The Lumber Blockade: A Plea for Economic Sovereignty
An 1878 editorial argues that Seattle’s timber and the inland prairies are two halves of a whole, choked by a 'grinding monopoly' of railroads and steamship companies.
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.
Mr. John Singleton received some lumber for flooring from Portland, which stands him $46.50 per thousand, dressed and delivered. We are sorry to notice the wholesale importation of lumber, laths and shingles, yet such seemed to be the only alternative, but we hope our mill men will not permit this practice to take root. It looks strange that it should be in vogue at all and is a lasting injury to the country, but who is to blame? This item has more significance than a first glance would indicate. It shows how mutual are the interests of both sections of this Territory and what this side loses by not opening communication with the eastern side. The timber and prairie lands of the Territory are so situated that one is absolutely necessary to the other—we require the productions of the east, they require the lumber and other commodities of the West—and a connection that will give us this interchange will build up one of the most powerful and wealthy commonwealths in the United States. On the eastern side are situated fertile prairies and valleys of illimitable extent... while on this side we have inexhaustible forests of the very best of timber, coal and iron in superabundance, and a grand ocean harbor. At present they are at the mercy of the most grinding monopoly that ever cursed a country, constrained to pay extortionate rates for the transportation of such commodities as enter into their living. The dressed lumber mentioned... which cost $46.50 per thousand feet, can be procured here for $20; and could be landed there by rail for $8 per thousand, making a difference in favor of the consumer of $21. As now conditioned, the O.S.N. Company on one side and the Northern Pacific Railroad company on the other are crippling the energies of the people.
“They are at the mercy of the most grinding monopoly that ever cursed a country.”
In 1878, Seattle boosters were dreaming of a trans-Cascade connection to break the hold of transit monopolies on local goods. Today, Seattle faces a different kind of transit-linked housing and cost-of-living crisis, yet the fundamental argument—that the city's economic health depends on efficient, affordable connection to its surroundings—remains a central, unresolved friction in Washington politics.
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