Torchlight, Two Bands, and a Canal: Lewis County Opens the 1892 Campaign

CHEHALIS, Aug. 27.—[Special.]—The state campaign in Lewis county was formally opened here tonight with the largest political demonstration ever held in Southwestern Washington.

The affair was under the management of the Young Men's Republican Club of Chehalis. Hon. John H. McGraw, William H. Poolittle, Patrick Henry Winston, Charles E. Claypool and Andrew F. Burleigh were the speakers of the evening.

Four hundred people came down from Centralia on a special train with two bands. Five hundred men were in line in the grand street parade and torchlight procession. Many appropriate banners and transparencies were carried, and enthusiasm was at its highest. The Chehalis Young Men's Republican club turned out in uniform, and their marching was excellent. It was after 9 o'clock when President Harmon called the meeting to order, after the speakers had been escorted to the hall, and proposed for chairman of the evening Hon. J. H. Long, Lewis county's favorite son.

Mr. Poolittle was the first speaker of the evening. He gave a studied and masterful address of an hour's length, illustrating the benefits to the people of our state from the protective system; its advantage to lumber, coal, agricultural and other industries, and closed with a tribute to the commercial and social advancement in the United States during the twenty-five years just past, and promised carefully and to the best of his ability to guard the interests of the whole people of the state.

Colonel Claypool, of Tacoma, followed, illustrating forcibly the difference between protection and the great bugaboo of free trade, or a tariff for revenue only. He pointed out the glaring inconsistencies of the Democratic party and showed the essential difference between the McKinley and Mills bills. The former is for the whole people, and the latter for the benefit of Eastern manufacturers and Southern planters, and that it affords no protection to the great and mighty West. He compared the records of the Fifty-first and Fifty-second Congresses and eulogized the McKinley bill, which a non-partisan Senate committee reported had lowered the cost of living 5 per cent and raised wages.

When Hon. J. H. McGraw was introduced he met with a perfect ovation from the vast crowd that had filled the Chehalis opera-house to overflowing. Mr. McGraw's remarks were brief but to the point, stating that his administration as governor would be for the entire people, for the good of every man regardless of party; that his aim would be to keep expenses to the lowest possible limit, and the veto power would be used only to protect the people.

Patrick Henry Winston kept the great audience in a roar of laughter with his stories, and paid his respects at some length to the People's party and the power of the general government to make internal improvements. His remarks urging the importance of the Lake Washington canal were received with enthusiasm. He closed with an earnest appeal for honest money and the success of the Republican ticket from the head down.

Andrew F. Burleigh made a powerful address, devoting his remarks to the canal resolution and Democratic opposition and inconsistencies, closing with a strong array of facts against free silver, which would close every silver mine in the country. Mr. Burleigh's effort was considered by many to be the most masterful effort of the evening.

It was midnight when the last of the crowd filed out of the hall, several hundred remaining to shake hands with Messrs. McGraw and Poolittle. The Democrats and People's party are completely demoralized in Lewis county, which will give 600 majority for the Republican ticket.