The Colville examiner. [volume] (Colville, Wash.) 1907-1948, 1916-12-02

\ that year a fusion was formed in which
! the three parties, namely, the republic
ans, the democrats, and the silver re-
publicans We're to combine their forces,
each being entitled to four of the twelve
county officials elected The political
issue in this campaign was the Gold
Standard and the free coinage of sill
3ver. Locally however the issue was
sthe G. o. P.s against the Pops.
The 1896 campaign in Stevens county
will long be remembered as one fought
with the most unscrupulous political
sentrigue; for example, the former hon
1est John l.. Metcalf who was then the
auditor refused to place any of the
names of the fusion candidates upon
the official ballot. Whereupon a writ of
imandamus was issued by the state su-
pIeme court ordering the auditor to
reprint the ballots and place thereupon
all the names of the fusion candidates.
This order from the supreme court was
obeyed by the auditor but the new bal
lots with the fusion candidates names
upon them were never delivered to the
then 80 precincts in the county, but
the original ballots were delivered on
the day preceding the election, on which
day over one thousand fusionists were
obliged to lick dozen stickers each in
order to cast their ballot.
This act was commonly known as the
Great Political Outrage. The fusionist
ticket was termed the Hydra Headed
Monster. The result of the election
divided the county spoils equally be
tween the Political Outragers and the
Hydra Headed Monsters. The official
count showed many candidates were
nearly even in the outcome. For exam
pie, Denny Pop) defeated Ferguson
(Dem) for sheriff by majority of five.
Other candidates were close, conse-
quently many contest cases were filed
In the superior court in which the sher-
ifs was made a test case. No mate
rial change was made, however, from
the official count and that made by the
court.
C. A. Mantz (Pop) defeated w. G.
Gray Rep) for state senator by ma
jority of fourteen. This office was con-
tested in the legislature in which the
official count was sustained and Mantz
was seated-the last populist member
of the legislature of the state of Wash
ington.
In 1898 the new court house was COM
pleted and the Offices were about equal
ly distributed between the republicans,
sdsmocrats and populists. The fusion
lists were Dissolved and the Hydra Head
ed Monster was a thing of the past.
George Welty Dem) was elected as
representative to the Legislature by a
majority of one vote. 1t is said of Mr.
Welty that he only introduced one bill
and that was to reduce the age of con-
sent from 18 to l6 years of age. This
bill, however, was never enacted into
law.
In 1890 the Silver wave had subsided
and the populists with their reform
measures were thing of the past, and
the two old parties with their issue,
High Tariff and Free Trade, divided the
county plums about equally, with the
republicans a neck in the lead. This
state of political affairs throughout the
county has not been materially changed
up to the present time. The legislative
ticket was as follows: In 1903 A. A.
Anderson (Rep) went to Olympia. In
1905 Stevens county was reclasslfied
emitting it to two representatives. In
this year John Kellogg (Rep) and M.
j. Mallory Oem) had seats in the low