Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1898-08-19
An Unreliable Dial.

| In order to make his recantati0n as
perfect as possible, to thrust the
ranking dart still deeper into the
hearts of his late associates, he pub
/ fishes a regulation half column in the
! Olpmpian, announcing the fact. 1t
appeared in Wednesdays issue. Its
effect was immediate. Clouds have
ever since oh>cured the political no.
riIon. The sun has >honr with dl-
mini>hcd luStcr. the birds have ceased
their cheerful twitter and the flowers
To- cXhale their delightful perfume.
Times indeed seem out OF Joint, and
the fusion forces, once So powerful,
are arrayiny themselves in sackcloth
and placing ashes on their heads in
token OF impending misfortune. Sor-
row sits enshrined in high places and
tribulation dwell> in the tents OF flu
sion's followers.
Mr.. Dial says that two years ago,
he, like many others, WAS caught up
in catachysm" and hauled into the
ranks OF the fusion party. Just what
Il catachysm is, matters but little; the
main thing is that Mr.. Dial found
himself, by some occult force, thrown
into unknown company. 1t may be
that his surroundings were not, as he
intimates, the most congenial, but it
cannot be denied that he made HIM
self very much at home in his new
quarters, and Immediately set about
taking every advantage of the oppor-
tunities presented. He did not aim
high, it is true, but it was probably
owing to the fact that no target had
doomed up of stalwart proportions,
and he contented himself with the po-
sition of Justice of the Peace, and was
raised a notch higher by his fusion
friends of the City Council designat-
ing him as the Justice who should do
the city business. True he lost this
distinction, when new fusion coun-
Gil came in, but as he does not in
clude this, the most plausible, in the
reasons for Topping, it doubtless cut
no figure in the matter.
The reason given by Mr.. Dial is
that he has compared the results of
fusion rule in Thurston county, the
past two years, with two years of rule
by the Federal government. and has
beee enabled to draw a comparison
that~is exceedingly Instantaneous
to the former. Just what acts or
policy, he has been able to use for
contrast, that has so decidedly
changed his views, are not given by
Mr.. Dial, and for the best of reasons
they do not exist. He processes to OBJ.
serve much benefit resulting from
Republican national legislation" at
tributing the benefit derived by this
country from famine abroad and
abundant crops at home, to Pro-
tection-an absurdity that greater
than he have advanced with astound-
ing insolence. He fails to discover
any benefit in the legislation of the
last assembly, when the very life
spirit of reform measures was knocked
out of those laws by the arbitrary and
prejudiced rulings OF a goldbug Su-
preme Court. He declares that he
cannot see wherein "the fusionists
have carried on any better govern
ment, more economically administered
in State or county, than their inn
mediate predecessors in Office" Well
that statement surely caps the climax
OF audacity. Mr.. D. is no fool, and we
have always rejected the idea that he
was rogue, but how to reconcile such
a statement with either common
sense or honesty, is beyond our ken.
The detailed statements of the State
finances show a most wonderful re-
duction of the costs of government as
we'll as a corresponding increase of
revenue that had been lost from in.
competence or wilful neglect of duty
of the previous administrations. The
same may be said Of the county SER
vice, and we can scarcely assume that
Mr.. Dial can plead ignorance of these
facts.
1t would have been better far that
no reasons had been given than such
untenable ones. The assumption
would then have been O natural one
that he, like the dog in the proverb,
had returned to his vomit, or like the
hog, to his wallowing in the mire.
IT matters very little how far the
German empire may have violated the
rules of neutrality observed by friendly
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