Seattle Mayor Proposes 'City Scrip' to Combat Depression
Mayor J.T. Ronald asks the City Council to issue small-denomination warrants to pay for sewer repairs, framing the move as a humanitarian effort to provide work for the unemployed.
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.
Mayor Ronald addressed the city council yesterday regarding the city's crumbling sewer system. Citing the fact that voters had already authorized bonds for sewer improvements—including the Lake Union sewer tunnel—that had not yet been sold, he suggested the city issue warrants in denominations of $1, $2, $3, and $10 to pay for labor. The current sewer system is in dire condition: the Lake Union tunnel work is suspended, the Yesler Avenue sewer is an inadequate wooden box, and multiple manholes are broken, causing sewage to leak into the streets. The Mayor argued that issuing these warrants, which would be paid off once the bonds are sold, would put money back into circulation and provide essential work for heads of families currently suffering from the economic crisis. He emphasized that there is a 'broad line of demarcation between paternalism and the giving of employment on needed public improvements to the wage worker who is willing to labor but cannot secure work at this time.'
“The problem now before the city government is to devise means to do this, and I herewith submit to you, for your consideration, a plan which I believe will accomplish the object sought... which work will at the same time furnish employment to the heads of resident families now living in enforced idleness.”
This 1893 proposal highlights how deep the financial panic was during that era, leading to local 'scrip' schemes to keep the economy moving. It mirrors modern debates over public works as a tool for economic stimulus, though today's fiscal infrastructure is far more complex than issuing handwritten warrants against unsold bonds.
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