Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1908-06-25
CHARGED
Continued from page one.)

mish county eXacted a written pledge
from Mr.. Piles, although had they de-
serted him, as the Walla Walla coun-
ty vote did, it would have forced
Piles to leave Olympia before the
third ballot was taken. But in the
absence of written pledge nobody s
honor is at stake, and there you
| have it.
| at is easily to be seen that the
greatest danger to Mr.. Piles candi-
dacy two years from now will come
from his interference in state politics
as planned by the Ankeny manage
ment.
What makes me believe that there
is no agreement in which Ankeny's
name is mentioned? Because Ankeny
had nothing whatever to do with
Piles election. On the first ballot
Piles had two votes from Whatcom,
two from Snohomish and one from
Clark counties. The twenty-five
votes promised us at Tacoma were
cast for Mr.. Sweeney. After the third
ballot I went to Mr.. Crocker and in
sisted that he fulfill his pledge made
at Tacoma. He said he was power
less to do so; that Mr.. Sweeney fur
nished the boys campaign expenses
and the vote belonged to him.
81 said: This surely does not APP
ply to Walla Walla, Mr.. Ankeny's
home county
"He replied: Yes, Mr.. Sweeney
financed the campaign there Also
He suggested, however, that if
Tom Sammons and l would approach
Judge Linn of Thurston county and
get him to throw out hint that he
would call a grand jury, that he,
Crocker, would guarantee that
Sweeney and Stevenson would close
headquarters and leave Olympia at
once. | talked with Summons and
we both concluded it would be a dam
gerous game. | also reported Crock
er's suggestion to Mr.. Piles. ! went
again to Crocker and pointed out to
him that Mr.. Wilson had fifteen
votes; that Piles had only five; that
unless he gave us the vote of Walla
Walla county, Piles, under a written
agreement, suggested by certain bus
mess men and the hold-over senator's
from King county, would have to
withdraw in favor of Mr. Wilson. He
replied that he was powerless; that
Mr.. Sweeney owned the vote abso-
lutely.
Il can produce the affidavit of rep
utable witnesses to whom Crocker
said not twelve hours before Mr..
Sweeney turned over the vote: Piles
will never be United States senator
| have it over his own signature,
wherein he writes: Piles will never
be SENATOR These are the reasons |
believe there was no agreement of the
nature the public is Id to think exists.
did I suspect Crocker of double
dealing? Not until some time after
the Tacoma convention. On two or
three occasions during the 1904 cam
paign 1 happened to be in the inter-
nal revenue office at Tacoma. l did
not resign from the internal revenue
service to go into the Piles campaign
until December, 1904. l saw Croker
and Stevenson go down into the
vaults. There could be only one OBJ
ject in these visits to the vaults
Mr.. Stevenson at that time
was managing Senator Turner's cam
paign for governor, and he was open
~ and aggressively fighting Mr..
Piles. In answer to my questions
Croker said: Leave George to me;
I'll fix him when the time comes.
Whatever else can be said against
he cannot be charged with
louble-dealing. If he is fighting you,
you will find him doing so openly. In
saying this, am not to be understood
IS indorsing his methods. What |
mean is, he will not play at double
lealing.
81 do not know what Mr. Piles at !
itude will be. l know he is person
lily a warm friend of Mr.. Ankeny,