The Struggle for the Soil
A lobbyist’s plea from Washington, D.C., urges Seattle and Eastern Washington to unite against the Northern Pacific Railroad's land grab.
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.
Senator Slater of Oregon will speak in the Senate today in behalf of the people, urging the forfeiture of all granted lands along the unconstructed portion of the Northern Pacific Railroad down the Columbia River and the branch line across the Cascade Mountains. I have laid before him our grievances. There will be incorporated in his speech the substance of recent editorials in the Post-Intelligencer touching the value of coal lands in King County. Now, a few truthful words to the people of Seattle: The welfare of our city was never so imperiled. It is the intention of the present managers to build the branch road as far south of Seattle as possible to connect it with the Tacoma and Kalama road. The coal lands in the Green River district outside the limits of the withdrawal for the Tacoma and Kalama road will, at the last moment, be purchased from the United States and transferred to the Oregon Improvement Company. The people of Seattle and Eastern Washington must unite, own, and build for themselves a railroad from the wheat fields of Eastern Washington through Snoqualmie Pass to Seattle Bay. The present is the time to act. Next year will be too late.
“You have listened too long to the siren voice of a pirate crew. Up and act.”
This 1884 plea reflects a pivotal moment in Seattle’s history, as the city fought to break the Northern Pacific’s near-monopoly on regional transit and land rights. Today, the rhetoric of 'monopolies' and 'land grabs' echoes in modern urban debates over transit-oriented development and who controls the future of the city's corridors.
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