The Price of Secrecy in the Puyallup Coal Fields
When a contractor is jailed for contempt, the future of a key territorial infrastructure project hangs in the balance.
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.
We mentioned some days since, that a contract for work of building bridges and culverts on the Puyallup coal road had been let to P. D. Forbes, of Victoria. That gentleman has been imprisoned for contempt in refusing to deliver up, in the suit of Charles Morton and J. H. Davies, certain papers connected with the artificial stone case in which James H. Thorp and L. L. Leathers were the principals. Mr. Justice Creese, in delivering the opinion of the court, stated that even private communications cannot be allowed to become the instrument of concealing frauds perpetrated under authorized secrecy. In this matter, having satisfied myself of the breach, I am of opinion that the defendant, Peter Dewar Forbes, has been guilty of a contempt of this Court, and I do order that he stand committed to the Queen's prison at Victoria. How the arrest and imprisonment of Mr. Forbes will affect his contracts in this Territory remains to be seen. There are many people here expecting to get work under him who would like to see the outcome of the transaction.
“It must still be understood that a public institution... cannot be allowed to become the instrument, however innocently, of contravening the laws of the country which protects it, or to conceal frauds perpetrated under its authorized secrecy.”
Infrastructure projects have always been lightning rods for local corruption. Just as the 1877 Puyallup coal road project became mired in litigation and contractor scandal, Seattle remains familiar with the challenges of keeping public works transparent and on schedule.
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