Grays Harbor Voters Skeptical of McGraw's Ditch Scheme
A visit from Republican gubernatorial candidate John H. McGraw leaves local voters cold as he doubles down on the controversial Lake Washington canal project at the expense of local harbor interests.
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.
On Thursday of last week, the people of Aberdeen, Hoquiam and Cosmopolis, without regard to political faith, came to Aberdeen to listen to the address of the Republican candidate for governor, John H. McGraw. McGraw was given an opportunity that is offered but seldom to any man. Had he been the man for the occasion he would have added strength to his cause and that of the Republican party. At the beginning of his talk, his audience were sympathetic and ready to enthuse at the slightest touch of warmth or expression of sincerity. At the close, they were disheartened and bored. They had listened to a tiresome statement of state finances, given in order to make out a case in defense of the indictment of gross extravagance brought by the people of Washington against the two last legislatures. The Herald is forced to content itself with his attitude on the canal plank in the Republican platform. McGraw said, 'I stand flat-footed upon every plank in that platform, including the ditch plank... I should have refused a nomination on any platform that did not contain it.' While we can admire his pluck, his words must be his own death knell. He did not justify this effort of Seattle to take from the general government money that otherwise through the regular appropriation for river and harbor improvements would come to Grays Harbor, and put it into a scheme that can have no claim upon the state, at the expense of Grays Harbor and other deserving points.
“Are we going to do it? The Herald would like for every man, woman and child who heard McGraw to go on the 31st of October and hear Snively; and we sincerely believe their verdict will be that our next governor should not be McGraw.”
The 1892 debate over regional infrastructure funding and the 'Seattle real estate scheme' mirrors modern tensions between Washington's urban centers and rural or coastal regions. The fear that state-wide resources are being hijacked for Seattle's benefit remains a recurring theme in Washington politics over a century later.
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