The Paper War That Split Thurston County

A weekly edition of “Nick’s Own,” or Weekly Olympian, has just been issued throughout Thurston county for the avowed purpose of crushing The Tribune; or, to put it in the exact language of the corporation Republican who has done more harm to the party than good in this county, “I will spend thousands of dollars to down The Tribune.” Probably that is the reason why one of the Tacoma papers contained the information the other day that Nick had sold one of his houses there for $10,500 spot cash. Col. N. H. Owings is hereby notified that The Tribune cannot be crushed. On the contrary, it thrives better by his secret or open opposition.

The people of Thurston county who have been here for some years are thoroughly aware of the “you-tickle-me-and-I’ll-tickle-you” racket of the old Murphy-Munson-Owings combination of the olden times. They remember how the ring played into each other’s hands so nicely that they had everything their own way for years. They were for revenue only, so far as the county officers were concerned, and as this was before the era of the new safety system of balloting, they generally had things in their own hands. The ring is trying to keep its end up by an addition to the county newspapers in the shape of a weekly “Nick’s Own,” the proprietorship of which is on a sort of co-operative plan. Several aspirants for county offices in the Owings-Murphy-Thomas Henderson Boyd combination have gone into financial partnership with the old ring, and the county is to be “worked” for all it is worth toward educating the voters to believe that the weekly Olympian is the real simon pure republican organ. The Thurston county people are not to be deceived twice.