Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1904-02-05
THE FIRST GUN FIRED
IN THE APPROACHING CAM
PAlCN IN THIS STATE.

Senator Warren Tolman Shows Up the Repub.
iican Diseord in the Last Legislature, and
he Rsitsrates the Protest Of Prominent
Republican Member Who Had Attended All
State Conventions for Score Of Years and
Who Declared That All Had Been Domnat
ed by Corporate Influence Democracy the
Safeguard of the People
State Senator Warren w. Tolman
of Spokane. generally recognized as a
candidate for Governor. delivered a
speech at the Jackson.day banquet at
Waterville, which is regarded as the
virtual opening of his campaign for
the Democratic nomination. The key
note OF his speech was that the only
hope for securing regulative railroad
legislation and for breaking the cor
poration grip on politics OF the State
is through the agency of the Demo.
cratic party. He referred but briefly
to national issues
Senator Tolman said in part:
In the State OF Washington we are
about to enter upon another campaign.
In that campaign We shall have no
time to fight national issues; no time
to argue to the people that the trusts
built up under the fostering power of
the Republican party have become a
menace to our national liberty and a
source of injustice and oppression to
every citizen; no time to point out or
argue upon the plain proposition that
the Republican party has become a
party of special privileges and that it
is administering the government in
the interests OF those who enjoy these
privileges, and not in the interests of
the plain people who carry the burden
of taxation and who are the support
and mainstay OF the government. We
shall not have time to point out the
corruption which has become rampant
in almost every department OF the
government under Republican control.
No time to show the people that Perry
Heath, the Secretary OF the National
Republican Committee during his term
as Assistant Postmaster General, built
up, fostered and participated in gi-
gantic sheme to defraud-a carnival Of
corruption intended to, and which did
enrich the ring at the expense Of the
government and of the taxpayers. We
shall have no time to tell how, when
this corruption was first brought to
light and Postmaster General Payne
was informed of it and asked what he
had to say. he replied: 'Oh, just say
that the Postmaster General laughed
1--WE shall have no time to tell that
the report Of the investigating commit
tee, itself part of Republican ad-
ministration, has not unearthed one
one-half of the grating ard corruption
which has been going on. We shall
not have time to call the attention of
the people to what that report shows,
or how official after official-Beavers,
Meacham, Castle, Tynor and others
were shown to be guilty of the most
outrageous thievery, dismissed from
the government service, indicted once,
twice, or perhaps dozen times, but
never tried or convicted. We shall
not have time to show to the people
that following its past policy, and
bound together as it is by the system
OF spoils in which its political leaders
oil participate, these men never will be
tried or convicted.
"Our time from the day the cam.
paign opens until election day will be
fully occupied by the conditions
brought about by the misdeeds and
shortcomings of the Republican party
in the State of Washington, and this
subject alone will be far too great for
US to handle as it ought TO be handled
in a single campaign.
"During the last session of the
legislature q Republican Senator, in
the heat of debate, stated that for
90 years he had been a member OF the
Republican party OF this State and
that during that time he had attend
ed all the State Conventions, and that
every one of those conventions, ex-
cept the last, was absolutely con-
trolled and dominated by the railroads
and other great corporations of the
State. This statement no one then or
since has attempted to deny. What
a record is that to stand upon in the
coming campaign! Twenty years OF
service for the great corporations, and
nothing done for the people. For 20
years, with some brief exceptions, the
misguided and deceived voters have
been electing Republicans to Office in
this State upon the theory that the
persons so elected would govern the
State and administer its laws, and yet
during all that time the persons so
elected to Office were simply puppets
in the hands OF the great corporations
of the State and abjectly did the bid.
ding OF those corporations, without
reference to the rights OF the people
by whom they were elected.
"It is not necessary, however, to go
into ancient history. Recent events are
still fresh in the minds of the people,
and those events can be used by us
much more effectively because they