The Port District Election Turns Personal
Editor A.R. Gardner calls for a focus on policy over personalities as the upcoming Port District vote approaches.
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.
We suppose it is some thousands of years too late to start in to work over and cast human nature in any different mold, but certainly it is to be regretted that the Port District question could not have been discussed, debated and decided squarely on its merits. Undoubtedly there are two viewpoints from which to regard the question and consequently two sides to the question, and it would be a mighty poor question were there not. Yet as we see it, the only point for the voter to decide is whether or not, from his viewpoint, the Port District is a good thing for the community. In this campaign, men and not measures have been made the issue. This is strikingly apparent in a communication from Mr. R. E. Pratt. We believe those who read the communication will agree with us that the writer lost sight of the real issues and has been led by personal feelings off on the wrong track. We shall not deny Mr. Pratt the right to his own opinions, but we are candid in the belief that the one result of this week’s communication will be to carry to the people the conviction that Mr. Pratt, after all, is not fighting the Port District proposition, but some few of the men who favor it.
“It is a fact, nevertheless, and a deplorable fact, that in the present campaign men and not measures have been made the issue.”
Local political debates in Kennewick over regional development and infrastructure often turn into proxy battles for larger social and economic disagreements. Much like this 1915 editorial, modern city council meetings often struggle to isolate the impact of a measure from the unpopularity of its proponents.
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