Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1897-11-19

Lit Us Have Harmony.

>,curc TIA" location 81 L::-iu.-~ inter-
,~t~ which -. provide I'ay'"l'~ Of
labor in oar mi!-l. il ,n;-l; tc SILL i"
con~id.r u:c I:,y t" ,l.">. enterprises
which have alrrAJ, H-~lun,d 4 larg"
portion ii the burden and responsible
ity incident t. tie building up "f Il
prosperous local government. We
know, from both observation and ex-
periencc. that people are prone to for
get the promises made OF encourage
ment and support. the moment money
is invested in amy local improvement
and the enterprise becomes Il part "i
the business actualiticS al the com
munity. II seems to hr assumed that
ii can then look out for itself, while
while the same Establishments are TN
blushinglv u,cd to induce the next
seeker for investment to repeat the cX-
perlcncc.
\ few weeks ago, our people were
wild to secure the location OF Il shinglc
mill on the jefferson street railroad
spur, and thousand dollars were
speedily raised to extend the track as
an inducement, while not Il thought
had been given to the subject as 9
relief to the mill already established,
which has had for many weary months
to haul its product block to the cars,
although that mill was employing
quite as large II crew as the delusive
shingle-mill protector held out tenn
porarily lis an incentive.
another enterprise, which has done
more than all others to enable Olym-
pia to keep well forward in the ranks
of progress has been our Light and
Power Company. What it has done
to merit the hostility OF the public, it
would be difficult to explain, and that
citizen who are otherwise fairly sensi-
BILE business men should engage in a
boycott of Il company that has, amid
the most disheartening circumstances,
maintained an excellent car and light
ing service, is beyond mortal ken, I'M
less it be to cater to the prejudices of
few people who have become NOR
bidly ill-tempered from the force of
adverse circumstances. 1t may be i'm
possible for those people to see that
anything good may come out of Naza-
reth, but that others should become
purblind from sympathy is an anom-
ally as strange as it is unusual. The
Light and Power Company disburse OH
an average thousand dollars per
month in the community, and employ
a score or more of men, directly or in
directly, in their service, still when it
comes to aquestion of few street
lights, petitioned for by a large major.
ity of our principal taxpayers, the City
Council insists upon absolutely fixing
the rate to be paid, although the offer
of the company is for less rate than
for any other similar service in the
State. But our city fathers are con-
sistent, for they perform their onerous
duties by coal-oil light, although their
room is wired for electricity and piped
for gas. The Standard Oil Co. re-
ceives some benefit, while local in
stitution languishes and has been
twice saved from bankruptcy by its
present management, at great sacri-
fee to the interest it represents.
But this is not all. Now that oppo-
sition to the Light and Power Com
pany has assumed form of personal
hatred of its chief protector, a still
further means of embarrassment is to
be introduced, in the shape of acety-
lene gas, product of calcium carbide
carbon and hydrogen-and strange to
say, one of our leading drygoods firms,
has consented to be the pioneer in its
introduction and the champion for
downing local institution that, had
we not got it by the throat, we would
be employing our usual seductive
wiles and promises to induce to be-
come part OF our business commun-
ity!
The introduction of acetylene is to
be made without that thorough inves-
tigation which such step should en-
tail. If competition is to be waged
with an existing company, some equal
ly as good and safe substitute should
be provided. But when a novelty that
is already under the ban of the under
writers from its highly explosive ma
ture, is to be employed, it is time for
the community to enter an emphatic
protest and to counsel moderation of
zeal which seems to have been born
of malevolence.
It is so true rs almost to have passed
into a proverb that a railroad cannot
be successfully operated amid a people
that is hostile to its management, and
we have already seen the rails removed
from the tracks of several such enter
prises in the State. This should coun-
sci moderation. We should emulate
communities that have been eminentlv
successful through harmony of feeling
and unity of purpose. We do not
have to strain the eye to discover such
a leaven at work amid near neighbors
and it should counsel us to abandon
the boys play that has disgraced the
administration of affairs, public and
private, in this city, for many years
past. Our only safety is in union of
such powers as we possess, and any