The Great Seattle Railroad Swindle

The Tacoma Herald, in speaking of the speeches made on the Northern Pacific Railroad bill, says: 'Mr. Windom's speech was by far the most influential of the number. He presented the subject in its most comprehensive light, uninfluenced as he was by pledges or professions of loyalty to the demands of any particular line.' His steadfastness is good, but his connection with the company most of the time as a director, when it was notoriously under the control of a land ring, composed of private speculators who used the subsidy to advance their own personal fortunes in utter disregard of the interests of the public or the stockholders, suggests a conflict. The citizens of Seattle pledged to the Commissioners appointed to locate the western terminus of the railroad a bonus in cash and lands which could readily be made available for $700,000, to locate the terminus at this place, which every Director of the company regarded as the most suitable place for such location. By accepting this proposition, the company would have acquired 512,000 acres more land, the immediate cash value of which would not have been less than $1,280,000. Instead, the donations passed directly into the pockets of the land ring, and the honest stockholders of the railroad have never profited a dollar by them. What have Mr. Windom and his colleagues done with the $30,000,000 of actual cash put into this enterprise by 8,500 innocent stockholders? This is a question founded upon indisputable facts, which it belongs to Mr. Windom to answer.