The Governor Who Fought the Lobby
A look back at Henry McBride’s political battles against corrupt railroad interests and secret tax evasion in Washington.
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.
The reason why so many voters want to see Henry McBride elected governor this fall is that they know he is the type of man who has the courage of his convictions and is absolutely fearless in fighting for what he believes is right. Former Gov. Henry McBride, the republican gubernatorial nominee, is the man who drove a corrupt and corrupting lobby out of the state capital. He precipitated the fight for a regulative railroad commission that forced the railroads out of politics and provided a means of doing equal justice between the shippers and consumers on one hand and the stockholders, managers, and employees on the other. He forced the enactment of a tax commission bill that brought millions of dollars of hidden values to the front, raised a burden from the shoulders of the small property owner and equally distributed it to all. To accomplish these reforms, Gov. McBride sacrificed himself, for in their last desperate effort to protect themselves, the lobby interests encompassed his defeat for the republican gubernatorial nomination in 1904. But the good that McBride had done was crystallized into law immediately thereafter, for the legislature at last realized the temper of the people and enacted the laws he had demanded through four troublesome years.
“Whatever Mcßride says he will do, he will do and the people might well accept Mcßride’s promise as a deed already accomplished.”
This 1916 editorial highlights a recurring theme in Washington politics: the perennial struggle to regulate corporate influence over state agencies and ensure fair tax burdens for small property owners. McBride’s legacy, framed here as a triumph of individual courage against 'the lobby,' resonates with modern debates about transparency and the influence of money in state legislative sessions.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.