Seattle daily post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, W.T. [Wash.]) 1881-1888, 1884-06-07
INV SLAVERY OF THE PkEsENT
nAE


DAT
The following canstic and stringent
criticism of social conditions of the
present day was received by Mondays
mail. With the writer we are wholly
unacquainted. He vigorously tells the
plain, unvarnished truth:
BRooELYs, y. Y, May q.
EDITOR POST
Among the refreshing and independ-
ent expressions from Western journals
that come to rs now and then. ike prai-
RE breezes over our stagnant and sub
servient souls here IN the East, your
leader on the Grant failure stands no.
bly,. | look In vain. until heart sick,
among our journals, thick as autumn
leaves in Vaiambrosa," for one that is
fearless and independent. Even when
a correspondent makes a pat and pun
gent criticism 9pon the abuses of the
hour, be IL spurned to the waste baske:.
Compactness of numbers, closeness of
margins in resources and competition
for business or bread. compel "agreea
BILE relations with everybody; an eRer
waiting policy that has snothered out all
oId-fasbiOned American individuality,
given all conscience-keepin tn the ad-
ministrators of the law and all progress
to that general, involuntary and silent
social evolution that Is visible only af-
ter its results. Not an editor or cler-
ovman dares hit great name or inveieh
except ia general platitudes. Hero wor-
ship, rlamraon rule and servile conform
| ity TO the humor of the mass, are settling
upon Us like the sultry influence of
| tropical night. Each man fills his place
| in business, church, politics and society
| like a screw or bolt in machine. A
| clear thinker and bluff talker-by the
way, a veteran soldier and radical Re-
| publican said Grant ought to be in
dieted rather than pensioned, and he
was contemned as way of" Humility
is our public characteristic; We have not
the individuality of ants In their hills;
corporations outrage Us every hour OF
the day; a flannel mouthed policeman
| ia worth a street full of citizens; wealth
monopolizes position, influence and So
cial attention. A poor man of worth
may be respected, but no one wants to
hear from him; eminent lawyers by big
retainers magnetic juries; churches are
emporiums of fashion which are fruit
full of defaulters and prostitutes by In
directions: offices are filled by profess
sional politicians as a business founded
upon scientific routine that has bereft
American representation of all whole
some spontanoity. Tbs private social
worth that is forever relegated to OBJ
security stands here as ten thousand to
one against loud but hollow regulations;
we are fed on chat from the sanctum,
pulpit and bench. Get u living and
keep quiet" is the popular legend of the
times.
In the same issue of your paper no
ticed "A few sticks credited to the Oregon
Vidette against the crime of free passes.
1t was bold, trenchant, gifted article.
have been told by a conductor of a
railroad here, with 800 miles of track,
that every judge but two of the territory
through which that road runs, and eve
nv editor but one, had free pass; and
this road has been notorious for Its ex-
orbItant rates and contempt for public
convenience. But where can We write a
complaint or bring suit! have it not
in my mind to allege corruption against
those judges, bat this shows whittier
public sentiment has drlfted. A reso-
luton Was offered in liberal debating
club declaring the offer of a pass to a
public official as legally an attempt at
bribery; another was offered as to the
sxpedlency of Legislative action against
the possession or devise of great for
tunes. Both were smothered in com.
mittee. No popular preacher dares hit
a head, although 1t has been brought
home to them where the heads are
Fear of men IS our cardinal shame
Every morning and evening the press
deluge US with accounts of crimes and
vices that do not stir our impassive
pulses; men are daily convicted of Of
lenses and remanded to prisons more
comfortable than their homes, who in q
Western and Southern court room never
would get out alive. We leave our in
dignation to the District Attorney like
paid mourners. Ii has taken five years
to break up an assignation house in our
bon ton street, and then only through
the initiative of priest upon a Loo
justice of the peace. Preachers have
beslobbered officials with praise, we'll
knowing non feasance enough to indict
them. | know whereof | speak, and
can abundantly Justify in details of
fact.
SO we drift along in the middle of the
flood OF dull peace aud fancied good
ness, unconscious of our motion; and
when one takes his parallax at the
banks of old fashioned standards, and
sounds warning note, he is set down
as crank"
If your leader on the Grant defalca-
tion expresses your average popular
sentiment, and if your people there are
emancipated of all influence but an
Americans fealty to the laws of the
land and the fathers Bible, / would
like TO live among you.
WILLIAM HEMsTREKT.