EDITOR’S NOTE-BOOK.
The steady growth of this country is shown by the fact that in the last fiscal year there was a net increase of 2,154 in the number of post-offices. The total number is now 50,071. About this time it is interesting to learn that there are only 2,323 President’s post-offices with salaries of $1,000 and higher; and there are only 159 free delivery offices. The expenses of the last year exceeded the receipts by more than three millions of dollars.
Hostile Apaches continue to be troublesome on the Mexican border. They escape across the line and are safe from pursuit. These troubles will end when the two governments make permanent arrangements for the pursuit of marauders across the boundary. A temporary provision of that kind has existed, but it should be permanent—unless, indeed, our citizens fear Mexican soldiers more than they fear Indians.
A United States Court has decided in due form that an “Indian not taxed is not a citizen of the United States.” It is time he was made a citizen. The fiction of regarding the Indians as independent powers, and dealing with them as tribes, ought to be made an end of. The Indians themselves need the discipline of citizenship, and we need to free ourselves from a useless and harmful fiction. By all means keep faith to the last farthing, but make a man of this red brother as soon as possible.
A Connecticut paper soberly declares that a citizen of that state did not know the name of either candidate for the presidency until the Saturday before the election. And yet people unreasonably complain that there was too much noise in the late campaign.