The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1905-09-20
GREAT ARE THE BIG FOUR.

Great are the Big Four OF the wal
Ia Walla City council Last night this
august majority in one feyy swoop
abrogated the right of the people to
petition, a right guaranteed to the
English nation by Magma Charta I'M
der the hand of King John IN l2lo'
reaffirmed by James II in the Bill OF
Rights in 1858, asserted in the Declar-
alton of independence in 1716, relncor-
porated into the constitution of the
United States in 1889 and made
part of the constitution of the state
of Washington in 1889. The right OF
the people to petition for redress
of grievances or for any other pur-
pose that they please is a fundamental
right of the free American people,
and the attempt of four members OF
the city council to nullify this right
would be outrageous if it were not
known to be ridiculous by every man
not utterly ignorant of the history OF
free institutions The attempt is
as absurd as was King Canute's or
der for the tide to recele or Of the
less authentic attempt of Mother
Darlington to sweep back the ocean
with her broom.
That the Big Four of the council
have thus made Of themselves a
laughing stock for gods and men was
no doubt due to the arrival in town
Yesterday of their acknowledged
mentor and dictator, the archangel in
the conspiracy to create a monopoly
in the building of pavements in wall
Walla, Arcnambeau, the head striker
of the Warren Construction company
in the Pacific Northwest.
About two months ago the council
passed a resolution assuring the peo-
pie of the city that the question Of
what kind of pavement should be
laid on any street would be left to
a majority of the property owners con-
cerned, according to the frontage own
ed on the street That rule was fol-
lowed in deciding what kind Of pave
ment should be laid on East Alder
street and on East Main. If the
council had ignored the wishes of the
council on those streets by throwing
their petitions into the waste basket
and giving the contract to the Bar
Der Asphalt company despite the
cleariy expressed will of the property
owners, a howl would have gone up
from the bitulithic councilmen and
from the outraged property owners
that would have shaken the Blue
Mountains to their foundations.
But now the tables are turned. A
majority of the property owners on
North Fourth and Elm streets, when
free from intimidation and financial
inducement on the part of the Big
Four and their ringmaster petitioned
the council to pave those streets
with asphalt. Immediately the sap
lent dean of the council from the First
ward began to disparage the intelli-
gence of the property owners who
had signed that petition, declaring
that they were not capable of judging
what was best for them and that the
council should take matters into its
own hands regardless of the petitions
or circumstances of the people
Strange to say this shibboleth has
been adopted by three other bitulithic
subjects of the travelling hypnotist
employed in building up a monopoly
in Walla Wala for the Warren Con-
struction company. Just how he has
placed four councilmen under the spell
of his influence So that they obey ev-
cry command that he gives them. no
matter how unreasonable or absurd