The Great Railway Gamble of 1878
Territorial lawmakers drafted a sweeping plan to bind Washington’s counties together with a railroad, tasking local voters with footing the bill through massive debt.
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.
An Act to aid in the construction of a railroad from the city of Seattle, in King county, through the city of Walla Walla, in Walla Walla county, and the town of Dayton, in Columbia county, to the town of Colfax, in Whitman county.
Be it enacted by the Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Washington: That it shall be lawful for the several counties in this Territory to subscribe to the capital stock of the Seattle and Walla Walla Railroad and Transportation Company to aid in the construction of a railroad. The county of King is authorized to subscribe to said capital stock the sum of one hundred thousand dollars; the county of Walla Walla, $100,000; the county of Yakima, $50,000; the county of Columbia, $75,000; the county of Whitman, $50,000; the county of Kitsap, $10,000; the county of Stevens, $20,000; and the county of Klickitat, $10,000.
Before any such subscription shall be made, a special election of the legal voters of each of said counties shall be held on the 9th day of April, 1878. If a majority of the legal voters in such county are in favor of subscription, the Board of County Commissioners shall appoint an agent to subscribe to the capital stock and negotiate a loan or loans in the name of the county at a rate of interest not exceeding eight per cent per annum. The Board of Commissioners shall assess and collect additional taxes upon the taxable property in said county sufficient to pay interest on said loans and final extinction of the principal thereof.
“The Board of Commissioners shall at the time when county taxes are assessed and fixed, assess and collect additional taxes upon the taxable property in said county sufficient to pay interest on said loans.”
Long before light rail debates dominated Seattle politics, 19th-century pioneers were already grappling with the same fundamental challenge: how to finance massive, multi-county infrastructure. This 1877 legislative act shows that the appetite for public-private partnerships—and the anxiety over tax-funded debt—is a permanent feature of Washington's civic life.
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