The Washington herald., 1911-04-16
Arrived in Washington State NTH Ten
Dollars and Fought His Way to the
Senate Against Grafers and
Wealthy Opponents.
By JAMES b. MORROW.

By JAMES b. MORROW.
When Miles Poindexter, aged twenty
three, six feet in stature, lean as a bone,
dark-eyed. big jawed. and eager, arrived
in walla walla he had SO. no more and
probably a few cents less. He did not
know a man or a woman in the place
In eight months, Miles Poindexter was
married In thirteen months, he was
prosecuting attorney of the county. He
was a Democrat in those primitive days
of his fast achieving conquests. Renounc-
ing Bryanism-never accepting it, in fact
he turned Republican. Then he was
elected judge of the superior court Two
years ago he came to the House OF
Representatives. Sworn IN on March Is,
he Immediately began discussing the
rules. Cannon, he thought, had develop u
into tryant 1t was not an original
discovery, but 1t had not been proclaimed
over1nuch.
On April 1, two weeks in Congress,
Miles Poindexter addresses himself to the
tariff. He opposed a tax on tea or cof-
fee. A reasonable tax on incomes. how
ever, was defensible from any and all
the aspects of justice. The following
day, in eulogy of Francis w. Cushman.
deceased, the homeliest, the kindliest, and
the wittiest man in Washington, he said:
I'VE learned as children, and we be-
lieve as men, that there is a great and
ever-present God, that He is in this
chamber, that He is outside in the glor-
ious brilliancy of this spring day, that
he rides upon the storm and exists in
the blooming flowers" Thus, by some
analogy difficult to follow, the soul and
spirit of Frank Cushman will be with US
forever"
Before he had been in the House of
Representatives a year. Miles Poindexter
became a candidate for United States Sen
atCr Four other men, all of them rich and
one of them a millionaire, were also am
bilious in the same connection. Miles
Poindexter stumped the State on both
sides of the Cascade Mountains. The re-
turns honestly counted and grudgingly
announced in some quarters. showed that
he had received 10000 more votes than
all OF the other candidates put together.
Boyhood in Virginia.
Accidentally, almost, he was born in
Memphis. His father had fought as an
officer in Stuart's cavalry for the Con-
federacy. Losing his property, he was
in Tennessee temporarily. PoindeXter's
bcyhood, however was spent in Virginia,
mostly in the home of his grandfather
e. judge), on the banks of the James
River. He worked with a party of sur
veyors and in a governmental fish hatch
cry after leaving college. Then he took
a course in law at Washington and Lee
University. John Randolph Tucker was
one of his teachers. Tucker had been in
Congress where he was chairman of the
Ways and Means Committee for a short
period He was a fine orator and an able
lawyer, and brought to his students
worldly atmosphere and considerable out
side knowledge.
Having been graduated in June" I
said, you started for Walla WaIla in
October. What caused you to go there?'
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. literature" Mr..
Poindexter answered. 1T was alluringly
written and strikingly illustrated. and
pertained to the city of Seattle. l saw
mighty steamships sailing down Puget
Sound enveloped in smoke, and could al
most feel the throb of the engines. 1
beheld wide streets alive with the hurry
of commerce. So l took a train for Seat
tie. Reaching Portland. however. / was
advised to locate in Walla Walla-"
Had you any means?"
''Oh, yes. My recollection is that
had about so. l opened a law Office at
once. The judge of the court made me
a referee now and then and occasionally
some lawyer would give me a small fee
for taking evidence. / was desperately
poor, but 1 broke ground, and in a year
and a month was prosecuting attorney of
WalIa Walla County"
Having been elected as a Democrat"
I added.
Yes; but / left the Democratic party
in 1896. Free trade, the free coinage of
silver. and the sociaIistic planks in Mr..
Bryans platform caused me to vote for
William Mckinley. l have been a Re
publican since that time. A year later
1 moved to Spokane because it was the
larger town. l was appointed assistant
prosecuting attorney, taking the place
that 1 might have something on which to
live while building up a private practice
in a strange community. Although /
didn't get rich. 1 bought comfortable
home and did very we'll for young man.
II a few years i was elected judge of
the Superior Court"
Prosecuted a Banker.
How did you obtain the nomination
for Congress in 1867?
THE Cascade Mountains divide Wash
ington into two great regions. Seattle
and Tacoma are west of the mountains;
Spokane is east and near the Idaho
boundary. l had come into some news
paper prominence throughout Eastern
]. X Edmiston had settled in Walla
Walla as the agent of several Scotch loan
companies. He was a Scotchman himself
and at first was poor and meek person
ally. Becoming prosperous, he organized
the Walla Walla Savings Bank and was
elected president of the company After
ward, he started bank in Seattle. When
the bank at Walla Walla failed ii was
discovered that Edmiston had used the
money of his depositors with which to
speculate in land and TO help other of
people lost all their savings.
Feeling was so bitter in the town
that Edmiston's lawyers obtained a
change of venue and the trial took place
at Pomeroy. in Garfield County l didn't
know the people of that region and so l
hired a local attorney simply TO help me
select a jury. / wanted farmers. hard
headed men who were naturally preju-
diced against horsc-th:eves and bank
hooters. / got eleven farmers, but a
banker was accepted before realized the
nature of his business. Edmiston had
employed three of the best criminal law
yers in Washington. The superior Judge
of Wslla Walla County came as witness
but he sat among the counsel for the
defendant and assisted them at least
by his presence IL not by his suggestions
Banker Juryman Wins.
Ladies' from walla walla walked the
Streets, calling me an adyenturer and a
destroyer of character. / was a very
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