District Attorney Fired for Taking on Northern Pacific Railroad
Patrick Henry Winston, U.S. District Attorney for Washington, details his removal from office after attempting to hold the Northern Pacific Railroad accountable for timber theft.
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United States District Attorney Patrick Henry Winston has mailed a letter to the president regarding his removal from office. Winston asserts that his firing is a result of his efforts to hold the Northern Pacific Railroad Company accountable for illegal timber cutting on public lands. In a trial against John H. Stone, it was revealed that ties were being cut for the Spokane & Palouse Railway and the Washington Central Railroad—both branches of the Northern Pacific—under the guise of being 'adjacent' to the railroads for construction purposes. Winston wrote to the attorney general proposing a bill of discovery to expose the relationship between these companies, which he believes were built by the Northern Pacific through dummy corporations. Winston concludes that his removal was orchestrated by powerful corporate interests to silence a 'troublesome' official.
“Such rich and powerful corporations will not permit a man who is troublesome to them to retain a position under your administration.”
The tension between federal regulatory power and the overwhelming influence of the Northern Pacific Railroad in the 1890s echoes modern critiques of corporate capture of public agencies. The 'dummy corporations' used to shield the railroad from liability mirror contemporary concerns about complex corporate structures used to evade accountability.
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