Page:History of Washington The Rise and Progress of an American State, volume 4.djvu/427

 neighborboods, and asking for more definite information that would enable him to keep the president, and others in authority, thoroughly advised as to the progress of events. To this the sheriff of Pierce County replied that the Knights of Labor in the city of Tacoma, had offered themselves and their services as deputy sheriffs, and he was swearing them in as rapidly as they could be called to his office. He had sworn in fifty deputies in the Puyallup Valley, and “two hundred good substantial citizens of Tacoma had already offered their services,” and he would swear them in at once. He had no doubt he would be able to procure all the assistance necessary, and he assured the governor “that peace will and can be preserved by the civil authorities of our county.” On the same day General Sprague, chairman of the Chamber of Commerce in Tacoma, wrote that while many were willing to utter incendiary language to frighten the Chinese away, they would not countenance unlawful acts. “The sheriff,” he said, “is both efficient and vigilant, and before the 1st of November, he will have a force of about three hundred reliable deputies sworn in, and be ready for any emergency.” This letter was accompanied by another, sighned by a large number of the most prominent business men of the town, in which they “beg respectfully to say, that in our opinion there will be no occasion whatever for the presence of troops, or the employment of an organized force under the sheriff, and that the sheriff will be able to preserve the peace and enforce the laws.” In this he would be supported by the citizens generally. “We hold ourselves responsible for these assurances,” this letter concluded.

On October 27th, the governor visited Tacoma and addressed a mass meeting of its people, and on the following day received a letter from a prominent resident of that city,