Whitman County Farmers Declare 'War' on Northern Pacific Monopoly
Protesting settlers in Eastern Washington demand Congress seize 'unearned' lands from a 'soulless corporation' accused of land-grabbing and labor exploitation.
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.
At a meeting of the Farmers' Association of Whitman County, held at Colfax on the 26th of March, resolutions were adopted stating that the Northern Pacific Railroad's claims to public lands are without foundation. The settlers claim the company has laid claim to vast tracts without respecting prior claims, offering the land for sale at prices beyond the reach of those entitled to them. The resolutions describe the company's contract system as 'a system of robbery,' where the railroad reserves the right to take possession of land without legal action if payments are missed. The association calls the railroad a 'grasping monopoly' that has left the people of the interior 'little better than slaves' while executives live in luxury. They urge Congress to declare the land grant forfeited and to use those resources to open the Columbia River for transportation, rather than subsidizing a corporation that discriminates against local interests in favor of Portland.
“We deeply deplore the fact that we are under the despotic power of a soulless corporation, and our only hope of protection is from the halls of legislation.”
This 1884 struggle over who owns the land—the corporate monopolist or the actual settler—is a direct ancestor to modern anxieties about corporate land accumulation and the 'financialization' of housing. The rhetoric of settlers being treated like 'slaves' in their own territory echoes contemporary arguments about the loss of local agency in a market dominated by large-scale capital.
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