Fraternity Stiffed by City and Chamber
Local Odd Fellows lodges footed the entire bill for entertaining the visiting Sovereign Grand Lodge after the city and Chamber of Commerce reneged on their promises to split the costs.
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 item of chief interest last week among the Odd Fellows was the fact that their local lodges had to foot, unaided, a bill of $400 for entertaining the Sovereign Grand Lodge when that body was here on its way to Portland, the first week in September. They say that the determination of the visiting members to come here was due to a telegram from leading Seattleites, among whom were Mayor J. T. Ronald, representing the city; E. O. Graves, representing the Chamber of Commerce, and certain leading Odd Fellows. This telegram was the result of a conference wherein the chamber and the city were expressly pledged, as the brethren say, to pay a share of the expense of entertaining the visitors. It now transpires that the Odd Fellows have had to bear the whole bill, $400, the chamber and city not having contributed anything to date. Even the souvenirs, printed at a leading stationer's at the order of a joint committee acting for the chamber and the local Odd Fellows, have all been paid for by Odd Fellow money. These souvenirs, the Odd Fellows' committee urges, contained the name of the Chamber of Commerce as one of the body of Seattle entertainers.
“It now transpires that the Odd Fellows have had to bear the whole bill, $400, the chamber and city not having contributed anything to date.”
Public-private partnerships and civic boosterism have a long, messy history in Seattle. This 1891 dispute over unpaid bills highlights the perennial tension between municipal promises and the reality of local organizations bearing the brunt of the costs for major civic events.
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