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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1888 | 1 |
| 1889 | 2 |
| 1891 | 2 |
| 1894 | 2 |
| 1895 | 6 |
13 stories matching commod
- Northern Pacific Slashes Freight Rates in a Coast-to-Coast War
Seattle shippers get word that commodity rates from Chicago and the river cities will drop to match the Southern Pacific’s Sunset route.
- A Railroad Rate Cut Redrew the Northwest's Trade Map
The Northern Pacific's new freight tariff aimed to make Puget Sound the gateway for Eastern Washington and Idaho—shutting out St. Paul and San Francisco.
- Why One Mill Refused the Shingle Trust
A local manufacturer pens a defiant letter against the push for a shingle monopoly, arguing for the free market over artificial price fixing.
- The Great Railway Freight Revolt
In a 1891 legislative showdown, Washington lawmakers slashed freight rates by 25 percent to combat railroad monopolies, sparking a fierce debate over state versus corporate control.
- The Health Scares of Seattle’s Founders
A pioneer’s testimonial for a turn-of-the-century 'miracle' tonic reveals the desperation of health and mortality on the 1880s frontier.
- 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 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.
- 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.
- 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.