The Railroad Lobby's Quiet Plan to Buy a Governor and Kill the Commission

The railway lobby, fearing to meet the advocates of a regulative commission in a square fight in the open field next year, is now planning to nominate as the Republican candidate for governor some eastern Washington man—ostensibly a supporter of the commission plan, but secretly pledged, if elected, to use his influence and his veto power against the passage of a commission bill. Indeed, the railroads, in order to gain their point, will even go so far as to consent to the reaffirmation of the commission plank of last year, provided they can make sure of naming a candidate for governor who can be relied upon to stab the commission bill to the heart whenever the lobby gives the signal.

The lobby cares nothing for platforms so long as it can name candidates. Last year Stansell of Stevens county succeeded in being elected to the state senate only by professing loyalty to the commission plank of his party platform and by promising that, if elected, he would do his utmost to have it carried into effect by act of the legislature. Having gained a seat in the state senate in this way, Stansell did not scruple to barter his vote to the railroad lobby, and when the commission bill came up he voted squarely against it. There were many other Judases of the same sort in the legislature, and all joined in crucifying the commission bill to whose support their party was sacredly pledged. Platforms, pledges and promises, in the view of the railroad lobby, are "good enough Morgans" with which to win votes, but after election they are regarded as only hot air. It would therefore be easy enough for the lobby to accept a strong commission plank in the Republican state platform next year, provided it can select a promise-breaker like Stansell as the candidate for governor. Of course no one in such bad odor as Stansell would be chosen, but instead some good, amiable gentleman with a colorless record on the commission question and on every other question of importance to the people. Such a candidate could play the role of "good Lord and good devil" with everybody during the campaign, but after being installed in the governor's chair he would be the pliant tool of the lobby.

This is about the game that the railroads will attempt to play next year. They will endeavor to secure by indirection, deceit, chicane and perfidy what they know that they could never gain in an open fight before the people.

TOLMAN FOR GOVERNOR.

Senator Turner having positively declined to be the Democratic candidate for governor next year, State Senator Warren Tolman of Spokane is the logical candidate. He was the author of the commission bill that was defeated by the last two Republican legislatures and is thoroughly identified with the demand for just regulation and equitable taxation of the railroads and other corporations. This demand has been made by the state conventions of both political parties in response to the evident desire of a large majority of the people of the state. The popular will has twice been thwarted through a combination of the Grosscup-Stevenson railroad lobby with the machine backing a wealthy candidate for the United States senate. Although this combination has so far been triumphant, the signs are multiplying that the people are ripe for a political revolution and that party lines will be disregarded in the determination of an outraged people to administer a deserved rebuke to the promise-breakers whose perfidy and dishonor brought about the defeat of the commission bill.

The lobby has such a hold on the Republican party machine in this state that it would not be surprising if that staunch champion of the people's cause, Governor Henry McBride, should be defeated for nomination by his party convention next year. In that contingency the only hope of the people will be in the Democratic party, and in no way could that party more emphatically prove its devotion to the cause of right and justice than by the nomination for governor of that unflinching advocate of a railway commission, Senator Tolman of Spokane.

There is good reason for believing that the repudiation of the commission plank of the last state platform by the Republican convention next year, and the turning down of McBride, will provoke a revolt in the Republican ranks and thus enable Tolman to overcome the twenty-five thousand Republican majority in this state as easily as the fifteen thousand Republican majority was dissipated by Governor Rogers in the campaign of 1900.