The Snohomish Turncoat
A young legislator betrays his constituents to join a chaotic senatorial deadlock in Olympia.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The boast of the Turner managers that they had a traitor in the Allen camp was made good today when Roscoe, the infantile statesman of Snohomish, after making the astounding explanation that he had grown weary of showing respect to the wishes of his people when they conflicted with his personal inclinations, announced that he would cast his vote for Turner. This unblushing acknowledgement of betrayal of his constituents and of the solemn pledges was met with loud applause from the Turner managers and heelers within and without the bar. Roscoe came to Olympia several days before the session opened with very exaggerated ideas of his own importance, and was immediately seized upon by Mayor Robinson, Tom Cavanaugh and Nick Owings, the local triumvirate, who dined and wined him while they dilated upon the bright future that lay before him. He secured the chairmanship of one of the most important committees and a place on the judiciary. All the while he was playing into the hands of Turner's managers. They cajoled and flattered him into the belief that by treachery he could attain fame, but he jumped the fence of his own political obligation only to find himself a dupe.
“The betrayal of a sacred trust, the transgression of an established rule of political parties, the violation of a solemn pledge, are hard matters to explain by any rule known to men of sincerity or moral backbone.”
Political deadlock and backroom horse-trading in Olympia are as central to Washington's governing culture today as they were in 1893. The tension between a representative’s loyalty to their party caucus and their constituents remains a recurring theme in Washington politics, just as it was for Roscoe and his Snohomish neighbors.
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