Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1886-10-08
The Fifth Wheel,

Gov. Newell, the Peoples candidate
for Delegate to Congress, addressed u
large audi, nee in Columbia Hall, Sat
uri..y evening. His remarks were
mainly confined to national politics,
or rather to topics which embraced Il
scope as wide as our national domain
in their application. This is all very
well for buncome, but promises little
i'll practical results. A Delegate who
might undertake to engineer such
weighty measures through Congress
would simply make himself but for
ridiculc in the councils vi our national
Solons.
His speech demonstrated the fact
that ii is easier to find fault than il il
to suggest sensible or practical means
ii relief. Some of his ideas in this re-
spect were decidedly Utopian, and for
many of the real and imaginary evils
portrayed he suggested no plan for re-
form. 1t may be possible that he
deemed his audience Of sufficient intel
lcctual force to follow out the broad
premises laid down to a logical con-
clusion without the aid of leading
strings, and if this is true, it stamps
him at once as crafty politician if
not an overly eloquent speaker, for it
leaves each of his adherentS free to
adopt his own idea of the most cxpe-
dent means Of attaining the object.
There would be no clash on minor
contingencies in this method. Like
travellers on the roads to Rome, all
could go on contentedly in the con-
viction that they would "get there" by
any route of continuous approach.
The Doctor very evidently does not
feel at ease in his new decorations. He
found it very difficult to sufficiently
renounce the Republican faith of
lifetime to gain the confidence of such
hating Democrats as have been lead
into the Peoples fold, while the thrusts
made at Democratic policy were
nerved by the arm of knight of De
la Mancha and meant slaughter and
destruction. AS Il friend and sup
porter of the doctor remarked after
listening to the speech, He was in
deep water" and he might have added
with equal propriety, "and clutching
at straws."
Just what the doctor expects to ae-
complish by his candidacy does not
appear after the most mature refec-
ton. He certainly does not expect
to be elected. He owes the Republi-
can coterie in this Territory no love,
and still less to the Democratic party.
What, then, is the object of canvas
that will be so barren of results ? Can
it be possible that he sees in Mr.. Brad
shaw's nomination a rebuke to the Of
fice-holding clique of former days, and
seeks to advance his interests by draw
ing to himself votes that would other
wise be cast for Mr.. Voorhees,? This
seems to be the most plausible solu-
ton, and it may be another such con-
test as was inaugurated few years
ago by boiling faction in the Repub-
lican party, whose shibboleth was
"Talk Blinn, vote Mix" 1t was OBJ
served, and the subject of comment,
that very few of the supporters of kid
gloved snobocracy follow in his train,
and those that do will be very apt to
talk Newell just loud enough to keep
up the delusion till the polls close on
the second day of November, when
their votes will count for Mr.. Brad
shaw on the tally-sheet. The princi-
pies of the Peoples party, so far as
they are enumerated in the platform,
are essentially Democratic, and can
only make conscientious proselytes
from the party which always has been
the party of the people.