The Ship Canal Was on the Ballot
Seattle's paper told voters that a Democratic sweep would kill federal funding for the Lake Washington canal—and invited them to cross party lines to save it.
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.
On the eve of the election, the Post-Intelligencer reprinted Judge Thomas Burke's letter and set the two party platforms side by side. The Republican platform endorsed “a ship canal connecting Puget Sound with Lake Washington” and praised Senators Allen and Squire and Representative Wilson for supporting federal appropriations. The Democratic state convention, the paper said, “singled out the Lake Washington canal as the only improvement in all this state worthy of condemnation,” denouncing those same officials for voting for it. The paper told King County voters that the stakes were immediate: “Republican defeat means the death of the canal. It cannot be otherwise. Those who have an interest in this coast; who regard its welfare; ... should vote in accordance with their opinions.” It urged Democrats and Prohibitionists to cross party lines on the canal issue.
“Republican defeat means the death of the canal. It cannot be otherwise.”
The Lake Washington Ship Canal finally opened in 1917, but this fight shows how long Seattle's infrastructure was hostage to party politics. The 1892 warning—vote one way or the project dies—still sounds familiar in debates over transit, bridges, and federal money for the waterfront.
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