The Great Seattle Canal Subscription Scandal
Prominent business leaders expose the local newspaper's fabricated list of wealthy donors to the Lake Washington ship canal project.
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 its efforts to influence public opinion by raising the cry, 'Dig the canal, and dig it in '93,' the Telegraph has abandoned all rules of decency. To distract from the fact that the Democratic state platform is openly hostile to King County interests, the Telegraph started a movement to have the Lake Washington ship canal dug by private local enterprise instead of by the government. The paper opened a subscription list of cash and land, but these funds did not come in fast enough to satisfy its paymasters. Consequently, the newspaper began padding the list with imaginary donors. Mr. Colman, D. T. Denny, Edward Blewett, Dr. E. C. Kilbourne of the Consolidated Street Railway Company, J. F. McNaught, and the firm of Llewellyn & Co. have all publicly denied authorizing any subscription, stating their belief that the federal government, not private enterprise, should build the canal. Furthermore, the Telegraph falsely claimed that James J. Hill of the Great Northern railroad had pledged $150,000 to the project, a claim Mr. Hill categorically denied upon his arrival in the city.
“The Telegraph never saw either of us, and we have not subscribed anything.”
Public infrastructure projects have long been targets for boosterism and manipulation in Seattle. This 1892 scandal mirrors modern debates over private-public partnerships and the credibility of local media in shaping massive civic construction projects.
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