A Judicial Candidate's Newport Speech Turns Into a Personal Attack
George A. Allen came to the Opera House to talk primary law. He spent the evening savaging Judge D.H. Carey instead—before a crowd of about 14.
George A. Allen, candidate for the nomination for superior judge for Stevens County, was in Newport Saturday, and in the evening delivered a speech at the Opera House. He advertised to discuss the primary law and the politics of Stevens County, but his remarks were devoted almost exclusively to a tirade on the private life and judicial career of the present judge, D.H. Carey. There were about 14 people present to hear Mr. Allen.
Mr. Allen's speech was hardly such as will win him votes in the present campaign, and certainly was not such as to particularly point him out as the right man for judge of the superior court. It is extremely doubtful whether a man who will utter as bitter a tirade against a political opponent as did Mr. Allen is of the right judicial temperament to sit upon the bench. The judiciary requires at least moderation, evenness of temper and a perception of justice, but these qualifications were woefully lacking in the address of Saturday evening.
“It is extremely doubtful whether a man who will utter as bitter a tirade against a political opponent as did Mr. Allen is of the right judicial temperament to sit upon the bench.”
The 1908 primary was Washington's first direct-primary election, and the Newport Opera House became a stage for the kind of personal-attack politics that reform-era papers claimed to deplore. The crowd of 14 suggests how small the local political universe was—and how much a single speech could still shape a county judge race. Modern candidates still face the same question Allen's audience faced: whether a taste for political combat disqualifies someone from presiding over a courtroom.
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