The Political Prostitutes of the Turner Camp
A fiery editorial denounces two local politicians for switching allegiances in a high-stakes U.S. Senate nomination fight.
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.
For the desertion of Senator Allen by Roscoe, of Snohomish, it is of small consequence whether the public accepts the explanation that he is a fool or a knave; he is certainly one or the other. He signed the caucus call, entered the caucus, and then, after voting to make John B. Allen the nominee, made a solemn pledge to support him until released from that obligation. He broke his faith either because he was too big a fool to rise to the level of a man of honor, or because he was knave enough to sin against his lights. Roscoe's action recalls the sidewalk philosopher who, seeing a dog jump through a plate glass window and shiver it, said: 'Well, we know of the dog, anyway, by the hole he has made.' The other political prostitute, Senator Rutter, has been plying his vocation in so many different camps for so long that his resumption of old habits was not a surprise. These two fellows are the Siamese twins of folly and knavery.
“Roscoe and Rutter ought to go into business partnership under the name and style of Noodle & Knuckle or Fool & Knave.”
This vitriolic editorial reflects the fierce partisan brawls of 1890s Washington, where party loyalty was enforced through intense public shaming. While modern political rhetoric has shifted, the deep-seated local obsession with 'betrayal' and party discipline remains a fixture of civic life in the Pacific Northwest.
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