Seattle Lost the Ship Canal Fight in One Olympia Night

OLYMPIA, Aug. 26. — [Special.] — The Democratic state convention has finished its labors, and the result — complete defeat and humiliation for King county — is summarized in the ticket and resolution above.

The county went into the convention to do two things: secure a resolution asking for a federal appropriation for the Lake Washington ship canal, and nominate James Hamilton Lewis for governor. Pierce county, the inveterate enemy of King, carried the convention; the resolution condemned the canal instead of approving it; and Henry J. Snively, of Yakima, was named for governor.

The rout of the King county Democracy was due in large part to those who were faithless both to their party and to the community in which they live.

The canal itself originally had no enemies of consequence except Junius Rochester and Percy W. Rochester. From the beginning they did their best to injure its cause. Junius Rochester, though chairman of the county delegation, publicly declared, first in Tacoma and on Monday night at Olympia, that the Democrats of King county did not care for an indorsement of the canal.

The regular delegation, though containing one or two members opposing the canal, was a unit for James Hamilton Lewis for governor.

But Mr. Lewis had several foes in his own home — D. H. Gilman, W. H. White, C. D. Emery, Percy W. Rochester, L. D. Ross, M. B. Hart, Eugene Semple and John Y. Ostrander. Some of them believed Mr. Lewis would not make a good governor, some believed he would be a weak candidate, while others had personal grievances against him. They united in the plan of going to Olympia to oppose Mr. Lewis, and, speaking broadly, they hung like a millstone about the neck of the regular delegation.

They had a slate prepared, and an effort was to be made at the proper moment to stampede the convention for it. Henry Drum, of Tacoma, was to be taken up for governor, and thus Thomas Carroll was to be shut out of the congressional nomination. King county was to be placated for the loss of Lewis by having Eugene Semple — who had friends in the Columbia river counties — chosen in place of Carroll. C. H. Warner, of Whitman, or M. M. Godman, of Columbia, would be the other nominee for governor. The scheme was to beat Lewis with this combination, though Percy W. Rochester preferred Dr. N. O. Blalock, of Walla Walla, for governor.

From the first day those acquainted with the situation saw that in the direct issue the defeat of Lewis was almost impossible. He had the unwavering support of the twenty-seven votes of Spokane — who, though with no candidate of her own for whom King county's support was asked, clung to King with perfect fidelity. To the votes of Spokane and those of King were added five from Adams, six from Clallam, five from Douglas, three from Franklin, four from Island, nine from Jefferson, eleven from Kittitas, six from Kitsap, eleven from Lincoln, five from Okanogan, four from San Juan, ten from Snohomish, seven from Stevens, ten from Whatcom and seven from Yakima — about 100, or six short of a clear majority. There were chances of getting eight or ten scattering votes from other counties. Then, too, Pierce county was friendly toward Lewis; was making no combinations against him, and was hesitating about offering support only because the question of the canal plank was doubtful. With affairs in this shape, two of the candidates for governor, Dr. Blalock and Colonel Shaw, agreed to go into a triple alliance with Pierce to defeat a plank favoring the canal. They were to help Pierce on the plank, and in return Pierce was to divide her vote between Blalock and Shaw on the first ballot. Whichever had the most votes then was on the second ballot to get the whole support of the alliance. The plan was well laid, for Pierce county, now aided by citizens of Seattle, ready to rebuke the city's enterprise and ready to ruin their county organization in order to kill James Hamilton Lewis, had persuaded several Eastern Washington counties friendly to Lewis that a denunciation of the canal would win Republican votes in Pierce county and be a good political stroke.

King county soon found that the convention could under no circumstances be induced to indorse the canal, and that with the triple alliance to face a plank of generalities could barely be carried. Accordingly King county resolved to make its battle on the following miserable compromise, far less favorable to the canal than the Pierce county resolution which the Republicans had scornfully rejected two weeks before:

"Believing and recommending such just and liberal appropriations for coast protection and general improvements as shall be for the benefit of the state. We condemn any use of the public moneys having for its purpose the advancement of private enterprise."

The Pierce county Democrats went further than the Pierce county Republicans, and asked the convention to brand King county with such a stigma as this:

"We indorse the action of the Democratic House of Representatives in refusing an appropriation for the Lake Washington ship canal, and we condemn the course of Allen and Squire and Representative Wilson in their advocacy of this measure to the detriment of appropriations for the necessary improvements of the rivers and harbors of this state."

