The Power Monopoly's Shadow Over Tacoma
A Seattle rate war reveals the aggressive expansion of the Stone & Webster combine, threatening to bring high-handed utility practices to Tacoma.
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.
An electricity war is currently underway between the Seattle Electric Company and the Snoqualmie Falls & White River Power Company. The Seattle Electric Company, part of the Stone & Webster combine, has begun a rate-cutting war in districts where it faces competition, while forcing residence consumers in other parts of the city to cover the costs through higher rates and predatory meter charges. Now, the Tacoma branch of the same combine, the Tacoma Railway & Power Company, is asking the city council for a franchise that would allow it to adopt the same high-handed methods in Tacoma, threatening to push competing electric companies out of the market and hike costs for residents by thousands of dollars annually.
“Give the Stone-Webster combine an opportunity to control the business of furnishing electric current... it would mean a cost to the city of Tacoma of $235,649 annually.”
This 1904 report highlights the early history of utility monopolies in the Pacific Northwest. The tension between municipal power and private ‘octopus’ corporations remains a core theme in local civic discourse as Tacoma Power continues to navigate the complexities of regional energy control.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.