The Telegraph's Sudden Pivot
Seattle paper accused of selling out to Tacoma interests over the Lake Washington 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.
The Telegraph undertakes to deny that the sudden change in its opinion as to the duty of King county voters at the approaching election was due to the receipt of a bribe. In spite of the denial, however, our morning contemporary is in an unenviable position. The circumstantial evidence is strongly against it. In less than a week after the Telegraph declared the Democratic platform 'untruthful,' it was actively supporting this platform and the candidates who stand upon it. In the meantime, however, the Telegraph had received the sum of $2,500, subscribed for the purpose by a number of prominent Tacoma Democrats, who were probably assisted in making up the purse by several alleged Republicans of Tacoma. It is understood that the principal subscriber to the fund was Col. Chauncey W. Griggs of Tacoma, who would like to be a Democratic United States senator from the state of Washington. This money was brought to Seattle and paid to those representing the Telegraph by Mr. Linus K. Post, a prominent Tacoma Democrat. It may be that this little financial transaction had nothing to do with the change in the views of the Telegraph which was coincident with it. We think, however, that it had its influence. The Telegraph is the only newspaper ever published in Seattle that deliberately betrayed the interests of its city for Tacoma gold.
“The Telegraph is the only newspaper ever published in Seattle that deliberately betrayed the interests of its city for Tacoma gold.”
This 1892 editorial reflects the intense, high-stakes civic rivalry between Seattle and Tacoma during the late 19th century, where local newspapers often served as partisan weapons in the struggle for regional economic dominance. Today, while the mediums have changed, the anxiety over outside influence and the 'selling out' of local civic interest remains a persistent undercurrent in Seattle political discourse.
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