On Wednesday night the canal fight hitherto carried on in caucus and committee began in the convention. After a bitter and acrimonious contest — in which King's chief outside supporter was H. J. Snively, of Yakima, the first lieutenant of James Hamilton Lewis — the convention by a vote of 167 to 162 adopted the anti-canal plank. There was a great uproar, and then E. C. Million, of Skagit, actuated, as he said, by the conviction that King county had been too grossly insulted, asked for a reconsideration, because Skagit wanted to change five votes. It is worth remembering that J. E. Buckley, of Spokane, persuaded half of the Skagit delegation to turn from one side to the other. Several votes in Thurston also changed, and the motion to reconsider was carried, 177 to 154. Then the Pierce county anti-canal plank was formally rejected by a vote of 173 to 101.

All that remained was to have a final vote adopting the whole platform containing the compromise resolution, and King would have won a partial victory in that she would have saved herself from complete outrage.

The final vote was about to be taken at 1:20 in the morning when H. J. Snively, of Yakima — Lewis' first lieutenant and afterward the candidate for governor — announced that the friends of the compromise plank were satisfied, and would be willing to allow an adjournment of the vote till morning.

Mr. Snively explained afterward that he could not hold the delegations together at such a late hour, and he feared defeat by pressing the question then. The adjournment, curiously enough, resulted in the selection of an anti-canal plank upon which Mr. Lewis could not run, but upon which Mr. Snively was nominated for governor.

During the night Pierce county rallied her forces, made her combination over again, and in the morning was ready to secure another reconsideration and force a denunciation of the canal down King's throat. On Friday morning King cast aside all compromise and made a gallant, but ineffectual, struggle for this resolution:

"The Democracy demands liberal appropriations from the central government for coast defense and river and harbor improvements including the construction of the waterway between Lake Washington and Puget sound."

L. C. Gilman, J. T. Ronald and F. A. McDonald made brilliant speeches for their home interests; but the plea was in vain.

H. J. Snively, who had pleaded well for King county the night before, for some reason felt that his eloquence would be wasted. Thus it was that the resolution at the head of the column went into the platform by a vote of 193 to 138. Then H. J. Snively declared that the contest was clearly over, and so, to prevent useless debate, he said, he moved the adoption of the whole platform containing the insult to King county. His motion carried, 213 to 113.

James Hamilton Lewis would have accepted the nomination for governor upon the compromise plank, but he could not and would not upon the direct anti-canal plank. Before the last struggle he had stood by his county and offered the 178 votes then pledged to him for governor to Henry Drum, or any one else who would stand on a platform recognizing the canal as a public improvement. No one could be found. Though Lewis was thus out of the race himself, he showed that he had been master of the situation by smashing the Blalock and Shaw combine, which his Seattle enemies had ineffectually striven to form. On the first ballot Lewis delivered to Snively 159 votes — seven short of a clear majority. Snively had been put in nomination by J. M. Buckley, and before the vote was announced — Skagit and Thurston, which had made the break for a reconsideration the night before — changed ten votes to Snively. Then Pierce county, which owed so much to the adjournment moved by Mr. Snively the night before, moved to make the nomination unanimous.

Carroll went in for congress and the Lewis-haters were unable to deliver to Eugene Semple a single vote.

King county and James Hamilton Lewis also shattered the slate of the triple alliance in every nomination for which there was a contest. H. C. Willison, of Jefferson county, which had stood by King, ran John B. Slater, the candidate of Pierce, out of the race for lieutenant governor. J. H. Morgan, of Kittitas, a friendly county, beat W. A. Payne, of Columbia, for superintendent of public instruction, and Dr. F. S. Lewis, of Clallam, won over J. B. Landrum, of Lewis, for state land commissioner.

At the close of the convention the King delegates were still so angry that at first they were unwilling to have a man on the state central committee. The sentiment among them seems to be that the time is ripe to enforce the demand for the Lake Washington canal. If the Democratic ticket is not slaughtered in King county, then Pierce will be ready again to heap contumely upon King in succeeding state conventions, and the county organization will remain as it is now, disrupted and powerless. But if the Democrats now, once for all, while voting the national ticket, bolt the state ticket in a body, then the Democracy of the county will have vindicated its attitude in the fight and have placed itself in a position to at least secure respectful recognition. With that advantage gained the Democrats of King can again organize and become formidable in politics.

The delegation started for home on the train leaving at 1:55 p.m. Mr. Snively intended to stop off with his Pierce county friends at Tacoma.