silver muddle, we
have our hands full, while that nest of
stock gamblers in San Francisco laugh
and grow fat over ill-gotten gains in
buying up trade dollars in which the poor
laboring man is paid, robbing him by
1.-THE transaction of ten or twelve per cent.
of his hard-earned wages. This done,
they skulk behind that old story of sup
ply and demand, which has too long
been barricade to shelter thieves.
Never before in the history of our
country was stock gambling so rife
among our people. Like a cancer it
pervades all circles. From the rich to
the laboring poor, all are infected with
this malady. To be rich without work,
indeed, is a moral disease, with its
fountain head at Washington, permeat-
ing our whole social structure. WhaI
shall we do? Shall we pray? No. j
prayer would heal this tendency tc
evil, it would have been cured long ago.
Work is the word. Let ms educate the
masses up to higher conditions of life
in which there shall be no paupers, mol
yet any millionaires, both of whom are
the result of unhealthy conditions of so
ciety.
Our country took long stride il
moral reform when it wiped out African
slavery. Let her take yet another step
giving liberty to the mothers anC
daughters of America to speak by thu
ballot. For as the sin of political bond
age was dead weight to our nation, so
also, the mental bondage of woman
rObs us of more than half of our mora
force in the government.
We have no business with the expedi
ents in the case, as we have nothing t.
do with the consequences of telling tn
truth. So, also, we have nothing to d
with the consequences of right doing
If it is just and right that women shoul
have an opinion, why not right to ex
press that opinion by the ballot? D
the right, and leave the results with tn
Author of all truth.
Never did our nation so much nee
the preponderating moral power, locke
Y
the ballot, as to-day. am not one c
those who suppose that all evils will fie
away at once, even if justice is done
women. But that an aggregation G
: moral power would be attained, we car
not doubt, any more than we can dout
that good and true women largely eX
Gel in number the vicious and depraveC
More than ever do feel the need {
equal rights and justice as broad ste
in reform in combating the evils {
vice, intemperance, and dishonest
which threaten to engulf this nation.
More than ever should refOrmel
speak out without reserve until the vii
4 tory is won and woman is lifted up
stand side by side with man, equal
r privilege as she is now equal in respoI
sibility, as person before the law.
look to Oregon as the banner Sta
e of this coast in suffrage reform, an
from personal knowledge CLEANED in m
s travels in that State, l must attribu
t the advanced state of public sentimer
r in Oregon to the New NORTHwEs,
in connection with the untiring energ
: and irrepressible will power, and, aboy
e all, the wonderful adaptation of I'll
leading editor for public platform worl
e Woman's cause in Oregon must ult
d mateIy be crowned with success. Wit
n all good words and wishes, remain
b J. i. YORK.
d San Jose, April Is, 1876.