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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1871 | 2 |
| 1872 | 10 |
| 1876 | 29 |
| 1877 | 22 |
| 1878 | 20 |
| 1879 | 2 |
| 1880 | 8 |
| 1882 | 8 |
| 1883 | 28 |
| 1884 | 12 |
| 1885 | 30 |
| 1886 | 9 |
| 1887 | 20 |
| 1888 | 25 |
| 1889 | 55 |
| 1891 | 15 |
| 1892 | 49 |
| 1893 | 60 |
| 1894 | 72 |
| 1895 | 88 |
| 1897 | 1 |
| 1898 | 3 |
| 1899 | 20 |
| 1903 | 14 |
| 1904 | 4 |
| 1908 | 1 |
| 1909 | 3 |
| 1915 | 2 |
| 1928 | 4 |
| 1929 | 2 |
618 stories matching cannot
- Free Wool, Free Lumber: Washington's Mill Towns Brace for the Tariff Shock
Seattle and Tacoma manufacturers warn that the new Havemeyer tariff will cut wages, ruin sheep raisers and hand the lumber trade to Canadian timbermen.
- The City That Couldn't Pay Its Bills: Seattle’s Fiscal Crisis and the Fight for Expansion
Mayor Moran and Councilman Dane plead with citizens to understand why street paving is stalled and sewer plans are shelved—not from laziness, but because state law caps the city's debt just as the population doubles.
- The Prosecutor Says He Is Not in the Gamblers' Pocket
Seattle's prosecuting attorney goes on the record to deny a deal with a gambling fixer, and dares the sheriff and the chief of police to bring him a single witness.
- The City That Couldn't House Its Own Growth
A frustrated businessman attempts to set up shop in 1888 Seattle, only to find that despite the city's 'boasted enterprise,' the total lack of available real estate is driving investment away to Tacoma.
- Seattle's 1895 Warning: Secure Cedar River Water Before Private Speculators Do
City Engineer R. H. Thomson says Seattle's overworked pumps cannot survive another summer and urges the city to buy the Cedar River watershed, dams and reservoir sites while it still can.
- The People’s Franchise: Seattle Votes Down Municipal Ownership of Streetcars
In a pivotal moment for the city's infrastructure, voters reject the Navin resolution to take control of street railways, cementing private corporate dominance over public transit.
- The Tragic Last Notes of L. R. Shaw
A desperate local resident details his financial ruin, drug dependence, and final instructions to his family in a series of haunting letters before taking his own life in Seattle.
- A Chinese Merchant Lost His Store. The Judge Said He Still Had Rights.
When hard times turned Chin Chew Coy from shopkeeper to laborer, federal officials moved to deport him. Judge Hanford ruled that his treaty rights—and his Portland property—still protected him.
- A Damning Report on Seattle's Water Works
A Chamber of Commerce committee found a hastily built municipal water system, political patronage and missing maps—and urged Seattle to hire a professional engineer at $5,000 a year.
- The Brick Crisis: Why Seattle’s Boom Is Stalling Because of Empty Lots
An editorial warns that the city's rapid growth is being choked by a lack of commercial infrastructure, urging property owners to build or lease for development before capital flees to rival towns.
- 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 Battle for the Territory: Judson vs. Jacobs in the 1876 Election
As the nation grapples with the disputed presidential election of 1876, Washington Territory voters head to the polls to decide their own future, pitting Republican J.P. Judson against Democrat Judge Jacobs in a fierce contest for territorial supremacy.
- The Unpaid Bills of the James Street Cable Line
A legal dispute over the James Street cable railway ends in a victory for the company, leaving material suppliers with no way to recover their losses.
- Seattle's Big Bet on the Railroad Party
Seattle's boosters see a visit from Henry Villard's 600 Northern Pacific guests as the city's chance to impress Eastern capital—and they want a public reception ready.
- The Idle Crowd: Seattle's 1877 Moral Panic over 'Street Loafers'
A local editor observes the growing ranks of the unemployed and 'non-descript' men gathering on Seattle corners, questioning how they survive in a bustling, labor-dependent territory.
- The Battle for Seattle’s Soul
Tensions boil over between labor organizers and the property-owning elite over the presence of Chinese workers, as the city teeters on the edge of mob rule.
- The Wharf King’s Victory: Yesler Wins Millions in Land Battle
Judge Lichtenberg rules that the state cannot seize waterfront property without paying just compensation, halting the Harbor Line Commission and protecting H.L. Yesler’s empire.
- The Rule of Law in the Face of Mob Violence
In 1885, a Seattle judge delivered a scathing rebuke to a grand jury and the public, condemning anti-Chinese conspiracy and defending the right of all laborers—regardless of race or origin—to equal protection under the law.
- The Campaign to Exclude Japanese Farmers from Seattle Markets
White truck farmers in the White River Valley organize a campaign to ban Japanese immigrant competition from the Pike Place Market.
- The Waterfront War: How Seattle's Property Owners Stopped the State from Stealing Their Land
A landmark court ruling in January 1901 declares that the state cannot redraw harbor lines and seize waterfront property without paying fair compensation, marking a major victory for private ownership against government overreach.
- The Supreme Court Halts Seattle's Street Grading
A landmark court ruling forces the city to stop leveling streets unless they pay damages to homeowners.
- A Forty-Foot Leap From a Burning Lodging House
A predawn blaze in a Terrace Street rooming house forces immigrant laborers to jump from windows; one is likely fatally injured.
- The Clubhouse Seattle Would Not Rent
In 1923, a landlord was talked out of leasing a house to Filipino students after a University of Washington professor objected to living near them—prompting an editorial demand for a permanent home the community could call its own.
- The Right to Remain: A Victory in Federal Court
Judge Hanford rules that a Japanese laborer cannot be deported as a 'pauper' by immigration inspectors, asserting a right to due process.
- The Tide Land Grab: How Seattle's Future Was Sold Before It Was Even a State
As Washington Territory inches toward statehood in early 1889, speculators are already circling the waterfront, buying up oyster beds and timber rights in a desperate rush to claim the city's most valuable real estate.
Also about this, in other words
- Seattle's Filipino Editors Draw a Line: Restrict Us If You Must — But Never Shut Us Out
As agitation builds in Congress to bar Filipinos from the mainland, the editors of Seattle's Filipino Forum weigh the Johnson bill and conclude that a quota, however bitter, is preferable to outright exclusion — which they call an imperialist injustice.
- The Bureaucratic Cruelty of Chinese Exclusion
A Christian Chinese resident is denied the right to bring his wife to the United States following a restrictive court ruling.
- The Saloonkeeper Who Could Not Breathe
Albert Frederick Able, an old-time Seattle saloon man, suffocated when throat cancer closed the tube that kept him alive.
- The City Can Tear It Down: The Supreme Court Backs Seattle's Fire Limits
Daniel K. Baxter put up a twenty-foot shell of wooden posts wrapped in corrugated iron inside Seattle's fire limits. The state Supreme Court said the city could knock it down without ever going to court — and municipal building codes came out of it stronger than before.