Everett Faces Crucial Bond Election
A skeptical labor press weighs in on the city's proposed bond issue, noting the deep-seated distrust of the current business-led administration.
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.
Next Tuesday the voters of the city will determine whether the city shall bond its indebtedness. This has been a chief topic of discussion for weeks. While the public discourse has been one-sided, a strong undercurrent of opposition remains, perhaps threatening the necessary three-fifths vote. We attribute this resistance to a lack of faith in the city's administration. You will find in the average American city today a growing dissatisfaction with the well-established program of the business interests of 'eating the melon and throwing the rind to the mass of the voters.' If the bond election fails, the business interests needn't waste time condemning voters; they had better spend it studying cause and effect.
“You will find in the average American city today a growing dissatisfaction with the well-established program of the business interests of eating the melon and throwing the rind to the mass of the voters.”
Everett has long wrestled with the tension between municipal growth through debt and the public's perception of who actually benefits from that investment. This 1911 editorial captures a classic moment of civic distrust that persists in local government today.
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