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| Year | Stories |
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| 1854 | 1 |
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38 stories matching commod
- The Price of Patronage: Political Graft in Washington Territory
A scathing editorial exposes how federal appointments in the Washington Territory were treated as commodities, with government officials accused of padding their estates through systemic corruption.
- Spokane Wins Freight-Rate Fight Against the Railroads
The Interstate Commerce Commission orders cuts from Chicago and St. Paul, a victory that promised cheaper goods and a broader home market for Newport and the Inland Empire.
- The $500 Vote: How a Spokane Judge’s Bribery Plot Exposed Seattle’s Political Rot
In the winter of 1903, Washington’s legislature was paralyzed by a scandal involving bribed senators and a desperate governor. When Representative Metcalfe revealed he was paid to vote for Judge Calkins, the resulting investigation tore through Olympia’s elite, revealing a web of corruption that threatened to define the state’s young democracy.
- The Gold Rush That Never Was: Walla Walla’s Delusion of Wealth
In January 1889, a local paper in Walla Walla, Washington, published an ecstatic report claiming the city was awash in gold dust and twenty-dollar pieces, comparing its prosperity to the heyday of the Salmon River mines. It was a stark contrast to the reality of a region still recovering from economic busts.
- The 'Lazy' Reservation: A White Settler's Rant Against Indian Farming
In May 1877, a Seattle correspondent published a vitriolic letter in the *Intelligencer* challenging claims of Native agricultural success on the Suckley Reservation, arguing that federal land policies encouraged 'idleness' and demanding the lands be opened to white settlers.
- The Home Market Fight: Farmers Say Seattle Merchants Look Past Their Own Fields
A Port Angeles farmer’s letter to the Post-Intelligencer argues that Seattle merchants undercut local growers by buying from California, Oregon, and Chinese gardeners—and warns that the city’s food economy is bleeding money out of Washington.
- The Tinderbox of the Waterfront: Fire Chief Warns of Seattle’s Oil-Fueled Doom
Chief Collins warns that Standard Oil’s wooden warehouses along the waterfront are a 'match away' from destroying the city, while overcrowded lodging houses threaten the poor with similar fates.
- The Railroads Beat the Farmers in Olympia
A bill to cut freight and passenger rates across Washington goes down in the state Senate after a bruising fight, handing the railroads their biggest Northwest victory yet.
- He Loved Her Too Much to Marry Her
Adam Gehm, a Bavarian logger working in Carbonado, shot himself in a Seattle lodging house after confessing to a friend that illness left him unable to provide for the woman he loved. He had tried once before.
- Keep Your Money at Home? In Kennewick, the Shoe-Leather Trail Led to Pasco
A letter to the editor takes aim at buy-local boosterism, arguing that Kennewick shoppers already knew the real prices—and often crossed the river to Pasco or sent away for mail-order catalogs.
- The Seattle Grocer Who Died Chasing Central American Trade
J. E. Chilberg clawed back from a fire, a failed corporation and a panic to build a Puget Sound steamship trade with Guatemala — then went down with the foundering Colima on the voyage that was supposed to secure it.
- The $37,500 Handshake: How Benton County's Tax Crusaders Blessed a Courthouse Deal
Prosser's anti-tax league swore it would guard the public purse to the last janitor's salary. Then its own man changed his mind on Monday, and the Kennewick editor noticed where the $37,500 went.
- Silver Men Pack the Armory and Demand a Senator Who Won't Waver
Populists, Republicans and Democrats shared a Seattle stage to demand the legislature elect a 'free silver' U.S. senator — then a lawyer stole the show doing an impression of a rival orator.