Republican Party Bosses Control Convention Outcomes
Local political machine uses pre-arranged nominations to maintain grip on power, sidelining country delegates.
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.
Saturday was a great day for the republican bosses, and they carried out the program, which they so carefully and systematically laid at the primaries, without a bobble. The city delegates planned to capture the nominations for all of those offices that were worth having, and they succeeded to their entire satisfaction. The bosses slyly winked as they tossed a few crumbs to the country delegates whose votes they want, but do not care to bid too high for them. That the country delegates knew that they would get nothing but the parings was evidenced by a remark made by old Jack Lewis, before the convention, who said that 'North Yakima is the county and if her citizens don't get all of the offices they will bolt the ticket.'
“The bosses slyly winked as they tossed a few crumbs to the country delegates whose votes they want, but do not care to bid too high for them.”
The tension between urban political centers and rural constituents remains a staple of Washington politics. This story provides a window into the raw, often cynical mechanics of party politics in the 1890s.
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