The Social Duty of Wealth in 1878 Seattle
A local editor challenges a wealthy property owner who claimed he owed nothing to the community that built his fortune.
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.
A citizen of large wealth, every dollar of which has been accumulated in this community, is reported to have said, when solicited to take stock in the Seattle and Walla Walla Railroad, that he owed the people of Seattle nothing, and that he could make his money yield him a better return than to invest it in a railroad. We know of no man in this city who can truthfully make such a remark. There is very little, if any, wealth here which is not the product of the joint accumulations of all the people. Every addition to the population and industry of the town has added to the common wealth, and all the accumulations of capital in the hands of any portion of the citizens are derived from the joint earnings of all. Had the first proprietors of the town site had no acquisitions to their population, their property would have been worth no more today than it was the day that they settled upon it. They are entitled to the credit of having been the advance guard of civilization, but for the success which attended their efforts, they are indebted solely to subsequent settlers who gave all the value to their accumulations. That man who, by his thrift, has been more successful in accumulating than many of his fellows, is only by that fact under greater obligations to the community than others, for all his extra accumulations are so much more than his legitimate share of the joint production. And that man who does not recognize these simple facts, rejects the primary conditions of all social organization, and is neither a good citizen nor a sympathetic neighbor; he lives for self, and will be left to perish in his own selfishness, 'Unwept, unhonored and unsung.'
“God never made an independent man.”
This 1878 editorial reads like a direct response to modern debates over urban growth, private wealth, and the social contract. Just as Seattle residents argued over the 'unearned increment' of land value during the railroad boom, today’s city grapples with whether those who profit from massive property appreciation owe a debt to the community that created that value.
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