Who Should Own the Canal That Would Make King County?
In a long letter to the editor, a Seattle correspondent takes apart the bill letting King County buy the Washington Canal — and warns that handing the region's only outlet to a private company would 'sell the birthright of the future citizens.'
EDITOR POST-INTELLIGENCER: In the editorial of the Post-Intelligencer of this date, discussing the bill now before the Legislature providing for the purchase of the Washington Canal by King County, it is stated that the tax permitted to be levied to pay for and construct the canal is nine mills on the dollar, and the canal bill is sat upon generally.
From a perusal of the bill today, as it comes from the office of the public printer, I learned:
First — That the maximum rate of tax permitted for any or all purposes in any one year is three mills on the dollar.
Second — That the bill permits the payment to the Washington Improvement Company of only the actual cost, in money, of the land covered by the canal as a right of way and of the work done toward its construction, which cost at the present time would be about $16,000.
Third — That a vote of the people of King County on the question shall be taken before the purchase is made; and that before this vote is ordered the company shall have submitted to the Board of County Commissioners an itemized statement of the cost of the canal up to that time.
Fourth — That if the purchase be made, bonds not to exceed the sum of $101,000 may be issued, as in the judgment of the Board of County Commissioners they are required, to pay the purchase price and for further construction.
Fifth — That the bonds shall bear interest at ten per cent per annum, or at such less rate as in the judgment of the County Commissioners will make them salable at par.
Sixth — That none of the bonds shall be sold below par.
Seventh — That the canal shall be free.
This is a matter of great interest to King County, and should receive more than a superficial consideration.
There are millions of wealth in the section to be brought into commercial intercourse by this canal, when it shall be completed. Untold wealth, either for the people of King County or for some corporation.
It is a well known fact that there is a large belt of timber east of Lake Washington to be thus brought into market, estimated at about 1,000,000,000 feet. That there are 20,000,000 tons of coal in veins already known, which can be worked above the water level. That there is a large extent of land between Seattle and the Cascade Mountains, unsurpassed for grazing purposes, and much of it is farm land.
The value of the natural and only outlet to all this great resource is daily becoming more and more apparent.
To allow it to pass into the hands of any corporation is to sell the birthright of the future citizens of King County for not even a transient benefit.
If the bill becomes a law and the canal is purchased, before the twenty years allotted to the payment of the bonds have expired, the canal will have caused the development and investment of more additional taxable property and capital than is now shown on the assessment roll of King County. — W.
Seattle, Nov. 24, 1883.
“To allow it to pass into the hands of any corporation is to sell the birthright of the future citizens of King County for not even a transient benefit.”
The Washington Canal was the shallow cut at the north end of Lake Washington — the ancestor of today's Montlake Cut and the Lake Washington Ship Canal. Then as now, the argument was over who captures the value of a public waterway: the county that pays for it, or the corporation that happens to own the dirt. Seattle still fights this fight every time a piece of the port, the waterfront or a transit corridor changes hands.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.