The Circus Leaves Town—And So Does Our Money
A high license fee meant to discourage local 'menace' backfires, driving residents to spend their entertainment budget across the river.
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.
Circuses may thrive and circuses may go broke, but just the same, circuses will go on forever. Its coming to Pasco instead of to Kennewick may be due to several reasons, perhaps including our new license ordinance that provides a fee of $100 a day. The argument behind the license is the fact that a circus takes money out of the country and can be a menace to peace and quiet. But with the circus in Pasco, Kennewick is not the gainer. We lose the ticket sales and the money spent by visitors at our local shops. The thing that hurts is that we are fostering the belief among our people—in Richland, Finley, Hover, and our own town—that they must look elsewhere for amusement. Whenever we discourage play, we encourage the outward drift of our people. The city council would be bestowing benefits upon the community were they to annul the license and if necessary don police uniforms on circus day, while the Commercial Club could volunteer to carry water to the elephant.
“Whenever we discourage play we encourage the outward drift of our people and set up a rival town as a mecca for those who seek to satisfy that in their natures which demands recreation and diversion.”
This 1914 editorial captures a perennial anxiety in the Tri-Cities: the struggle to keep local commerce and entertainment from leaking into neighboring towns. The 'circus tax' debate mirrors modern municipal debates over how much to regulate nightlife and events versus how much to subsidize the 'experience economy' to keep residents from spending their dollars elsewhere.
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