The Tacoma Land Company's Political Ultimatum
A power struggle erupts as the Tacoma Land Company openly threatens political retaliation against Republican candidates who support the Lake Washington Ship 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.
In the interview between the bolters' committee and Chairman P. C. Sullivan of the Republican state central committee, I. W. Anderson, manager of the Tacoma Land Company, acted as spokesman. It is presumed Anderson spoke on behalf of the Tacoma Land Company when he threatened with political chastisement all who dared to support the straight Republican state ticket. Anderson stated: 'If any of the candidates on the county ticket are defeated we know whom to hold responsible for it, and we will hold it as a club to hammer, politically, the heads of any of the club that may put themselves up for office in this county hereafter.' The people of King county should show by their votes on election day that if the Tacoma Land Company owns Pierce county, it does not own King county.
“If the Tacoma Land Company owns Pierce county, it does not own King county, or any part of King county.”
This reflects the long-standing regional rivalry between Seattle and Tacoma over infrastructure and political hegemony. The tension over who gets to dictate state-level priorities—specifically the funding for a ship canal connecting Lake Washington to the Sound—remains a classic archetype of Washington state politics.
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