The Portland daily press., 1893-02-25

| any e1IecC ON the Portland DdHh IL Woulu
reduce its tax. One opinion from man
of the experience and knowledge of Mr..
Moves ought to weigh down the opinions
of scores of men who have no special
knowledge Of the subject and are iniiu-
enced perhaps by motives of personal
advantage. 4
1t is difficult to conceive of anything
more offensive to self-respecting work
! ingman than the patronizing tone which
the bosses of the Democratic party adopt
toward him whenever an election is in
the air. The hearts of these bosses are
! quite wrung with solicitude for his well
| fare for couple of weeks in the spring
| of the year and month or so every 9TH
er year in the fall. In the interval they
| take very little interest in him. But when
election day approaches they all put on
| deeply sympathetic look. As their pro-
| fessed solicitude is entirely insincere.
| they are constantly doing things and
saying things that betray their hypoc-
risy We had good illustration of this
when a few years ago Democratic can
didate went masquerading through this
district as the special friend of the la
boring man. He had not been on the
stump week before his real opinion
of him cropped out in a speech
in which he talked about the ia
boring and the lower classes" clearly re-
vealing his real opinion to be that labor
was degrading. The Hon. M. P. Frank,
another dear professional friend of the
laboring man, revealed unconsciously
the true inwardness of his friend
ship when last Saturday evening
he announced that he had been
selected on behalf of the common peo-
pie and the citizens of Portland to voice
their admiration of the Hon. Darius III.
| that workingmen constitute class by
themselves, apart from other people,
that they are men of limited educa-
ton, of low tastes, that they are
readily imposed upon, that they
look upon everybody who has accumu-
lated property with envy and hate, that
| they are dependents who need protec-
ton, runs through all the appeals the
Argus is making to them now, and is in
| the habit of making about election time.
To every self-respecting laboring man
such stuff must be intensely disgusting.
| A SPECIMEN OFF ARGUS FALsEHOOD
The morning after Mr.. Baxter was
nominated the Argus mysteriously al
| luded to letter written by Mr.. Baxter
some years ago and addressed to his
fellow citizens, adding this insinuation:
revival of this letter might be of interest
| to citizens whose Americanism cannot be
| traced back three generations. People whose
| immediate ancestors came from Scotland, Eng
| land Ireland or Germany will doubtless remem-
| Der the author OF a letter "To my fellow citi-
| ZenS."
This was on the local page. Yester-
day morning the editor of the Argus
who apparently does not read the local
page, hunted up this letter and pub
|slished it. The letter is as follows:
To mig FELLOW Citizens;
Gentlemen-I am made aware in so many
ways Of disposition to make me the nominee
not candidate for the Office. and should the
sHonid be- Obliged S to decline it. except upon One
condition, which will, undoubtedly be
considered an impracticable one S This
1eas9n is that select vos sound vaoa
wards in the boards Of aldermen and
councilmen The constant complaint among
| ness of the municipality wholly unfit for so re-
| sponsible a position. We all admit that the
| municipal business demands the best talents of
| the community. Certainly, whoever is elected
| to be your mayor will need the aid of competent
men, If you expect him to make his administra
ton as useful to you as it ought to be- It rests
wholly with the best men in every ward OF the
city to select the best men to represent them.
and believe they oughtto do so. I we'll know
that this expression OF my views will cause me
to lose my availability as candidate. but shall
preserve my self-respect thereby. The honor
which any office could bring me, I should re-
gard as secondary to my usefulness to those
Yours most heartily,
JAMES P. BAXTER.
Now there is not phrase or word in
this letter that can be tortured into any
such meaning as the Argus undertook to
give it in it's allusion published above.
There is not the remotest suggestion of
any race distinction. Mr.. Baxter merely
made it the condition of his nomination
that sound business men, men compe-
tent to properly transact the business Of
the city be placed upon the ticket. The
Argus has made the same suggestion
hundreds of times, the PRESS had done
the same and the great majority of our
citizens have always entertained this
view. Though undoubtedly that was
not the Argus's intention, it has done
Mr.. Baxter real service in reviving this
letter. At the same time it has convict
ed it's local department. of maliciousl y
false insinuation.