Polk County observer. (Monmouth, Polk County, Or.) 1888-1927, 1911-08-01
RECALL CRAZY.

N~-~~
The women Of Seattle are recall
crazy. A few months since, one Of
the warnaest municipal campaigns
ever waged in any community held the
Washington city in its grip for more
than two months, and the result OF
that fight was the recall Of Mayor
Gill and the substitution of George
w Dilling, who stood as the reform
candidate Gill had been accused of
bargaining with vice and running the
city under a wide-open policy since
his induction into Office, and the anti
Gill movement grew so rapidly, and
took such firm hold upon the people
of the city, that he was recalled by a
substantial majority and Dilling NAM
ed in his stead. Dilling made frank
and open campaign. He told the peo-
pie of Seattle what he would do, if
elected, and he has kept all promises,
according to statements from those
who know. He at once reorganlzed
the police department and did his best
to drive vice resorts out Of business.
He succeeded to certain extent, and
probably Seattle is now freer from
graft and civic uncleanness than ever
before in recent years, but 1t appears
that the people are not satised. At
the general election in November,
1910, the women Of Washington were
given equal suffrage and the Gill re-
call was the direct result of the ex-
tension of the ballot to women. Prom
inent leaders Of the suffrage party
were instrumental in starting the agl-
tation, and the campaign against Gill
was conducted for the most part by
women leaders. By strange freak
Of fate, the same women politicians
who handled the Gill recall and were
most pronounced in their Remuneration
of the former Mayor and friendly to
Dilling, are behind the movement to-
oust the present Mayor Mrs. Cath
crime Stirtan, one of the suffrage lead
ers Of Washington, is at the head OF
the movement for new recall.
Immediately after Dilling's election
and his assumption of the duties OF
his office, Mrs Stirtan, who is some
thing of a faddist, and reformer"
with capital "R," endeavored to
inaugurate what she called needed
"prison reforms" in the manage
ment of the city's criminals. Mayor
Dilling had ideas Of his own in these
matters, and he refused to adopt the
plans suggested, and insisted upon by
the suffrage leader. His troubles
then began. Mrs. Stirten didn't pro
pose to have her pet theories thus
disposed of by "mere
man" and she didn't permit any ver-
dure to propagate under her pedal ex-
tremities She said, "well, if Mayor
Dilling wont do what | think he
should, III just recall him and put IN
somebody elsen So she started an
agitation that bids fair to plunge the
metropolis into another
bitter fight and run up an additional
bill of expense for the taxpayers.
The moral of this Seattle mix-up
isn't victory for the recall idea, es-
pecially in a woman suffrage state.
by their overwhelming
victory of last March, the suffrage
leaders are anxious to extend their
power still further and absolutely die
ate the policy of Seattle even in the
most petty particulars. That lis the
actual fruits Of the recall when the
privilege is abused. There is moth
ng really wrong with the Dilling adj
1t is admitted by even
Mrs Stirtan that he has managed the
lffairs of the city economically and
With credit to himself and his constit
lency Yet merely because he refus-
d to permit outsiders to dictate
ertain policy which, in itself, only
.ffected those who happened to come
lnder the ban of the police, the city
5 to be held up to ridicule and its
,urden of taxation increased.
Under proper conditions the recall
nay be made vehicle of great good
or the people, but, when its privileges
re abused as they most certainly /
ave been in the Seattle instance, it s
no wonder that many good citizens
biect to the provisions of the law.
IS application in Seattle, in a state
here all women are given the right 3
{ the ballot, offers field for study r
or the friends of equal suffrage and
lose opposed to the plan.