The Collector of Port Angeles Strikes Back
A scathing defense against accusations of corruption involving the Port Angeles Town Company.
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.
While I am writing, let me make a single exception to the silence in which my enjoyment has grown apace since the performances in the resurrected Herald. It has been loosely charged by two or three newspaper editors that the Collector of this District has a moneyed interest in the town of Port Angeles. It is even stated that a committee of our Legislature disgraced itself by reporting a resolution throwing smutty words on a public officer of whom they knew nothing. It is quite repugnant to my notions to demand of any man a statement of his private affairs, but I yield to the determination of my friends that the simple truth shall be told. When the Port Angeles Town Company was formed, I had opportunities to secure nearly one-fifth of said company's property. If I availed of it for my personal gain, let me be condemned. I have no pecuniary interest in the town of Port Angeles, and shall never acquire one until in open market I can purchase on the same terms as any other man. I have advanced, without interest, a considerable amount toward improvements and institutions, and intend to pre-empt a claim back of the village site.
“Wherever the pruning knife has been laid in, the bleeding victims unite in a verdant exhibition of their several sores.”
Victor Smith's defense against charges of self-dealing in land speculation captures the early boosterism of the Olympic Peninsula. The tension between public office and private real estate gains remains a cornerstone of political scandal in the Pacific Northwest today.
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