The Chamber of Commerce Pleads for the Railroads
Tacoma’s business elite pen a desperate memorial to the Northern Pacific, crying 'perfidy' as the terminal war heats up.
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The cause of Bro. Kadebaugh's discontent begins to leak out. Our faithful Tacoma correspondent gives the star chamber proceedings of a special committee of Tacoma's Chamber of Commerce, called to petition the Northern Pacific not to forsake its first love. This notable memorial charges the Northern Pacific with perfidy and concludes, praying said company to 'give them facilities,' etc. When such men as General Sprague, J. N. Rackley, W. J. Thompson, W. D. Tyler, Anderson, Materson, Nolan, Wheeler and Mason have cause for complaint, there must surely be some good reason for general alarm among the terminalites.
“This notable memorial charges the Northern Pacific with perfidy and concludes, praying said company to 'give them facilities.'”
This 1887 report on Tacoma's desperate lobbying for Northern Pacific rail facilities mirrors modern Seattle's long-standing obsession with infrastructure and terminal dominance. Just as these titans of the 19th-century Chamber of Commerce feared losing their 'first love' (the railroad), today's civic leaders remain equally fixated on how transit and logistics partnerships dictate the city's economic future.
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