Pike Street Merchants Open Their Wallets for a Seattle Canal
A volunteer subscription drive added nearly $20,000 to the south canal fund, with Pike Street merchants leading the push and a railroad receiver boasting of Seattle's 'backbone and grit.'
The subsidy for the south canal scheme is now nearly $20,000, and subscriptions are still coming in. The waterway office was busy yesterday and Friday as subscribers called to give liberally; a corps of twelve assistant clerks worked all day furnishing information and blanks. The canal committee will not rest until the work is finished. Most of the business men of the city have taken subscription contracts, and several who had already given liberally consented to increase their subscriptions. Many of the names of non-residents were received yesterday and were referred to special committees having the correspondence in charge.
Every important addition to the canal subsidy came from Pike Street. The list from that street included the names of nearly every business man on it. They are enthusiastic in favor of the canal and show their appreciation of the project's importance by subscribing liberally.
A St. Louis capitalist interested in the enterprise left for his Eastern home. On his departure he expressed satisfaction at the progress being made in raising the subsidy. He said there seemed to be nothing he could accomplish by remaining in Seattle during the next few days. If the necessary subsidy is raised, he and his associates will immediately return to Seattle and make preparations for the speedy commencement of work on the canal and the tide flats.
Gen. John H. Bryant, receiver representing the bondholders of the Seattle, Lake Shore & Eastern Railroad, was so impressed with the mass meeting held at the Armory Thursday evening and the large amount of subsidy raised for the south canal that he sent Friday morning's Post-Intelligencer, containing a full account, to all the bondholders in the East. He said: 'It was a remarkable meeting, showing the energy and spirit of Seattle people, and I was deeply gratified at the result. Our people have $6,000,000 or $12,000,000 invested here, and while they are not realizing much on the investment now, they have confidence in the town and the country and feel certain that everything will come out all right. Such energy, push, enterprise and will power as Seattle has demonstrated here must surely win. I am satisfied from Thursday's exhibition that Seattle has the backbone and grit and has but been waiting for an opportunity to show what she can do and will do when the occasion requires.'
“Such energy, push, enterprise and will power as Seattle has demonstrated here must surely win.”
Seattle's canal fights were never just about boats: they were about who would pay for growth and who would profit from the tide flats. The 1895 subscription drive shows the same public-private boosterism that still shapes how Seattle argues over big infrastructure, except today the sums and the stakes are far larger.
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