The President's Visit: Roosevelt, the 'Mysterious Syndicate,' and the Fight for Pasco’s Soil
In May 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt toured Walla Walla, drawing massive crowds and sparking local fears of land speculators. While his speech at Whitman College praised pioneer virtues, a parallel editorial warned that a 'Seattle Syndicate' was hoarding arid land near Pasco, betting on federal irrigation projects to inflate prices for settlers.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
A TIMELY WARNING.
At Pasco President Roosevelt expressed the hope that the irrigable lands may be kept out of the hands of speculators and 'reserved for the use of actual settlers.' This was a timely hint to the people of this part of the country to beware of the speculators who are now trying to create a boom in Pasco land for their own profit. It is advertised quite persistently in certain newspapers that a mysterious, if not mythical, Seattle Syndicate is buying up all the land that it can get around Pasco with a view to establishing a big system of irrigation. This syndicate is said to have unlimited capital at its command.
If it is true that a syndicate is acquiring all the available arid land around Pasco, it is dollars to doughnuts that it is being done with the idea that the government will soon take up the work of irrigation in that section and that the speculators will then reap a harvest by selling land at high prices to homeseekers. The day is surely coming in the not distant future when the desert land in the vicinity of Pasco and that surrounding Wallula will be made to blossom as the rose by irrigation, but the Seattle syndicate that is now said to be moving in dark and mysterious ways its wonders to perform.
SPLENDID OVATION TO PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT (Continued from Page One.)
...get a double service of good citizenship to the state, and while I believe emphatically in play (I believe in playing hard while you play), when you work do not play at all. And that is good advice all around.
Now this college, this city, reminds us of the old days, the days of the pioneers, of men who enjoyed life, and yet who worked so well and so strongly. Let us now that the pioneer days are over, endeavor to keep alive the pioneer virtues. We need just the same qualities in order to make this nation rise level to its opportunities that Whitman and his associates needed when they guided an ox train across the plains, across the mountains, and settled down here to possess the land.
Immediately after the speaking the procession was reformed and marched down Main to the courthouse, where the president made a brief talk to nearly 3000 school children of Walla Walla and Pendleton massed there eagerly awaiting his coming. The president then drove to the fort, where the troops were reviewed.
Following the trip to the fort President Roosevelt was escorted to Senator Ankeny's home in Park street where he dined.
This 1903 editorial captures a recurring tension in Washington’s history: the conflict between genuine homesteaders and wealthy land speculators betting on public infrastructure. The fear that 'syndicates' would profit from federal irrigation projects mirrors modern debates over water rights, housing affordability, and corporate ownership of agricultural land in the Columbia Basin.
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