The Mayor's Horse-Shoeing Standoff
Mayor J.T. Hall vetoes a city council plan to privatize municipal blacksmithing, citing the welfare of the city's horses.
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.
Seattle, September 1892. To the House of Delegates of the City of Seattle: Gentlemen, I herewith return, without my approval, house of delegates bill No. 292, titled 'An ordinance requiring the ordinary blacksmithing and other team work of the city to be done by contract, and prescribing a method therefor.' Since this ordinance has been in my hands, I have taken pains to examine into the subject matter thereof and find that certain of the council are not now in favor of operating the city blacksmith shop. This ordinance provides that the board of public works shall advertise every six months for bids for doing the ordinary blacksmithing and horseshoeing for a period of six months. This course will be continually changing the horseshoer. It is tiresome and injurious to horses to have the shoers changed. It is more economical on the part of the city to have the horses shod by one shoer all the time. In addition to these objections, it appears from the records that the shop has been run at a saving to the city. The following account represents the work for the month of August 1892, with total earnings of $439.40 against total expenses of $300.35, leaving a balance in favor of the city of $139.05. Under the above circumstances, I believe it is best to have the council re-deliberate upon this ordinance, and to that end I therefore disapprove it and return the same for further consideration. J.T. Hall, Mayor.
“It is tiresome and injurious to horses to have the shoers changed. It is more economical on the part of the city to have the horses shod by one shoer all the time.”
Long before the modern debates over municipal outsourcing and privatization, Seattle leaders were grappling with the same tension: whether to keep essential city services in-house or chase the 'efficiency' of the low-bid contract. Mayor Hall’s concern for the continuity of care for the city’s horses offers a surprisingly humane look at municipal management in the 1890s.
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