Seattle’s Water Famine Blamed on Political Spoils System
A new city administration’s mass firing of experienced water department staff leads to a catastrophic loss of service during infrastructure upgrades.
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.
The scarcity of water during the past few days, which will last for two more, was explained by Commissioner Van Broeklin of the board of public works as an unavoidable necessity, because the reservoir was emptied in order to attach the new main. Inquiry results in the conviction that it was not so; that while it is true the reservoir had to be emptied, the supply could have been kept up without a moment's loss of water. Had the water gates on the Yesler Avenue main been partly shut below Eleventh, the back water would have afforded sufficient suction supply to keep the Broadway pump going. There is no escape from the conclusion that the want of notice was due to stupidity and the cutting off of the water was the result of dense ignorance. The fault was due to the hungry greed of the Democrats for office. If Van Broeklin had been the practical man he was alleged to be, he would have refrained from discharging all the officials until he had familiarized himself with the details of his office. But the moment he got in, a sweeping discharge of experienced employees was ordered, resulting in a blunder which the citizens of Seattle will remember for many a day.
“There is no escape from the conclusion that the want of notice was due to stupidity and the cutting off of the water was the result of dense ignorance.”
The tension between political patronage and the continuity of essential public infrastructure is a recurring theme in Seattle’s history. Just as these 1892 residents grumbled about a 'spoils system' disrupting their water supply, modern Seattleites frequently grapple with how municipal administrative turnover and political shifts impact the reliability of public utilities and city services.
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