The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1903-07-21
MORE THAN A LOCAL CONTEST

Dave Larimer, the "Politician' of
the SpOkesman-Review writes as fol.
lows regarding the Walla Walla city
election:
| The Walla Walla election is practi-
cally the only topic of political CONVEX
sation the state over Newspapers of
all stripes have filled columns with
news of it and comment upon it, and
slate making and everything else is
suspended pending a discussion of it.
Now that the shock of battle has
cleared away, few remarks may not
be out of order.
The election was a triumph for
Governor Mcbride and the railroad
commission. The public has the word
of the Walla Walla Union. Senator
Ankeny's own paper, for that. Prior
to the election it declared that the de-
feat of the Ankeny ticket would mean
a triumph for Mcbride, and ? blow
at the prestige of Senator Ankeny.
Four out of six men on the Ankeny
ticket were defeated.
| Newspaper dispatches reported that
George H. Stevenson, Mr.. Ankeny' s
senatorial campaign manager and
head of the railroad machine, went to
Walla Walla, accompanied by his
faithful henchman, Senator Link
Davis of Tacoma, in an attempt to
stem the tide When Stevenson per
| sOnally mixed in. some idea of the
Importance which the railroad crowd
attached to the purely local contest
can be appreciated. Moreover, the
Portland OregOnian. ever a Staunch
friend and supporter of Mr.. Ankeny,
admits that his prestige has suffered
by the defeat of his local ticket.
The Ankeny people made one griev-
Gus error. which is mainly RESPONSE
BILE for their present plight. Mr.. An
keny is a United States senator. and
his friends had no business-from the
standpoint of political judgment-tO
permit his personality TO get tangled
up in the fight at all. The first edi-
tOrial of his newspaper. which ac-
knowledged that he was interested in
a squabble as to who should hold local
petty Offices, was an incOnceivable err
rOr; and each repetition made a bad
matter worse Had not the Ankeny
people themselves acknowledged that
Mr.. Ankenys fortunes and his home
standing were involved, the so-called
boxers" might have elected 40 tickets
without causing a ripple on the politi
cal surface The Waiia Walla election
would have passed off without even
the most casual notices in the state
at large
B. D. Croker no longer lives in Wal
la Walla county, and so far as heard
did not mix in the fight Certainly he
did not direct it. Had Mr.. Crocker
been in charge of the Walla Walla
fight, as he has been in control OF
past fights, he would not have left
the way open for Mr.. Ankeny's enc
mics over the whole state to claim
that Mr.. Ankeny was personally hui
inflated by the result.
So far as George Stevenson is con-
cerned, it is well known that he never
won a fight save at a legislature He
| md -o,.fo f
politics. Stevenson has about as
much idea of public sentiment in the
state as has the sultan of Sulu. He
has demonstrated this at the legis-
lature many times when he has forced
members under his control to need
lessly fly in the face of their cOnstit-
uents, to defy public sentiment when
there was no necessity for doing SO,
and to court political ruin and disas-
ter, when there was no cause for it.
AS a legislative manipulation Steven
son has few superiors in America. He
can give veteran lobbyists at Wash
| ington cards and spades. AS a shrewd
political dealer he is the merest nov
ice.
Aside from everything else, the
Walla Walla result is a personal tri-
umph for Ex-Governor Miles G.. Moore.
He seems to have been the director of
the successful fight of the boxers. -
At least the Ankeny newspaper has
given him credit for directing it, and
Governor Moore. like Governor Nc
Bride, can prove by his enemies that
the result was a triumph for him.
The result means that Governor
Moore, after years of political mac
tivity, has once more become a pos