The Farmer and the One-Dollar Fee
A Stanwood farmer’s struggle to sell his own harvest in Seattle triggers an impromptu protest against city bureaucracy.
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.
Mr. John McDonald, a Stanwood farmer, has a grievance worthy of consideration. He stated that he gathered from his orchard 113 boxes of plums, which he brought to Seattle to sell. He found the dealers all well supplied, and he was informed that he must peddle his fruit out to the farmhouses or take it home. He started out, selling a box here and there, and was getting along first-rate, when up came a policeman and demanded to see his license. McDonald replied that he did not know a license was required to sell the fruit grown on one’s own place. He was informed differently, and he marched up to the city treasurer’s office where he paid a dollar for a peddler’s license, and went about the disposing of his plums. He reported this matter to a number of neighbors who chanced to be in town last evening, and quite an indignation meeting was held on a pile of lumber near Moran’s foundry, in which there was strong talk on the part of the farmers of quitting Seattle and going to Tacoma to trade.
“An indignation meeting was held on a pile of lumber near Moran’s foundry, in which there was strong talk on the part of the farmers of quitting Seattle and going to Tacoma to trade.”
This 1886 dispute over the regulatory hurdles faced by small-scale farmers echoes Seattle’s modern-day struggles with balancing commercial licensing, farmers' market access, and the frustrations of independent vendors attempting to participate in the local food economy.
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