The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1896-03-06
GROVERS IDEA OF THE WEST

We are glad that Representative
Hartman took occasion to resent the
unjust and unwarranted remarks
President Cleveland saw fit to make
with reference to the West in his add
dress before the Presbyterian Mission
board The speech revealed Mr.. Cleve-
land in his true light, narrow, provin-
cial, bigoted. prejudiced, TO the core.
Mr.. Cleveland was never farther west
than Minneapolis, yet he told the good
Presbyterians of New York all about
this strange, far-a-way, unknown
country, it's semi-civilized conditions
and its wild and barbarious people
Listen to him:
No one charged with the duties and re-
sponsibilities which necessarily weigh
upon your chief executive can fail to APP
preciate the Importance Of religious
teachings and Christian endeavor in the
newly settled portions of our vast do
main 1t is there hot and stubborn war
fare between the forces of good and evil
is constantly invited. In these days the
vanguard of occupation In a new settle
ment is never without its vicious ana
criminal element. Gambling houses and
dram shops are frequently among the
II must also be confessed that removal
from old homes and associations TO new
and more primitive homes has tendency
among honest and respectable settlers TO
smother scruples and breed evil indiner-
ence to Christianzing and elevating agen-
cies. These conditions IL unchecked and
uncorrected, fix upon the new community
| by their growth and expansion charac-
| ter and disposition which. while danger
| Gus to peace and order in the early stages
| of settlement, develop into badly regu-
, lated municipalities, corrupt and unsafe
| territories and undesirable states. These
| churches and this religious teaching
| were never more needed than now, on our
distant frontiers. where the process of
forming new states is going on so rap
| idly, and where newcomers who are TO
| be the citizens of new states are so rap
| idly gathering together.
We would not like to accuse Mr..
| Cleveland of being addicted to yellow
colored literature. but his knowledge OF
the West seems to have been CLEANED
from such sterling works as Rocky
Mountain Pete. or the Wild-Eyed
Corpse Accumulation of Grizzly Gulch,"
Tombstone Gallagher. or the Deadly
| Avenger of the Lop-Eared Mule. "
The Bandits of Whiskey Straight or
Calamity James Fatal Bet on the High
Card" and the like. The president
may also have derived much of his ex-
haustive and accurate knowledge of
| the West, its people. customs and mans
ners, from careful and constant peru
sal of that able and influential expo
| nent of western journalism, The Ari-
iona Kicker"
| Mr.. Cleveland should give US a bill
OF particulars. Where are those badly
regulated municipalities" OF the West :
Are they any worse regulated than
scores of municipalities in the East
with ats two centuries of civilization
Are those corrupt and unsafe terri
tories any more corrupt and unsafe
than territories right In the heart OF
New York. Chicago. Baltimore and
Buffalo? Are those undesirable
states undesirable from any point oi
view other than that of gold monomet-
allism? The fact is. as every west
erner knows. and as every honest and
observant easterner who has Travelled
in the West within the last ten years
knows. too. there exists no longer any
essential difference between the socia
conditions OF life in the West and tht
social conditions of life in the East
There is bad everywhere, but in nd
sense does the bad predominant over
the good here any more than IL pre-
dominates over the good there. Hot
and stubborn warfare between the
forces OF good and evil' Is as constant
~ invited on the one side Of the Mis-,
sissippi river as the other. Butte has
its epidemics OF highway rotberies. So
has New York. Butte's city council
sometimes INDUCES in thoroughly dis