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TOLI TIC A L TOT TIE,
REGINALD H. THOMSON, for the past twenty
two years city engineer of Seattle, is to quit the
job to accept a similar position with the port
commission of Seattle, recently created by the
voters of the city. It is argued by the leading
citizens of the city that Mr. Thomson is by odds
the ablest engineer in the West, and ranks among
the ablest in the whole country and can do the
city a great deal better service as engineer of
the port than to continue as city engineer, as
the city work is so well advanced that in future
It will be nothing more than routine, while the
building of the port of Seattle requires a man with
not only vast knowledge, but of local engineer
ing experience such as Mr. Thomson has acquired
by being city engineer. Though Mr. Thomson's
selection was bitterly opposed
t>y a few claqueurs of the Bruce
Harbin stripe and a few old
granny women, yet the citizens
as a whole heartily endorse him
and feel absolutely safe in en
trusting the construction of the
port of Seattle into his keeping.
It is more than likely that some
one now in the engineering de
partment under Mr. Thomson
will be named and confirmed as
his successor.
CHARLES 8. PARKER, editor
of the Citizen of Spokane, in dis
cussing the gubernatorial out
look in the state says, "Win.
Pitt Trimble is cautiously feel
ing his way, and it is possible
he may be King county's most
formidable candidate." It is
barely possible, and even prob
able, though as yet he has made
no definite statement as to what
he will do. However, should he
get into the race he will be a
warm one from the very outset,
but this he has never said he
would do.
KENNY BEATON, who for
the past seven or more years
has been conspicuous in the
Journalistic arena of Seattle, but
■who recently took a fall out of
the political game which he has
given up, starts today for his
former home in Ottawa, Canada,
where he will settle down and
try to be good the balance of
his life. Rumor has it that
Kenny cleaned up a bunch of
money while in the business
that would make John D., of
Standard Oil fame, feel like tap
ping him for a ready cash loan. It is claimed he
made his biggest haul while editor-in chief of the
Star. Whether or not there is any real truth in the
allegation the writer verily doth not know, but
we do know all of a sudden he lost his job and
no cause was assigned.
OLE HANSON, who has been seriously ill for
some weeks past, is able to be out and was
presiding at the Disgruntled Club as of yore this
week. He vigorously denies being the Ole Han
son that escaped from Steilacoom and committed
suicide in the suburbs of Tacoma a few days
thereafter, but his denials have not been cor
roborated and the most of those who read of the
incident are inclined to doubt what he has to say
as to this allegation.
J. M. LAYHUE, assistant superintendent of
public Instruction to Superintendent Dewey, has
Announced his candidacy for the superintendency,
and he hopes to make a more effective latter day
campaign than he did some twelve years ago
under the old political order of things. Prof.
THE SEATTLE REPUBLICAN
Lay hue was twice elected superintendent of King
County and on retiring from that position became
ambitious to be state superintendent. He there
fore laid his plans for the state convention that
met at Tacoma to nominate him, but the King
county delegation elected a steering committee
with John H. McGraw at its head, and that com
mittee saw fit to give the nomination of every
place to outside counties with the view of get
t,ng support for King county's choice for United
States senator, and instead of Layhue being nom
inated as he had been assured, Prof. Bryan of
Aberdeen was nominated. On the convention
floor Layhue was outspoken and perhaps even
abusive at the treatment he had received, and
he could hardly be blamed, and he called upon
/A i&\
/I ¥ J% l\
his friends to bolt the caucus nominee and vote
for him. Some of them really did, but those of
his tried workers who did not he branded as
traitors and for years and even until this day only
speaks to them when he cannot help himself.
Among that number was the editor of The Se
attle Republican, and he always felt that Layhue
was far more selfish than fair and he always
thought the time would come when he would get
an opportunity to even up old scores, and it
seems to have come sooner than he had expected,
and he does not predict that Pror. Layhue will
carry King county with a sweep and a roar.
JACK STRINGER and three other Hodge dep
uty sheriffs are candidates for the nomination of
sheriff, and it seems to the piemaker that there
is a splendid opportunity for some good man to
get in and win the nomination hands down.
AL RUTHERFORD, county commissioner, Bays
he will never he a candidate for commissioner
again, which must mean that Al has been de
cided upon by the Dan Abrahams bunch to run
REGINALD H. THOMSON
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 6, 1911.
for sheriff. For Quite a while it was a debate
whether Rutherford or Abrahams would run and
they went out to feel the public pulse and it must
be that Al has been decided as being the stronger
or the two. Well, it seems to the Pie-maker that
Rutherford will have a hard time being elected
sheriff in the face of the extravagant record he
has made as county commissioner.
MATHEW DOW, one of Seattle's foremost
builders and contractors, and who frequently
dabbled into politics, has for the past year been
getting so much work in British Columbia that
he is seriously considering moving to Vancouver
and taking out naturalization papers. "If I should
decide to do so," said he one day this week, "I
would have no serious cause for getting homesick
as there are thousands of citizens of the United
States all over that country. The whole country
seems to be on one of the most substantial booms
that I have ever witnessed."
OTTO A. CASE, who desires
to be the next governor of the
state of Washington, Is so full
of hot air that his mouth acts
as the escape valve to the stor
age steam chest in his stomach.
Case for governor and Clayson
for secretary of state, and the
Republicans would have a state
ticket of which even In
mates of Steilacoom and Medi
cal Lake could point with pride
to.
H. A. NEIB, a former Seattle
policeman, who was arrested
while he was on duty, charged
with stealing a necklace from
a woman on whom he had called,
may not be guilty as declare*
both himself and his former po
lice associates in the depart
ment, but the sympathies of the
public are with the jury that
found him guilty. It seems
when the change came those
policemen given to grafting
took to down-right stealing,
when it was no longer possible
to graft.
MARC KLAW, the head of
the new playhouse of Seattle,
the Metropolitan, may have been
the center of a good many pleasa
nt gatherings in his theatrical
career, but in all his life it is
here ventured he never was in
one with more heart-felt en
thusiasm than the opening night
of the new playhouse. Klaw
and Court, our own John, have
been in a great theatrical war
for the past two years and the
Metropolitan is a result of that
war.
CHARLES PRYOR, a former
Seattle policeman, was found guilty last Tuesday
of criminally assaulting an unsophisticated Nor-
wegian girl whose acquaintance he made by of
fering to show her some place which she was
trying to find. Pryor's conviction makes the
fourth police officer of Seattle that has been
found guilty of having committed a felony while
on duty, which makes the average citizen feel
as if the city would be just about as well off
without any police protection as with hundreds
of bluecoats employed by the taxpayers at an
awful drain on their exchequer. Speaking about
the conviction of the policemen made an ex-po
lice officer fall into a remniscent mood one day
this week and he said, "If the general public only
knew half of the criminal acts committed by the
police officers while in the performance of their
duties I feel safe in saying that there would be
a general uprising and half of the officers of the
law would be lynched. The police officer, whether
you have a wide open or a closed town, that does
not make three and four times more than his
