The Fight for the Stubblefield Legacy
Walla Walla struggles to secure a $100,000 endowment for an orphans' home while debating the city's future.
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A member of the city council says that the city cannot legally appropriate money for the Stubblefield home without a vote of the people. In a strict construction of the law, the councilman may be right, but the rule has been violated in more than one instance by the council within the last year. If Walla Walla fails to seize the opportunity to secure this one hundred thousand dollar institution by raising the ten thousand dollars required by the terms of the Stubblefield will, it will convince the outside world that the city is still under the control of the mossbacks who have had the upper hand since the early sixties.
“It would be a shame and a disgrace for the city to lose this generous endowment.”
This debate highlights a classic municipal tension: how much to spend on public institutions versus sticking to legal letter-of-the-law budgets. The struggle to fund social infrastructure remains a constant in Walla Walla's growth story.
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