The 83-Ballot Deadlock: 'Either Allen or No One'

OLYMPIA, Feb. 27.—[Special.]—Allen senatorial stock has been given a strong upward tendency tonight, and Senator Allen is now certain to have at least fifty-one votes at the end of the session, unless he is sooner elected. It is likewise certain that no successful combination of the opposition can be made against him. Rumors of a break in the King County delegation were set at rest this evening by the delegation itself in a caucus, in which all the King County members were present except Heiliker, who is out of the city but in entire accord with the policy agreed upon. The caucus was harmonious, all present agreeing that the only rational plan was to continue voting for John B. Allen. Judge Humes waited anxiously for the result and was woefully disappointed when it was made known to him. He announced, however, that he would remain here during the week. Judge Winn, of Whatcom, having consented to hold court for him. The Humes campaign is managed at present by Prosecuting Attorney Miller, of King County, who signed the petition asking the King County delegation to stand by Allen to the last day of the session, if necessary.

In still another way the candidacy of Senator Allen has been strengthened. Persistent reports that a portion of Allen’s King County support was to defect caused fourteen Eastern Washington members, unyielding in their adhesion to Allen, to form themselves into a committee to ascertain just how the members from districts outside King, who have been voting for Allen, now stand. Their canvass shows that the entire number of Allen men from other counties than King—thirty-three in all—are prepared to stand by the senator to the close of the session. Thus Senator Allen is sure of the support of at least fifty-one members to the end. This bears out the prediction heretofore made by the Post-Intelligencer that either John B. Allen will be elected senator or no one will.

Judge Humes is not the only one whose budding candidacy has been frostbitten tonight. The Levi Ankeny plant that Miles C. Moore has been cultivating, with some quiet assistance from Capt. P. B. Johnson, is withered by a nipping air that blew from a caucus of Democratic members held this evening. Mr. Ankeny, being a financier, is good at figures, and had prepared, with the aid of the mathematicians named, a tabulated statement of the votes by which he proposed to be elected. The votes claimed included twenty Democrats, eight Populists, twenty Turnerites and sixteen Allen men. The Ankeny managers trusted that the Democrats would throw Griggs over tonight and take up a new candidate, and that, after having once loosened the bonds that have tied the Democrats during the session, it would be easy to induce twenty of them to aid the Ankeny movement; but the Democrats opposed to Griggs could not get rid of him. Two ballots were taken. On the first Senator Shaw was the leading candidate of the opposition. The vote stood: Griggs 10, Shaw 6, B. L. Sharpstein 3, C. H. Warner 2. No choice. Senator Eshelman, who was not present, was then proposed as a suitable man to unite on. Mays antagonized the Eshelman proposition and combated the argument that Eshelman was a smarter man than Griggs. The second ballot resulted: Griggs 11, Eshelman 7, John Collins 3. Griggs was once more declared the nominee, and the hold of the Pierce County combination on the Democratic party was strengthened. Senator Hutchinson, who left Griggs several days ago, did not attend the caucus. He said later that even if he had been notified he would not have been present, as he did not propose to be again bound up to Griggs. Three of those present—Okanogan Smith, Hamill and Greene—declared that they would not be bound by the action of the caucus unless it was favorable to Griggs. Though the latter was again nominated, it is probable that two or three Democrats will leave him in a day or two. The action taken, however, has blasted Levi Ankeny’s hopes.

In joint convention the eighty-second and eighty-third ballots resulted: Allen 40, Turner 20, Griggs 20, Van Patten 5, Knox 3, Dunbar 1, Winston 1, Sharpstein 1.