The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1904-08-09
REPUBLICAN STRONGHOLD LIKE.
LY TO BE CARRIED BY Ex-
SENATOR TURNER.
Hundreds of the Faithful Will Refuse
to Vote for Mead for
Governor.

SEATTLE, WASH, Aug. 9.-GeOrge
Turner will either carry King county,
or hold down Albert E. Mead's MAJOR
ity here to a point where it will not
be of any material assistance to Mr..
Mead in overcoming OBJECTIONS else
where in the state, is the irresistible
conclusion which one must reach who
will investigate local political condi
tions.
This is & republican city and a re-
publican county. On occasion 5000
majority has been given candidates on
the republican ticket for various local
offices. So the task of carrying it for
Turner must be recognized as hercu-
lean.
years have demonstrated that there is
in Seattle that same Independent ele-
mnt of voters as in other portions of
the state, and those elections in them
selves constitute an augury of hope for
the carrying of the county against the
Farrell aggregation.
How Vote Has FIuctuated.
Always q stronghold of republican
ism, King county went for Bryan and
Rogers and the whole fusion ticket in
1896; James Hamilton Lewis carried
it when he was running for reelection
to congress in 1898; Governor Rogers
carried it IN his second campaign in
1900, and that same year a democratic
sheriff and prosecuting attorney were
elected, though the county gave Nc
Kinley 23OO majority. In 1902 that same
democratic sheriff was reelected by
500 majority, though some of the NOM
inees on toe republican ticket went in
by over 5000
SO much for demonstration that
blind partisanship is not rampant in
Seattle. Now for present conditions.
Rairoadsm has run wild here. No
where has corporate greed had the
that it has had here 1t has dictated re-
publican conventions in Seattle from
time immamorial. Two years ago,
when Harold Preston-who wore no
railroad collar-was able to force his
Endorsement for United States senator.
the railroads nominated Legislative
delegation which betrayed him. Last
spring the same corporate influence
forced the nomination and election of
R. A. Ballinger as mayor, and in the
early spring primaries and conventions
it put up Samuel H. Piles as a stalking
horse candidate for United States sem
ator in order to deliver the county
against Mcbride and for the lobby
candidate for governor.
Going down to defeat at the Tacoma
convention, the Mcbride men pulled
Piles with them. By offering to make
him senator in return for votes for Nc
/! Bride and forcing him to refuse the
his candidacy. They demonstrated
| that he was. while personally popular
and once a strong individual power in
the county, now a mere instrument in
the hands of the corporation which
furnishes Elm his bread and butter.
And that unmasking cleared the
vision of King countys independent
republicans. They saw that the county
had been made the plaything of the
Great Northern in it's fight to defeat
Mcbride. and murmurings of discon-
tent have been growing louder ever
since the state convention adjourned.
Everybody freely admits that Piles
himself was beaten for senator the
hour j. D. Farrell rode into Tacoma
and forbade him to combine with Nc
Bride. Nearly everybody will admit
| any man United States senator are NIL
| and there IS a growing feeling that the
people who have brought the county
into such disrepute should be punished
by having their state ticket knocked
| into smithereens.
Balance Of Ticket.
| AS to the balance of the ticket the
| horns will probably go with the hide
Judge Turner is much stronger than
| the balance of the democratic state
| ticket, and will doubtless get many
votes, which his colleagues will not !;
but, there's going to be a republican
cutting all down the line, and hundreds
of the faithful will refuse to vote for
any man nominated at Tacoma
| There is q lull in the Coon scandal