The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1908-08-19
DCRKIN IS \ JOkE.
Spokane Governor Doesn't Aspire to
High HOnOrs but to NOtoricty.


SPOKANE, Wash. Aug. 10
Jimmie" Durkin, saloon-keeper and
railroad president in Spokane and
champion of universal personal lib
erty, aspires to be governor of the
commonwealth of Washington. He
is Democrat, but in his declaration
of principles he does not do any loose
footwork. Instead. he tells what is
nearest his heart: 81 want the job
to be your next governor The plat
form is characteristic of the man and
is Durkinesque in its language. After
declaring that he wants the office
and that he believes he is qualified
to fill the chair of chief executive Mr..
Durkin says in part:
81 believe that when man as
pres to public office he should
throw himself open to public inspec-
ton, and if he can not stand on his
past record let him go way back and
sit down. have owned bulldogs
and game chickens. Fought them?
Yes, and | always got the other fell
lows money. because | had the best.
| see the error of the past and have
not done this since 1890. There is
good and bad in me and more bad
than there is good. But whenever
have given my word as a business
man the good has always come in
first. never having broken that word
in business way.
81 hav ebeen in the whisky bust
ness for the past so years, with no
regrets or apologies to make to any
body. | have aimed to conduct my
business and have succeeded in doing
it as we'll as any banker has run his
business in the state of Washington.
Abraham Lincoln sold whisky; he
made a good president. General
Grant drank whisky: he made both
a good soldier and good president.
| know of no reason why | have not
the qualifications to make you as
good a governor as has ever sat in
the governors chair from the time
this state was territory until the
present time.
you must not think 1t is the sal
airy attached to the office that ! de-
sire 1t is the honor of being chosen
your chief in the state that | covet.
The salary attached to the office |
will donate to the several charitable
institutions of the state.
"Of course. I am doing this as a
joke. and from a business standpoint
of getting before the public and
jumping right into the limelight-
all for the small amount of 500 il
costs any man to file as a candidate
under the new primary election law
in Washington and newspaper adver-
Using at that-the best medium in
the world for publicity. ! have had
the experience | advertised once for
cats in Spokane. Inside of "a hours
| was the proud possessor of 2S4 fe-
lines. I don't advise you to get into
trouble with your mother-in-law. but
IL YOU do and it gets into the news
papers YOU would have to live longer
than Methuselahs ghost to ever hear
the last of 1t.
AZ said | did it as a joke. If you
want to You can by voting for me
perpetuate the biggest joke ever per-
petrated on the.-ailroads and corpor-
ations in this state. They would not
find me a joke or make me one. Y
would he business then, as ! know
from past experience that capital and
corporations can always get hear
ing while the interests OF the COM
mon people and taxpayers can not
even get look-in | promise that
they shall both bet square deal and
if there is not a law on the statute
books that gives 1t to them, ! shall
do the best that's in me to see that
there is one.
at the time of the agitation as
to what President Roosevelt would
do at the expiration of his term OF
office, settled that question as far