Seattle's 1894 Election: Corruption, Fraud, and the Fight for City Hall

LOOK OUT FOR FRAUD.

The Democrats are in desperate straits. They have already resorted to misrepresentation, lying and forgery in their efforts to retain their grip on the government of the city. There is no doubt that they are prepared to resort to fraud as well.

As has previously been said, the judges and inspectors in many precincts, named as they were by the Democratic central committee, are selected with a view to crooked work. For the last few days plug uglies and repeaters from other places have been brought to the city in great numbers. It is openly alleged that the registration books have been padded by the wreckers with a view to voting these repeaters at today's election.

Fortunately, the managers of the Republican campaign have received positive information of the work that is contemplated. Any attempt to carry out the programme of the wreckers will be followed by the immediate arrest and the vigorous prosecution of the criminals. No trifling with the ballot will be permitted, even though it become necessary to compel a few of the leading wreckers to follow the path lately traversed by John V. McKane.

EVEN FORGERY.

The Democratic wreckers have even resorted to the most barefaced forgery in their efforts to prevent the election of the Republican ticket, and thus keep the taxpayers from getting a peep at the city's books.

Yesterday morning a large number of lying and deceptive circulars were stealthily issued by the Democratic central committee. The rascals who were responsible for this even went so far as to blow the carriers of the Post-Intelligencer's tubes and in many districts of the city to load circulars in the Post-Intelligencer as if they had been issued from this office. It should scarcely be necessary to denounce this as a clumsy and fraudulent attempt to deceive the people. No authentic circulars have been folded in any Post-Intelligencer during the present campaign, nor will be so issued. It is possible, of course, that the same tactics will be resorted to today, and if any citizen finds a circular of any kind folded in the Post-Intelligencer he may put it down at once as fraud and a cheat.

The efforts of the wreckers to retain power are in keeping with their record during the past two years. It is not surprising that the men who are responsible for the dishonesty of Krug, for the incompetence of Carson, for a Beltzner and a Wolfe, should resort to anything that is contemptible to prevent the making of an unbiased expression of the people's opinion of them.

The law specifies plainly that judges and inspectors of election shall be chosen from the qualified voters of the precincts in which they are to serve. This, however, has been persistently violated by the Democrats, who have chosen the election boards in this city. An inspector in point is one Lushkin, a First ward heeler, formerly a Sullivan man, who is one of the judges in such precinct of the Fourth ward.

Attention has already been called to the sort of men who have been named for judges and inspectors at today's election. The election of these positions indicate beyond the shadow of a doubt the intention of the Democrats to falsify the returns of the election, if it is possible for them to do so.

Will H. Thompson, the Democratic leader, says: 'Despite the oft repeated cry that the city of Seattle is practically insolvent and that the proceeds of her bonds have been wasted, the truth is that she has property to represent not only the whole amount of her bonded debt, but a sum exceeding that bonded debt of more than a third of a million dollars.' The exception to this is the money squandered on rotten brick and ward heelers by the present administration. They only had one issue of bonds they could manipulate, and they 'soaked' them.

A GLANCE BACKWARD.

This is the morning of the city election, and it will be well for the conscientious voter to think of the record of the city government during the last two years in order that he may determine whether to cast his ballot in support of those who have during this period administered the city's affairs.

The administration of Mayor Ronald began with a grand flourish of reform trumpets. Elected by independent voters and morally if not actually pledged to conduct his government on a non-partisan basis, he began by removing Republican officials right and left without the slightest pretense of adequate cause. Boards which were made non-partisan by the terms of the city charter were revolutionized within a few weeks, Democrats being substituted for the Republican members. The whole spirit and intent of the city charter was thus set at defiance, and many of its wisest provisions were annulled.

This was but the beginning. Every department of the city government was organized on party lines. The inevitable result followed. A small coterie of political heelers and boodlers pushed themselves to the front and became the actual head of the city government. Mayor Ronald yielded to the demands of the spoilsmen in the beginning and soon discovered that by doing so he had raised a power that threatened even himself. More than once he has been threatened with impeachment by the impudent wreckers who had deprived him of all influence in the administration of which he was the nominal head.

Thus began and thus developed an irresponsible government such as few cities have ever been cursed with. Its sole object was spoils. Its members sought to enrich themselves at the expense of the city regardless of its interests or its welfare. It was the boast of the wreckers that before the term for which they were in power had expired they would organize in Seattle a political machine so strong and so complete that it could successfully resist any efforts that might be made by reputable and responsible citizens to secure control of the city government. The city hall became nothing more than a Democratic headquarters and the center of political activity of the most demoralizing and debasing kind.

From this state of affairs came the shameless robbery of the city treasury by Wrecker Krug. From this state of affairs came the loud assertions of the incompetent Comptroller Carson, who publicly declared after almost one-quarter of a million of dollars had been stolen, that the funds in this city treasury were intact. From this state of affairs came the swindling hydrant contract, the rotten brick contracts, the purchase of the Watrons fire engine, and the numerous other scandals of similar nature that have shocked and amazed respectable citizens. From this state of affairs came the employment of political heelers on all sorts of city work. From this state of affairs came the summary removal of Engineer Thomson and the costly botching of the work on the sewers. From this state of affairs came the alliance with gamblers and the toleration shown to houses of prostitution in all parts of the city. From this state of affairs came the overweening arrogance of the board of public works and disregard of the city's interest so flagrant that even Mayor Ronald was compelled to interfere and remove from office two of the men who today are recognized as leaders of the Democratic party. From this state of affairs came naturally and inevitably the evils which have fallen upon the city and which have made its government a stench in the nostrils of honest men.

The voter who cares for the welfare of Seattle should remember these things. He should remember also that the gang of wreckers who have thus attempted to lead the city to destruction are still in control of the Democratic party. He should remember that a vote for Durie is a vote for Wolfe, and that Wolfe stands for all that is worst in his own party. He should remember that the only possible way to express in an effective manner his opposition to the methods and practices which have been in vogue in the city government is to cast his vote for Myron Phelps and the entire Republican ticket.