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232 stories matching cheap
- The Logger’s Dilemma: Why Cheap Labor Is Killing Washington's Future
In a fierce editorial from January 1877, the Puget Sound Dispatch argues that low wages for loggers don't just hurt workers—they stunt the growth of the entire territory, creating a class of 'mental and physical wrecks' instead of future statesmen.
- Calls for a Ban on Immigration
A U.S. Senator proposes a sweeping one-year suspension of immigration, citing fears of disease and labor competition.
- The Boomtown Pulse of 1876
A booster’s-eye view of a rapidly industrializing Seattle, where housing was cheap, the bay teemed with fish, and laborers arrived by the steamer-load.
- The Fight for Cheap Labor in the Pacific Northwest
In 1887, prominent Seattle and Tacoma business leaders sat down to argue over the 'necessity' of the Chinese exclusion movement and the future of regional trade.
- 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 Fight Against 'Ready-Made' News
In 1884, Seattle’s labor printers stood against the rise of syndicated, out-of-town journalism, arguing that local integrity and local jobs mattered more than cheap, imported content.
- The 'Smuggled Goods' Confidence Trick
Two men were jailed after attempting to sell cheap, domestically-sourced goods to the local postmaster under the guise of smuggled contraband.
- Seattle Printers Accuse the Dailies of Replacing Men With Boys
Typographical Union No. 307 says the Post-Intelligencer and the Star swapped compositors for cheap help and imported ready-set plates—then asks the public to judge.
- Sunday Baseball in Everett
A weekend series at Robbins' Park between the local Moose and the Monroe team ends in a split, featuring some questionable officiating and some 'cheap' fence-jumping fans.
- The Price of a 'Cheap' Haircut
Everett union barbers expose an unlicensed 'lady barber' working in a non-union shop.
- The Price of Printing: A 19th Century Fight Against 'Cheap John' Contracting
An editorial from the 1873 Seattle Dispatch excoriates the municipal habit of awarding city printing contracts to the lowest bidder, arguing it degrades the press and serves only the interests of 'ward demagogues.'
- The Sawdust in Your Spice Cabinet
A Seattle newspaper exposé from 1888 reveals that the city's food supply was being systemically poisoned by greed, with sawdust in spices and grease in butter.
- The Iron City That Never Was: Kirkland’s $3 Million Bet on Steel
In 1891, promoters promised to turn the shores of Lake Washington into the 'Pittsburgh of the Pacific,' selling lots for a fortune and laying tracks for a empire that would vanish within a decade.
- The Seattle Kitchen Fire
A fire guts a cheap Seattle boarding house, leaving lodgers scrambling for safety through upper-story windows.
- A Teenager’s Seattle Escape
A fourteen-year-old girl is at the center of a criminal hearing after being found in a cheap lodging house.
- 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.
- The Wife Asked Three Times: 'Henry, Where Were You Monday Night?'
Already charged with a double murder in South Seattle, Henry Craemer now stands suspected of a second killing after a cheap silver watch and a pillow-rigged fire surface as evidence.
- Taxation Without Representation for the Poor
A scathing breakdown of how local tax laws favor wealthy landowners while crushing the small lot owner.
- The Tariff Trap: How Washington’s Congressman Warned Against the 'Grasping Monopolies'
Rep. Scott Finn delivers a fiery two-hour speech in Congress, arguing that protectionist tariffs don't help workers but instead feed trusts and hurt farmers.
- The Chinese Question: Seattle’s Editorial War Over Labor and 'Vermin'
In October 1876, the *Seattle Daily Intelligencer* published a blistering editorial defending Chinese laborers while simultaneously dehumanizing them as carriers of disease, revealing the complex economic dependencies and racial tensions of early Washington Territory.
- The Sugar War of Coulee City
A local merchant fights back against a Spokane jobber’s price-fixing tactics.
- Seattle’s Iron Dream: The $3 Million Plant That Promised to Remake Puget Sound
In the wake of a depression, boosters announced a blast-furnace and steel-works complex on Salmon Bay — plus a freight-car factory — predicting thousands of jobs and 25,000 new residents.
- The Coal King’s Dilemma: Seattle vs. the World
As global markets crash and foreign rivals flood San Francisco with cheap fuel, local miners and merchants scramble to save their industry from extinction.
- The Steamboat Race for the White River
As farmers in the White River valley struggle to move their produce to market, two rival steamboat captains rush to launch new, shallow-draft vessels to dominate the river trade.
- University of Washington Students Revolt Against Campus Dining
A campus protest erupts as students challenge a restrictive new meal mandate and the poor quality of food provided by the university's janitor's wife.