The 'Citizen's Meeting' Takes Control of Seattle
A reform-minded coalition unseats the previous administration, pledging to clean up the city and install respectable leadership in the police department.
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 the annual election for city officers yesterday, the ticket put forth by the Citizen's Meeting, pledged to temperance, private morality and public order, was triumphantly victorious over the ticket named by the Criminal City Ring and representing the interests of saloon and criminal elements. Mr. Moran was elected Mayor over Mr. Collins by 800 votes. Mr. Ryan was elected City Attorney over Mr. Booth by 69 votes. Mr. Mitchell was elected Chief of Police over Mr. Murphy by 845 votes. Three out of the four candidates for the Council named by the Citizens' Meeting were elected. This result completes the work of political regeneration begun last year by the election of Dr. Minor to the Mayoralty, and redeems Seattle from the degradation of government by ruffians and criminals. The election of Mr. Mitchell as chief of police is particularly gratifying, because it takes the police power of the community out of ruffian hands and makes it the guardian of order instead of the guardian of vice. In the place of a brutal ruffian, associated by habit and connected by affinities of character with the ignorant, the depraved and the criminal, we shall have in Mr. Mitchell a respectable and capable officer.
“The election of Mr. Mitchell as chief of police is particularly gratifying, because it takes the police power of the community out of ruffian hands and makes it the guardian of order instead of the guardian of vice.”
This 1888 account of 'political regeneration' and the struggle against the 'criminal ring' over police and city governance highlights that Seattle’s debates over the role of the police and civic moral reform are a cycle that has repeated for over a century. The tension between municipal authorities and the 'saloon element' mirrors modern debates about public order, policing, and the influence of special interests in Seattle city politics.
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