The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1904-12-05
COMBINE HAS
Been FORMED
Southeastern Washington Leg
isIators Have Organized
STAND To6ETnER And VOTE As UNIT
Looks as Though They Will Support
Charles Sweeny for United
States Senator.
STAND TOGETHER And VOTE As UNIT

The members of the legislature from
the counties in southeastern Wash
ington have formed a combine and
have agreed to stand together on al
most every proposition that comes up
in the legislature, and the combine will
extend as far as the senatorial fight
This organization was effected in Port
land Saturday at which there were
present the following: State Senators
G. B. Wilson, of Whitman; A. S. Rus
sci, of Garfield, Asotin and Columbia;
F. M. Pauly, of Walla Walla; C. T..
Hudson, of Franklin, and G. H. Baker,
of Klickitat; Representatives Peter
McGregor, of Whitman; DR.. H. C. Full
ton, of Asotin; w. M. Rudio, E. r..
Henderson, w. H. Weber, of Walla
Walla; F. Allen, of Franklin; Lee A.
Johnson, of Yakima; W. Coats, of
Klickitat; j. M. Stevenson, of Ska
mania, and G. w. Bassett, of Adams.
In addition to these, Representative ].
of Whitman, sent word of their will
ingness to abide by any agreement
made by the men in attendance
Representative Lee Johnson of Yak
ina county was chairman of the mee.-
ing and Senator Baker Representa-
tives McGregor of Whitman and Ru-
dio of Walla Walla were appointed as
a steering committee.
The members of the combine agreed
to stand together and work as unit
on the following measures: Organiza-
ton of the house of representatives,
railroad commission, irrigation meas
ures, open river legislation, United
States senatOrship and all other ques-
tons affecting the good of the state as
whole and southeastern Washington
in particular.
In printing the story of the meeting
the Portland Oregonian says:
when the matter of standing to-
gether in support of a senatorial cam
didate was brought up, no names were
mentioned with the exception of one
of the men present emphatically de-
clared they would never vote. Tales
have been coming over from east of
the mountains to the effect that An
keny would throw what strength he
could to Charles Sweeny, and color Is
given to these reports by the fact that
a number of the men in the southeast
combine are very friendly to Sweeny
and will undoubtedly vote for him if
they have an opportunity. The geo.
graphical location of Spokane, which
is Sweeny's home, has been used by
the Puget sound men as an argument
against the Spokane mans securing
Ankeny support. 1t has been figured
out that the east side should not have
both senators. To this objection
Sweeny and his friends do not sub
scribe, and with Ankeny men and
Sweeny men meeting at a love feast,
it seems highly probable that Senator
Ankeny has no objection to seeing the
Spokane man win out if he can do so.
TT is stated by men who are very
close to Ankeny that he would much
prefer to see Sweeny elected now than
to have him defeated, to bob up again
as a contestant for the Ankeny seat
four years hence. In this line of reas-
oning it will be observed that King and
Pierce have been eliminated from the
list of counties holding candidates elig
IDLE for east side votes. This is made
possible theoretically-and perhaps
with something more than theory be-
hind it-because a King county man
will not vote for Foster, and a Pierce
county man will not vote for King
county candidate. An effort has been
made by the Foster people to secure
some support from Ankeny, but the
refusal of Foster to come to Ankeny's
assistance when he was badly needed
two years ago is still ranking in the
minds of some of the best men in the
Ankeny crowd, and Foster will receive
scant consideration from them
Democrats for Turner.
The story comes from Spokane that
the democratic members of the next
legislature, eight in number, will cast
ner as United States senator.