The Senate Seat and the Missing Quorum

Olympia, Jan. 18.—Special.—Yesterday's dispatches indicated that a caucus would be held tomorrow morning at 10 o'clock, and such would undoubtedly have been the case had not both houses adjourned over until Monday. This afforded many of the members living in counties quickly reached by rail an opportunity to return home and devote a few hours to business. This exodus of so large a number of members caused an apprehension on the part of the Wilson and Ankeny managers that the attendance at the caucus might be small, so as to discourage those present and make it difficult to obtain a quorum when really desirable. Therefore the caucus tomorrow morning was abandoned, and instead thereof the regulation official call for a caucus was drawn and circulated. It met with favor among the Ankeny and Wilson followers, and in a few hours forty-one Republicans had signed the call which was mutually agreed upon. It is more than probable that when the members return the call will receive the number of signers required to elect, fifty-seven.

At 8 o'clock this evening many of the Republicans assembled in the hall of the house of representatives pursuant to an announcement made by Gandy of Spokane, for the purpose of discussing the advisability of holding a caucus. A great deal of interest was manifested in the meeting, and a number of members spoke heartily in favor of the movement. There was only one voice raised against holding the caucus, and at length resolutions were adopted declaring it the sense of the meeting that all loyal Republicans should participate in the caucus and that the Republicans should decide their differences among themselves, without the aid of their opponents.

The hopes of the Allen men of receiving aid from the Populists in the event that the election of senator was not divided in caucus were rudely dashed to the ground this evening by Representative Cline, a Populist member from Whatcom. Mr. Cline states in most emphatic terms that at least seventeen out of the nineteen members in the house would not vote for Allen. He has personally spoken to the seventeen Populists with reference to the election of a senator, and all have declared themselves as being unalterably opposed to voting for any one except a Populist. They mean to 'keep in the middle of the road' as did the Populists two years ago. They will vote for one of these three men: W. H. Plummer, Spokane; George H. Westcott, mayor of Blaine, or Senator Range, of Seattle. In all probability it will be Plummer, as the Eastern Washington Populists are in the majority and they favor Plummer. In any event, it will be a Populist.

A very unfortunate effort was made on Saturday by the Tacoma Ledger to revive the old King and Pierce county fight. Editorially it urges the Pierce county delegation to cast its solid vote for Wilson. 'Pierce county,' it says, 'could thus win the next senator and be pledged the right to say all, or more than voters should fairly ask to say, in selecting the one who is to succeed Squire two years hence, as well as in naming the next state ticket. The position which King county has long held by force of the united action of her representatives, she is no longer in condition to defend.' The friends of Mr. Ankeny deplore this course, because he is not a citizen of either county and has warm friends in both.