The islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1891-1899, 1894-10-11
eloquent speech on the floor, Dut oe-

eloquent speech on the hoor, puI NC
lieve that he serves you best who care
fully avoids piling unnecessary laws
OH the already overburdened statute
books. Tie conflicting, unconstitu-
tional laws already there give too much
work for our Supreme Court, and the
man who helps to enact only absolutely
necessary laws, and endeavors to secure
speedy adjournment serves you most
aithfully-always excepting where a
principle is involved, for, as our present
laws make it the duty of the legislature
to elect those who shall mould legisla-
ton for the people in the upper house
of Congress, no honest man, acting as
your agent, will allow poor or bad
man to be chosen in order to break a
deadlock and go home.
The people of Washington are suffer-
ing from unconstitutional road laws,
which virtually leaves us without any
legislation on this important subject,
and speedy strengthening out of the
tangle into which they have been
brought is absolutely essential to the
development of our county.
Our present method of collecting taxes
annually is an actual hardship to the
tax payer, and the privilege of paying
quarterly or semi-annually would give
him all the advantages of the install
ment plan, which puts so many things
within the poor mans reach that other
wise he could never get
The method Of assessing by counties
as practised in our state is one of the
large leaks of the public treasury which
a system of township assessing would
largely reduce as we'll as do away with
much of the business of the equalization
boards.
This unprecedented action on the part
of our people, where party lines are
forgotten, is due, believe, not only to
a desire TO free our county affairs from
Ring Rule, and secure purely business
administration, where business merit
and principle alone will count, and
partisanship be forgotten, but is also a
protest Oh the part of the agricultural
class against the oft repeated claim that
we, the great class that produce all the
wealth of the nation, who redeemed
the country from barbarism and made
one it Ofthe richest on earth, who were
chiefly instrumental in making our
nation in the Revolution and saving it
in the Rebellion, whose sons fill all
positions of honor and trust in the land
and whose vigorous, healthy blood in
fuses the life that builds up and main
tains our cities should not be capable Of
self representation in our law making
assemblies, but must needs look to other
classes to legislate for us.
And now, friends, when your con-
yer ton prevailed on me to accept
this nomination I stipulated that they
should not require me to make per-
sonal canvass, both because it was i'm
possible and unnecessary-impossible
because being farmer, like yourselves,
the next two months work are the most
important in the year, and unnecessary
because [ am more or less known to
most of you. And now trusting in the
justice Of our cause which is the final
effort of the people to get back to the
principles Of Lincoln Republicanism
and Jeffersonian Democracy, from
which we have strayed so far in the last
thirty years. l faithfully pledge you
my best efforts that we, of San Juan
county, may see a government of, by
and for the people, return to us once
more. Very sincerely yours,
JAMES TULLOCK.