The Mayor's Ethical Tightrope
Mayor Weatherwax refuses to step down following a dispute over municipal payments to his own lumber company.
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.
Mayor Weatherwax, in response to a Herald reporter regarding his potential resignation, stated: 'No, sir, I will not resign. Upon the refusal of the city treasurer to pay certain warrants for the material furnished by the Weatherwax Lumber Company when said warrants were signed by me as mayor, I concluded my only course was to resign. But on looking the matter up, I find the material was sold to the city before I was elected, and the accounts were audited and ordered paid for by the old council before I had taken my seat. Therefore, the mere fact that I signed the warrants does not invalidate them.' Regarding a potential conflict of interest involving a railroad franchise, the Mayor added, 'I have concluded to sell my stock in the Aberdeen Victoria Railroad, and there can be no kick coming on that score.'
“City work in the future will have to be contracted for with someone else.”
Conflicts of interest involving local elected officials remain a flashpoint in Aberdeen and across Washington. This 1892 dispute over municipal warrants highlights the era's blurred lines between private industrial influence and public city governance.
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