Republican Deadlock Finally Broken in Olympia
After intense lobbying and political maneuvering, John B. Allen secures the support needed to likely become the next U.S. Senator.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
If John B. Allen is not elected United States senator at this session of the legislature, no one else will be. This was made certain by a Republican caucus held tonight. Fifty-one members of the legislature, comprising more than two-thirds of the Republican senators and representatives, have pledged themselves to support Senator Allen until the end of the session. The meeting tonight was the result of a conference of the King County delegation. The news of the action of the King County men was most depressing to Judge Turner and his Northern Pacific managers. It was at once conceded that the resolution of the delegation to support Allen without faltering meant either his election or a deadlock until the end of the session. Upon the adjournment, the members marched to the Olympia Hotel, sounding the campaign yell: 'Allen, Allen, John B. Allen!'
“The tail can't wag the dog.”
This reflects the intense, often bitter political infighting within the Republican party in the 1890s over the influence of the Northern Pacific Railroad and the state's direction. Legislative deadlocks remain a familiar, if frustrating, feature of Washington State politics.
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