The Governor Candidate Who Refused the Union Label

It is very refreshing in these days of truculence to find a man who has the nerve to stand up for his convictions in the face of organized opposition, whether it be from the 'capitalistic' class or from the labor unions. It almost makes an old-line Democrat want to switch to a man who has the manhood to defy the mandates of organized labor as has Col. R. H. Hartley, one of the many candidates for the Republican nomination for Governor. In a letter to his manager in Seattle, Hartley wrote: 'I have your letter asking if I desire to have the union label placed on such printed matter as you may get out in my behalf during the campaign. I do not. Merely as a common citizen of the State of Washington, who under the law has a perfect right to aspire to office, I am a candidate for the nomination as Governor. If elected, I will serve all the people alike, no matter what their private affiliations may be. And to be consistent now as a candidate, I will not be labeled as the champion of any particular organization. It is a sort of cheap, cowardly truckling for votes that I will not indulge in, even if the office of Governor were the price of such indulgence. All my life I have been a consistent champion of liberty and the right of any man or woman to work when and for whom he or she may please, without the dictation of agitators, who are well fed and groomed at the expense of both employer and employee, and whose personal well-being seems to be in proportion to the amount of chaos they can create in our industrial life.'