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68 stories matching equit
- A Seattle League Wants Workers to Share the Profits—and the Losses
In the wake of labor unrest, a new Seattle group of employers and union men proposes profit-sharing as a cure for strikes, pointing to a company town in Illinois as proof it can work.
- The Sawmill Scandal: Henry Yesler’s Long Legal War
Before the city grew, Seattle’s founding titan was locked in a decade-long, bitter courtroom battle over his sawmill, revealing the ruthless undercurrents of the frontier economy.
- The Judge, the Stenographer, and the $2,000 Bill the County Refused to Pay
A Yakima County water-rights trial dragged on for weeks. When the judge tried to stick taxpayers with the stenographer's tab, the state Supreme Court stepped in and said no.
- 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.
- The People vs. The Northern Pacific Railroad
Across Washington Territory, furious citizens—from farmers in Colfax to merchants in Seattle—revolted against a railroad monopoly they claimed was hoarding millions of acres of 'earned' land and stifling development.
- A Seattle Utopia Sold in One-Cent Shares
A society of unemployed men pools its wages and plots a Bellamy-style commonwealth of railroads, coal mines and common tables — starting from $5 of capital and 500 one-cent shares.
- The $10,000 Gamble: How Seattle Citizens Bought Their Way to the World
In a desperate bid to secure a transcontinental rail link and outmaneuver rival Tacoma, local merchants pooled their own money to subsidize the Seattle, Lake Shore & Eastern Railway.
- 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 Union Siege of Newcastle
A standoff between organized labor and mine management reveals the growing power of the Knights of Labor in the coal fields near Seattle.
- The Great Land Grab: 1886 Democracy vs. The Northern Pacific
At the 1886 Democratic Territorial Convention in Tacoma, delegates launched a blistering critique against the Northern Pacific Railroad for failing its promises and seizing public lands meant for settlers.
- Railroad Monopoly Faces Legal Blockade
A federal judge sides with minority stockholders, placing the Seattle, Lake Shore & Eastern under receivership to check the reach of the Northern Pacific.
- Hop Growers Pledge Their 'Word and Honor' to Pay Pickers Less
With the hop market collapsing in the summer of 1894, growers from ten Puget Sound counties met at Puyallup and fixed a single price for picking — 65 to 75 cents a box, down from the dollar they had promised. Ezra Meeker, the valley's biggest grower, said out loud what the resolution implied: the pickers had no seat at the table.
- Seattle's Waterfront Was Up for Grabs — and Everyone Filed a Claim
With the tide-land plats at last filed, hundreds of buyers have staked overlapping claims across Elliott Bay, and officials are predicting years of litigation over who really owns the shore.
- City Council Prepares to Give Away Valuable Tideflat Land
Tacoma officials are poised to hand over prime waterfront property to the Great Northern Railway without demanding fair concessions or adequate infrastructure in return.
- The Judge's Cruel Calculus
A Seattle widow’s quest for justice in court meets a cold, misogynistic dismissal from the bench.
- The Great Electoral Mismatch
A look back at the 1876 Washington Territory legislature reveals a startling imbalance in representation that left Seattle’s growing population struggling for a fair voice.
- The Judge Who Lobbied for the Church
A scathing critique of Washington Territorial Judge Roger B. Greene, accused of using his office to force tax exemptions for church property through a back-door deal.
- The Gambler’s Shield: How Seattle Saloon Keepers Dodged Mayor Moras’ Purge
When Chief Justice Burke urged the city to revoke liquor licenses from gambling dens, the Common Council refused—citing legal technicalities and protecting the very establishments the mayor wanted shut down.
- The Great Railway Debate
Legislators in Olympia grapple with the Farmers' Alliance, railroad monopolies, and the fight for equitable shipping rates as tension mounts between East and West Washington.
- Puyallup People Wait on Delayed Land Patents
A century-old battle for property rights reveals how corporate interests and federal delays threatened to dispossess the Puyallup people of their ancestral home.
- Sunnydale Residents Organize Against Chinese Laborers
A local group passes a resolution to exclude and boycott Chinese workers after a land lease is finalized.
- The City Treasurer’s Emergency Salvage Plan
Following the absconding of Treasurer Krug, the city rushes to secure the public treasury and prevent a collapse of municipal funds.
- The Union Veteran Who Sued the Railroad for a Million-Dollar Tacoma
Anthony P. Carr says Northern Pacific agents helped a claim-jumper steal his homestead. More than a thousand Tacoma lots—and the people living on them—depend on what the Supreme Court decides.
- Whose Land Is It? Seattle Takes On the Northern Pacific Railroad
The president of the Northern Pacific comes to the Chamber of Commerce to argue his company needs the public lands as collateral — and a furious editorial fires back that the city's whole future is on the line.
- The Ground Under Rainier Addition: A Seven-Year Title Fight Ends—for Now
After three trials and repeated reversals, Henry S. Alger is declared owner of a tract already platted into lots and improved by buyers who trusted the Hill title.
Also about this, in other words
- A Horse-Thieving Liveryman’s Great Escape
After mortgaging his entire business and selling off his neighbor's property, a British Columbia liveryman makes a desperate flight across the border into Washington.
- The Bench Inspects the Horse
A judge takes an unconventional approach to a cruelty case, heading to the sidewalk to inspect an injured teamster's horse personally.
- Fort Walla Walla's Day of Strength
Soldiers competed in a series of athletic trials at the local fort, featuring track events, feats of strength, and a greased pig race.
- A Violent Runaway on Ninth Street
A routine day of driving turns into a medical emergency when a team of horses bolts through the streets of Walla Walla.
- Team of Horses Nearly Plunge Into The Bay
A local expressman is injured after his runaway team bolts through railroad yards and narrowly misses a deadly drop from a coal bunker.
- A Runaway Horse, Two Fence Splinters, and a Hotelkeeper’s Fearless Daughter
Mary Eirby is gravely hurt near Fort Steilacoom—the same woman who once held a robber at gunpoint in her father’s hotel.
- The Escape of the Spokane Horse
A horse weighing over 1,000 pounds somehow exits a moving train car through a small ventilation window.
- Cruelty to Animals Charges in College Place
Two men face legal consequences after allegedly driving a livery horse to the point of collapse.