The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1877-08-24


To THE EDITOR OF THE NEW NORTHWEST:
The post office officials are showing
considerable opposition to the use of
postal cards by the public, and claim
that they are great nuisance, causing
the government to lose quite so amount
In revenue. New York City post office
alone loses $1,000 a day by reason Of
them, for, people will send by cards now
what they formerly had to buy three
cent stamp for. Postal cards have proved
! to be such great convenience that the
public will not consent for them to be
abolished, even if the post Office loses a
part of its income, and as this depart
ment was established for the conven-
fence of the people and as others are
benefited by it, the post Office officials
should be content to put up with lit
tie loss of money. The Post Office De-
partment has never been self-support-
ing and never will, so long as we have
the present costly Western and South
ern mail service in sparsey settled dis
tricts. But public sentiment is so averse
to depriving these sections of the coun-
! try of the benefit of mails that Mr.. Key
must not attempt to supply deficiencies
! by cutting off postal cards.
THE STRIKES.
The terrible disasters inflicted upon
Pittsburg by it's Iawless, nladdened mobs
were not repeated upon us as they were
upon some other cities. We had no
strikes and no cessation from duty by
any of our laborers, and as saconsequence,
while ruin and bloodshed were poured
upon Pittsburg and Baltimore, giving
their law-abiding people some of the
heartrending experiences of actual war,
we had the same peace and quiet which
has, ever since the war characterized
our laboring people. Having no mines
here or manufacturing Industries of any
general or extensive nature which nee
essarily draw together large bodies of
ignorant white people, our laboring
classes are nearly wholly made up from
hOBlOCSt VIZ dlC IOb COlAlSlChbAJ OSiiAS5
erent to ever give such troubles as fol-
lowed the recent strikes in Baltimore
and Pittsburg. During and since the
war, we have had full opportunity for
mental characteristics, and our judg-
ment is that be is not natural bellig-
erent as is the white man, hence in any
community where he does not largely
outnumber the whites he will prove
powerless to infiict injury through mob
violence, save in a very inferior degree.
In the sad conflicts between him and
the whites in the Southern States since
the war, in which 10, or 20, or 100 ne
groes were killed to one white man, we
regard the result as simply due to his
lack of true belligerency which has al
ways characterized the white race. He
is inferior to the white. The first i'm
pulse of the white is to organize and to
, elect his leader, hence be is powerful to
the extent of his combination, be it
great or small. But the negro lacks
f this great principle of strength, and
r where he attempts conflict with the
white, as he has in some cases in the
J Southern States since the war, the end o.
his strike or rebellion is swift, sure and
: bloody.
We cannot conceive that white mer
: are so lacking in organization and bel
hnf af fhoTso oOnIr
| be held in helpless, childish control, a!
r we're the blacks in the South during the
war. We have been in countries whert
o every able-bodied white man and lac
g were absent at times, and yet no slav,
D ever offered the slightest violence t.
a person or property of the whites. Their
!. was an entire absence of organization
n or combination among these slaves
= and no leader could have led them int,
= a fight against corporal's guard of tn
q native whites. 1t was not until the dis
J, ciplining power of the white man wa
|. felt by them as leaders in our colore,
:. regiments that he could fight, and evel
s then with the best of officers and discip
:. line he was not at all the equal of tn
q white private soldier. That he can
|, an element of evil is indisputed, but W
b have no fear of them here in mobs, 8
n long as there is not enough of the ig
norant and lawless white element to in
d cite, combine, and lead him into grea
and continued excesses. And such j
is his native lack of cohesion that he
even with his white leaders, would b
e scattered as chaff before the determine
e charge and onslaught of white police G
7. troops.
The German Scheutzenfest drew O
ID nearly our whole German populs
E. ton to it's beautiful grounds near th
city boundaries. 1t seems a commends
e. BILE custom, indeed, for any peoples
ID devote one portion of the year to plea
ID ure, putting aside for the time beinl
r, business care and turmoil to engage j
E. outdoor exercise and qualities whic
t, arouse and keep warm and fresh tt
es memories of their fatherland. But "
n, cannot tappreciate the necessity of who'll
Id sale imbibing of lager beer as the OF
o. essential means of fcommemorating an