The Boss is Out: Tacoma Republicans Dump the Street Railway Henchman
In a rapid-fire city convention at the Lyceum Theater, Mayor Lewis D. Campbell secured his renomination while voters signaled a break from the city's powerful streetcar monopoly.
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.
There was no red fire about the Republican city convention, which convened this morning at the Lyceum theater. It was business from the start, and everything else was cut out. The result was that all the nominations were made and the convention was ready to adjourn inside of an hour and a half. The 345 delegates filled the center of the theater. It was a Campbell crowd from the start. In the Eighth ward, the street railway councilman, T. W. Hammond, of 'Plain English' fame, went down to inglorious defeat. He was knocked out by Dr. Ivan P. Balabanoff. In losing Hammond, it is generally conceded that the Tacoma Railway & Power company lost its strongest henchman in the city council. His defeat was something of a consolation to those delegates who fruitlessly supported Olson.
“In losing Hammond, it is generally conceded that the Tacoma Railway & Power company lost its strongest henchman in the city council.”
The 1904 municipal race in Tacoma was defined by the struggle between the public interest and the influence of the Tacoma Railway & Power company. Much like today's debates regarding utility oversight and corporate lobbying, citizens of the era saw the battle for city council seats as a way to reclaim civic control from private monopolies.
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