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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1899 | 23 |
23 stories matching term
- The Forty-Year Stranglehold: Seattle’s Streetcar Franchise Fight
As promoters push for a massive consolidation of the city's transit lines under a 40-year franchise, local editors warn that handing over public infrastructure to private syndicates is a dangerous gamble for a rapidly growing metropolis.
- The City That Forgot How to Ride: Seattle’s Battle for Short-Term Streetcar Franchises
In May 1899, the Seattle Star warned that granting long-term monopolies to street railway companies would leave the city trapped with obsolete technology and inflated prices. The paper argued fiercely for short-term grants to keep corporations accountable—a debate that echoes in today’s transit infrastructure battles.
- The Marriage Ban: Teachers Under Contractual Siege
A local school board mandates that women educators forfeit their careers—and their salaries—if they dare to wed during the term.
- The University’s Spring Awakening: A New Era of Funding and Debate
As the spring term opens at the University of Washington, students celebrate record appropriations for new departments while engaging in high-stakes political debates and athletic rivalries.
- The Great Seattle Streetcar Franchise Fight: Why Short Leases Save the City
As city councilors debate a controversial 40-year lease for street railway operations, The Seattle Star argues that short-term concessions are the only way to prevent corporate greed from strangling public transit.
- The Franchise Fight: Seattle’s Battle for Control of the Streets
As the Corporation Committee prepares to report on the street railway franchise, a fierce debate erupts over whether the city should sell its public assets to private developers for 40 years or keep them in public hands.
- The Price of 'Progress' at the Turn of the Century
A Seattle property owner battles the city over grading costs she claims amount to 'almost confiscation' of her land.
- The Streetcar Stranglehold: Eastern Capitalists vs. Seattle’s Future
As a coalition of wealthy investors from the East seeks to monopolize Seattle’s street railway system with a 18-year franchise, local legal advisors warn that without it, the deal collapses—igniting a fierce debate over municipal ownership and corporate power.
- The Eight-Day Juror Walkout
After eight days on a murder trial, a group of Tacoma jurors refused their meager $1-a-day pay, protesting the economic injustice of the state's compensation laws.
- The Hog Ranch That Stank Up Seattle: How One Interbay Farm Sparked a New Law
In 1900, a single hog ranch near the city’s water source forced the Seattle City Council to draft an ordinance limiting livestock—a rare early victory for urban sanitation and public health.
- The Fight for Woodland Park
A bold move by the Seattle City Council to secure 100 acres of prime land sparks a municipal debate over the future of the city's green space.
- The Sawmill Strike That Never Happened
When mill workers in Seattle banded together for a small wage increase, they didn't need to walk out to get it.
- The Ghost Who Walked Home: A Soldier’s Return from the Dead
William Krull, presumed dead in the Philippines and replaced by his own wife, walks into a Seattle church to find her remarried. His reaction? He leaves town to live out his days alone.
- The Great Northern’s $70,000 Lawsuit: How J.J. Hill’s Empire Clashed with the State
A bitter legal battle erupts between railroad magnate James J. Hill and W.V. Haynes over land rights at Smith Cove, revealing the intense struggle for control of Seattle’s waterfront.
- The Million-Dollar Divorce: How a Seattle Man’s Secret Fortune Changed a Woman’s Fate
In 1899, the divorce of Cordell McKee and his first wife didn't just end a marriage—it triggered a legal battle over $100,000 that exposed the hidden wealth of one of Seattle's most prominent businessmen.
- The Boom is Over: Seattle’s Doctors Face Public Backlash Over 'Trust' Pricing
As the city settles into metropolitan growth, a newspaper investigation into exorbitant medical fees sparks outrage among patients and division among physicians.
- The Sudden End of a Seattle Lawman
Bolton Rogers, a former police chief who rose from a hack-driver to the top of the department, has died following a struggle with brain fever.
- The Girls Who Walked Out: Seattle’s Hidden Labor War
While the city boasts of its booming manufacturing sector and 'local industry,' a quiet but significant portion of its workforce—women in garment factories—are fighting for survival wages, revealing the stark gender divide in Seattle's economic boom.
- The Cake-Walk Controversy: When Morality Met Modernity in Bellevue
A local violinist’s moral objection to a high school charity dance nearly sparked a riot, dividing the town between tradition and progress.
- The Armory Uprising: Seattle’s Battle for Public Transit
As the City Council prepares to vote on a controversial 40-year franchise for private street railways, citizens are mobilizing for a mass meeting at the Armory, demanding municipal ownership over corporate profit.
- The Gold Rush That Never Was: How Canadian Laws Stifled Seattle’s Northern Dream
A Victoria contractor tells the Star that new British Columbia legislation has turned away American miners, leaving Alaska's gold fields dark and local businesses in ruins.
- The Lawyer Who Spoke 'Jargon' to Save a Man from Prison
In a Tacoma courtroom in the early days of Washington state, Attorney Frank Clark stunned federal prosecutors by abandoning legalese for Chinook Jargon, winning the acquittal of a poor logger accused of stealing timber.
- The City’s Wallet vs. The Streetcar Barons: Seattle Votes on Who Owns the Rails
As fares rise and corporate power grows, Seattle councilmen debate a radical idea: municipal ownership of street railways to save taxpayers millions.