Merchants Form Exchange to Protect Shipping Rates
Prominent business leaders organize to influence the Lake Washington canal project by backing the Republican ticket.
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 leading shipping firms of the city held an important meeting at the Chamber of Commerce last night and permanently organized a Merchants' and Manufacturers' Exchange for the prevention of discriminations in freight rates and the general promotion of the shipping interests of the city. A constitution and by-laws were adopted and permanent officers elected. It was voted to appoint a committee to visit the various merchants in the city and urge them to take a united stand in favor of the Lake Washington canal as a political issue. This is to be done by supporting the entire Republican state ticket. A. B. Stewart stated he considered the exchange in no sense a political organization, but intended to promote the general interests of Seattle regardless of partisan politics. Tacoma was making a desperate fight politically against the interests of this city, and there was therefore nothing left to do but defend its rights.
“Tacoma was making a desperate fight politically against the interests of this city, and there was therefore nothing left to do but defend its rights.”
This reflects the early industrial era of Seattle where private interests directly coordinated with political party machinery to secure infrastructure, a precursor to the modern public-private power dynamics that still define Seattle's waterfront and growth strategies.
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