The Canal Scandal: A Fabricated List of Prominent Backers

Ever since the Seattle Telegraph secured a loan of $2,500 from gentlemen of Tacoma, who are desperately anxious to secure an adverse vote in regard to the Lake Washington canal from the people of Washington, that paper has sought in every way to convince the people of King county that the insult offered to them by the Democratic state convention was not really an insult and that the people of King county were making a mistake in urging a government appropriation for the construction of the canal. The argument which the Telegraph advanced was that the canal was really a private affair and should be constructed by private enterprise. It undertook to show that the people of Seattle agreed with it, and has published from day to day lists of prominent citizens who, as it alleges, have promised to give amounts set opposite their names. A number of these gentlemen were interviewed by Post-Intelligencer reporters yesterday. The results were amazing: Mr. J. M. Colman, named as having subscribed $75,000, says he never authorized the use of his name. The same is true of Hon. D. T. Denny ($50,000), Edward Blewett ($10,000), Joseph F. McNaught ($10,000), the Seattle Consolidated Railway Company ($10,000), and Eshelman, Llewellyn & Co. ($5,000). Could anything more clearly show the false and fraudulent nature of the campaign which the Telegraph is carrying on?