The Senator and the Ship Canal
A fiery public defense of Senator John B. Allen amid political attacks over his efforts to secure federal funding for the Lake Washington Ship Canal.
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.
M. F. Jones, of Walla Walla, writes to the Post-Intelligencer regarding the recent attacks on Senator John B. Allen. Mr. Jones argues that the political jealousy and cheap, narrow-minded localism displayed by certain critics is shameful. These individuals have attempted to injure Senator Allen for his honorable discharge of his duty to the state of Washington, failing to grasp the broader regional necessity of a ship canal to connect Puget Sound with Lake Washington. A senator in Congress should represent the interests of the whole state, rather than being limited to the local grievances of his home district. As of July 4, 1892, visitors from all over the United States have examined the proposed route and have almost unanimously agreed that the general government should undertake this great work. The construction of this canal would be a vast benefit to the shipping of the world, and any attempts to obstruct it for petty political reasons are a disgrace to the state.
“A senator or representative in Congress... should represent the interests of the whole state, and labor to that end. Otherwise he is liable to meet his Waterloo in the outraged, aroused indignation of our people.”
The century-long debate over the Lake Washington Ship Canal, finally completed in 1917, is the ancestor to today's regional infrastructure squabbles. Like the 1892 political friction over federal funding, modern debates over Seattle transit and bridge maintenance reflect the same tension between local interests and the necessity of regional integration.
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