The Senatorial Candidate Who Claimed 8,000 Votes
A railroad tycoon attempts to treat his employees' votes as corporate property, drawing sharp condemnation from local editors.
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.
In our telegraphic column will be found an interview with Col. Chauncey W. Griggs, of Tacoma, published yesterday evening by the Democratic News, of Tacoma. Things have come to a pretty pass in the state of Washington when a millionaire candidate for the United States senate can virtually avow that he is the owner of the votes of 8,000 workingmen. We think, however, that Col. Griggs is making a mistake. The Great Northern railway is not a political institution, but a business enterprise conducted on strict business principles. Even if Col. Griggs were himself the employer of these 8,000 workingmen, however, he would find that he could not control their votes as easily as he imagines. The slave owners of the South claimed to own their slaves, body and soul, but when any man makes a similar claim in regard to the workingmen of Washington it will not take more than one election to convince him that he is in error.
“The voters of Washington have a very good habit of thinking for themselves and voting as they choose.”
This 1892 editorial captures the raw tension between labor and capital in early Washington. The rhetoric echoes modern concerns about corporate influence over worker autonomy and the political polarization of the workforce.
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