The World's Fair Power Struggle
Washington's delegation to the Chicago World's Fair descends into a messy dispute over unpaid vouchers and administrative authority.
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 Tacoma, Mrs. Alice Houghton, president of the Washington women's World's Fair commission, met with Mrs. C.W. Griggs to review unpaid vouchers totaling between $1,200 and $1,500. After a four-hour conference, Mrs. Griggs took the bills to forward them to the State Auditor. Mrs. Houghton expects her payment to be wired to her in Spokane, threatening that if it is not received, she will reveal 'very startling things' about the board. Mrs. Houghton claims that she has been ill-advised by a 'would-be business man' and Mrs. Owings, and that the board's recent actions were illegal because they lacked the necessary two-thirds assent from members. She remains determined to keep the women's department under her personal control to ensure the safe return of contributed articles.
“Mrs. Houghton anticipates that the money due her will be telegraphed to her there, and if it is not, Mrs. Houghton repeats her statement made last night that she will tell the people through the press very startling things which she has not yet divulged.”
This 1893 feud over administrative control and fiscal oversight mirrors ongoing tensions in Seattle’s modern civic and non-profit governance, where competing visions of accountability often lead to very public fractures.
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