Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1897-11-26
Oly's Boomerang.


The Oiympidn SAYS that the STAND
ARD made a mountain out of mole
hole" in stating that the determine
ton OF a leading business firm OF this
city to substitute the highly explosive
acetylcne gas for electric lighting was
an act that could not by any process
OF reasoning he rcconcilcd with sound
business judgment.
Let Us see about that. The opinion
was based upon the universally ac-
knowledGod obligation OF every mcm-
bor of Il small community to stand by
each step taken for assuming and
maintaining place in the front ranks
OF progress. The first effort that is
made to build up town-thc embryo
clty-is to encourage enterprises which
may give employment to labor, that
class Of citizens who constitute, to so
great Il degree, the consumers, and
whose earnings 90 so largely to MAIN
tain the margin Of profit on which the
tradesman is enabled to conduct his
business, as well as in developing a
field for al struggling industries which
enter as factors of general prosperity.
II it is a duty to encourage such en-
terprises to enter the field, it follows,
as a still more imperative duty, the OBJ
legation to maintain them after they
have been induced to cast their lot
with us. Amy other view of the matter
implies a stagnation of those life.cur-
rents that diffuse the soul with the
generous impulses that constitute true
manhood. 1t was cultivation of a
morbid and utterly selfish disposition
which developed in Shylock the ma
lignant hatred that could only be sat-
isfied by flow of blood.
The law of commerce." which lit
tie Oily attempts to apply in justifca-
ton, is, under its handling, like the
Dutchman's gun-more dangerous be-
hind than before, for that rule by no
means justifies misery, short-sighted
policy which illustrates the very object
that the selfish instinct prompts. The
essence of the unwritten precept, on
which Oily hinges his postulate, is
" Live and let live" No higher law
of commerce can be quoted than is
embodied IN the true meaning of those
words. This being conceded, the con-
clusion irresistibly follows, that any
attempt to popularize competitive
system of lighting in a community
which has induced company to erect
and maintain an adequate plant that
has been unable to pay much more
than the costs of operation, is, whether
designedly so or not, boycott-a lit
eral killing of the goose which has
been laying golden eggs or promise at
times when the public larder ran low,
and it was necessary for us to MAIN
tain a reasonable showing of enter
terprise in entertainment of guests,
whether we possessed it or not to
maintain the benefits we had been
SO many years so jealousy guarding.
Now is not the action charged
boycott2 .
Any deliberate act which weakens
or threatens destruction of a public
enterprise that is struggling for an ex-
istence, by those able to accord it
sustaining hand, is boycott, call it
that or what you will. That being
settled, the Oympian itself shall rem
der the verdict. 1t says:
"The Olympian agrees with the
STANDARD that to boycott local enter.
prise that gives employment to labor is
net proper way to build up town"
1t cannot be pleasant task for our
contemporary to attempt the defense
of such a fragrant act of injustice, and
we are by no means surprised that it
should have made a muddle of it.
Sophistry is the most difficult of men,
tai evolutions, and in difficult cases, it
is said, it can only be projected
through the stimulus afforded the
physical system by the olfactory
nerves-a power sufficient to discover
the side on which slice of bread is
buttered.