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THE COLVILLE EXAMINER
Issued Every Saturday by the Stevens County Publishing
Company, Inc. Subscription Price $1.50 a Year; 5c a Copy
J. C. Harrigan, Editor and Manager
Roosevelt Makes More Money—for Whom?
When Grover Cleveland was president of the
United States, there was a panic—a financial panic
—in the land. The republican party press stood
out in regimental lines and pointed the finger of
accusation directly at the democratic party and
charged to its policy of government the fault of
the damaged condition of affairs. When Mr. Cleve
land caused an issue of $50,000,000 in government
bonds as an expedient for the occasion, there was
a shout of derision from the same grand army of
political Pharisees which could be heard from
ocean to ocean, and to this day—or to be more ac
curate, up to the 17th—republican partisans have
pointed to the Cleveland bond issue as the cause
and the beginning of the decadence of the republic.
On the 17th of November, A. D. 1907, be it re
membered, Theodore Roosevelt, guided by his
golden instinct, and amidst the clamor of the great
captains of finance in his New York home, where
the friends of his youth and shapers of his destiny
hold dominion over the cash boxes of this country,
did take action, primarily for their benefit and
secondly to give himself a political boost, author
izing the issuance of government indebtedness in
the sum of one hundred and fifty million dollars.
The announcement came with a pyrotechnic burst
of political enthusiasm, and the same republican
party press throughout the width and breadth of
the country is giving plaudit to the act of the
president as one of the sublime patriotic events of
history.
It would seem that the press of the country (and
this has reference to our republican pencil wielders)
if it will not be consistent in pleading the cause
of the people, should at least observe some rule of
honesty in dealing with the subject. If Roosevelt
had been a democrat, and had been honest with
the people in providing the relief with which he is
credited, in the manner and form aforesaid, these
same newspaper magnates would have been the
first to raise the howl of terror. In their condem
nation of him the English language would fall
short for the purpose, and their anathemas would
seethe in such agony of rage that they would even
have the socialistic radical as their ally in stirring
the dregs from the bottom of the pitcher before
administering the poison of annihilation.
It would seem that some men are so thick headed
that death must fold them in its kindly embrace
before the fact will soak through to the alleged
gray matter advising them that while his excellency
is preaching virtue, he is as industrious in the
practice of political hypocrisy. It is his stock in
trade, and he makes it pay all his political bills.
The great trust buster, in issuing one hundred
and fifty millions of credit, has placed the brand
of incompetence upon his past management and
that of his party—and the people pay for the
brand. But at the same time he has placed in the
hands of the supposed victims of his bogus fury
a club with which to beat the financial life out of
the people within the next four or five years.
Statisticans in the fruit trade have announced
that $10,000,000 worth of fruit has been shipped
out of Washington this year. This with the im
mense wheat crop and the lumber, vegetable and
mineral output of the state should be sufficient to
bring prosperity to all people within the confines
of this great state of the northwest. But Wash
ington has supported the men who have supported
the trusts. By ballot she has shown her
approval of the party which has allowed matters
to come to a climax. Her congressional rep
resentatives are not on record as having
attempted to stay the course of events which
have led to a country-wide domination by
money. There is a cause for Washington's pres
ent condition. The blame for the present status
is no small one, and an accounting for sins of
omission and sins of commission must inevitably
follow in the lives of the people's representatives.
What disposition shall be made of men who have
betrayed the people's cause will be determined
within the next 11 months.
Spokane is making great effort to line up business
interests in the Palouse and the Big Bend countries,
to boom their industries, and incidentally to push
Spokane products into these sections. It is a good
move and will redound to the benefit of all parties.
But in reading glowing accounts of advantageous
openings in these same sections, a puzzling ques
tion confronts the Stevens county resident, Why
is Spokane blind on the north side? If these parts
of Washinton had one-tenth the natural resources
which Stevens county offers, there might be excuse
for partizanship. Purely on business principles
Spokane might profitably pay more attention to
her superiors on the north—superiors in that they
live amid advantageous conditions which Spokane
county does not possess.
Stevens county is rich, but undeveloped. The
grand work which the Spokane Chamber of Com
merce and the 150,000 club have done has of
course indirectly benefited the entire state, and
even for small favors we give thanks. But why
should not Stevens county be given the place in
advertising matter to which her resources entitle
her? Why should prohibitive freight rates exist
on the short but crooked line which binds Colville
to the eastern Washington metropolis? Why
