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1. Who Gets to Vote in the Primaries?

   Seattle's corporation counsel says registration is not optional—even for party primaries—and that election judges cannot waive it.

   Aug 24, 1894The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyCity Hall

2. The $8,000 Schoolyard Fight

   A losing contractor accuses Seattle’s school board of steering a South School grounds contract to a favored bidder and wasting taxpayer money. The board fires back that the cheapest bids were unsafe and that a $25,000 schoolhouse was at risk of falling.

   Aug 25, 1894The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyCity Hall

3. The Bureaucratic Fight Over Death and Birth

   A standoff between Washington state health officials and local physicians over whether doctors should be required to report vital statistics without pay.

   Dec 1, 1893The Seattle Post-IntelligencerOlympia, Thurston CountyCity Hall

4. The $800 School Contract That Smelled Wrong

   A losing bidder says Seattle’s school board changed the bonding rules mid-bid to steer the South School job to a higher bidder—and cost taxpayers hundreds.

   Aug 28, 1894The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSouth School, Seattle, King CountyCity Hall

5. The Farmer Who Said the Colleges Were Failing Rural Washington

   Addressing the state dairymen, farmer Wm. F. Izett argues that the land-grant colleges move too slowly and cost too much to save the farm — and pitches a cheaper, faster kind of agricultural school as the 'machine gun' the countryside needs.

   Mar 15, 1903The RanchSeattle, King CountyCity Hall

6. State Supreme Court Upholds Lake Washington Canal Contract, Clearing the Way for Tide-Land Transformation

   The Washington Supreme Court rules that the Lake Washington Waterway Company's contract to dig a canal and fill tide lands is constitutional, rejecting a landowner's challenge and affirming the state's power to remake the waterfront.

   Apr 23, 1895The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyFollow the Money · Boom & Bust

7. The Ten-Hour Day That Split Seattle’s Streetcar Men

   A new state law barred Seattle’s streetcar companies from forcing motormen and conductors to work more than ten hours a day. But some workers petitioned to keep the old schedules, because they were paid by the hour.

   Apr 10, 1895The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyWork & Pay · City Hall

8. The Plan to Ring Puget Sound With Forts—and Put Big Guns on Magnolia Bluff

   A federal fortification scheme would turn Magnolia Bluff, Admiralty Inlet and Marrowstone Point into a defensive ring around the new Port Orchard navy yard—if Congress paid for it.

   Mar 14, 1895The Seattle Post-IntelligencerMagnolia Bluff, Seattle, King CountyBoom & Bust · City Hall

9. The Mugwump’s Ledger: How Seattle’s Territorial Secretary Gamed the Law Printing Contract

   A fierce editorial exposes Secretary Owings for delaying the publication of territorial laws to favor a cronies’ printing bid, while padding the bill with 40 pages of his own party platform.

   Jun 17, 1888The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyCity Hall

10. 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.

    Feb 24, 1895The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyFollow the Money · Boom & Bust

11. Seattle's Bid to Be the Liverpool of America

    In 1895, boosters imagined a Lake Washington ship canal turning Puget Sound into a freshwater harbor for world commerce, coal trade, and naval power.

    Feb 24, 1895The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyFollow the Money · Boom & Bust

12. Washington Kept Dodging Its Own Congressional Map

    After the 1890 census gave Washington a second representative, the state spent years avoiding the required division into two congressional districts.

    Jan 22, 1895The Seattle Post-IntelligencerWashington State Capitol, Olympia, Thurston CountyCity Hall

13. The $80,000 Cranberry Bog Behind the Ilwaco Beach

    A state commissioner tours Pacific County's cranberry marsh — 1,600 acres, 7,280 bushels shipped to San Francisco, 200 pickers at fifty cents a bushel, and a company openly hoping to replace its Chinese crew with white labor.

    Aug 20, 1898Ranche and RangeIlwaco, Pacific CountyWork & Pay · Follow the Money · Exclusion & Resistance

14. Everett’s Sweetheart Printing Deal: The Supreme Court Said No

    In 1894, Everett’s city council awarded its official printing contract to a bid nearly four times higher than a rival’s. The Washington Supreme Court reversed course, warning that public money was not the council’s to give away.

    Sep 17, 1894The Seattle Post-IntelligencerEverett, Snohomish CountyCity Hall

15. The Paperwork of Exclusion: Chinese Residents Ordered to Register

    New federal rules land in Seattle requiring every Chinese resident to carry a photographic certificate of residence, sworn affidavits and a detailed physical description — the machinery of the Geary Act takes shape.

    Aug 28, 1892The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyExclusion & Resistance

16. The Smoke-Filled Backroom Deals of 1886

    A disgruntled contractor exposes the murky process behind the construction of public works in early Seattle, challenging the city's power brokers.

    Jun 18, 1886Seattle Daily Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyCity Hall

17. Who Controls the Schoolhouse Purse?

    Walla Walla taxpayers demand fiscal transparency as the school board ignores mandatory financial reporting.

    Aug 7, 1903The Evening StatesmanWalla Walla, Walla Walla CountyCity Hall

18. Walla Walla's School Board Election Turns on a Missing Financial Statement

    Taxpayers want the annual accounting the law requires, as the district prepares to spend $156,000 this year.

    Nov 24, 1903The Evening StatesmanWalla Walla, Walla Walla CountyCity Hall

19. Seattle to the Railway: Pave Your Share of Pike Street

    The city council pressed the Seattle Railway Company to live up to its franchise and pave between its tracks on Pike Street, after hearing that the road's receiver was in no hurry.

    Apr 23, 1895The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyFollow the Money · City Hall

20. The Transparency Tax: A Seattle Taxpayer Rails Against Red Tape

    In 1877, a frustrated taxpayer penned a public letter attacking the County Commissioners for mandating expensive, redundant audits of public records, arguing that government transparency should be an everyday right, not a high-priced administrative burden.

    Jan 3, 1877The Daily IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyCity Hall

21. Farmers Take On the Commission Men—and Demand Weekly Checks

    Yakima growers propose a $5,000 bond for produce brokers, while Sumner farmer W. H. Paulhamus recalls how organized producers stopped getting 'did' by middlemen.

    Feb 1, 1903The RanchYakima, Yakima CountyFollow the Money

22. Seattle Hires a Contractor to Keep South School From Sliding Into the Street

    The school board awards an emergency bulkhead job after nine bids and a bonding standoff, with work required before the autumn rains.

    Aug 22, 1894The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyCity Hall

23. The Moral Gatekeeper: Snohomish’s New Battle Over Who Gets to Sell Liquor

    A new state law requires liquor license applicants to prove 'good moral character,' turning county commissioners into judges of private virtue and sparking a fierce debate over who gets to define morality in the Territory.

    Feb 12, 1876The Northern StarSnohomish, Snohomish CountyCity Hall · Nightlife

24. The Judge Who Warned Seattle Not to Sell Its Waterfront to a Canal Company

    In 1894, Judge John J. McGilvra urged Congress to build the Lake Washington Ship Canal and warned that a private company's tideflat scheme would put tolls on the water and enrich speculators at public expense.

    Jul 15, 1894The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyFollow the Money

25. The $7 Million Gamble to Dig Seattle’s Canal

    St. Louis capitalists arrive with plans for the Lake Washington canal and tide-flat fill, promising a transformed city—if Seattle secures the rights-of-way.

    Mar 21, 1895The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyFollow the Money · Boom & Bust · City Hall

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