The Bolters: Disappointed Office-Seekers Tried to Hand King County to the Populists
An editorial savages the Republican 'insurgents' of King County — a slate of men who wanted nominations, didn't get them, and now threaten to bolt the ticket and throw the county to the Democrats and Populists. It names names.
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 attempt to organise within the ranks of the Republican party opposition to its regularly nominated candidates in King county seems to be engineered and led almost entirely by men who wanted nominations and did not get them, aided and abetted by a few who have not affiliated with the Republican party for some time, but who have reassumed the name of Republicans in the hope of deluding real Republicans.
Among the leaders of this new movement to unite with the Democrats in the attempt to hand King county over to the Populists is J. S. Sallee, whose career in the legislature for the past four years is too well known and too thoroughly understood to require any comment. His grievance is that he was not nominated for state senator by the recent convention.
Another prominent leader is Richard Schmidt, who was formerly Harry White's Inspector of sewers. He also wanted nomination for state senator and would have been a most enthusiastic supporter of the whole Republican ticket if the convention had not preferred to nominate Hon. J. M. Frink.
Another leader is George Kinnear, who seems to have a mania for bolting a Republican ticket whenever he sees one. Still another is John Wallace, the only member of the Harry White party who is not a member of the White family.
Another is Dr. C. A. Gay, who ostentatiously became a Populist a few months ago and now is a Republican for disruptive purposes only.
So the list goes on down the long line of disappointed office seekers and men whose influence in politics always has been and always will be evil. Mingled with these are a few earnest but mistaken citizens, such as Amos Brown, who sincerely thinks the world is wrong and wants to right it; and Malcolm MacDougall, an excellent gentleman, who does not seem to realise that when a man attends a convention as a delegate, participates in all of its proceedings and casts his vote in favor of nearly all the successful candidates, it is not exactly the correct thing to step out of the convention hall and undertake to defeat the candidates whom he has helped to nominate. Mr. MacDougall is new to American politics and perhaps he may yet see the point of honor involved.
Altogether the leadership of the movement to assist the Populists is not such as to convince the rank and file of the Republican party of the earnestness and honesty of conviction of the men who are engaged in it.
“So the list goes on down the long line of disappointed office seekers and men whose influence in politics always has been and always will be evil.”
This is a 130-year-old version of the intra-party fight that still defines King County politics: factions accusing each other of being 'insurgents,' 'spoilers,' and closet opponents of their own ticket. Then as now, the most bitter fights were not between parties but between people who felt entitled to a nomination and the convention that denied them. The paper's confidence that it can read motives and name villains is a reminder of how long local editorial pages have been kingmaking in Seattle.
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