Tacoma's Business Men Draw a Line at Railroad Control
Independent members of the Chamber of Commerce nominate a rival ticket after charging that Northern Pacific and Tacoma Railway & Power proxies packed the nominating committee.
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A large and animated meeting was held at the Tacoma Hotel Wednesday afternoon by members of the Chamber of Commerce who opposed the ticket recently prepared by the nominating committee. Behind closed doors the discussion took the form of earnest but courteous criticism of the committee's choice of candidates mostly identified, directly or indirectly, with the Tacoma Railway & Power, the Northern Pacific, and the St. Paul Tacoma Lumber Company. Several prominent members said the railroad interests were undoubtedly trying to get control of the organization for purposes of their own, and that such control would be prejudicial to the best interests of the city. It was pointed out that the nominating committee this year was really elected by proxies of members which the railroad people had quietly gathered up in advance, thus virtually packing the meeting at which the committee was chosen. Speakers agreed that every corporation doing business in Tacoma was entitled to fair treatment, but that it was not good policy to permit two or three corporations to gain such control as to put other business concerns at a disadvantage. Attention was called to the fact that other railroads than the Northern Pacific were now knocking at the gates of Tacoma, and that it would not be wise to allow the Chamber to be dominated by antagonistic interests. After a full and free discussion, the question of nominating an independent ticket was put and carried without a dissenting vote. The ticket was: President, William Jones; vice-president, A. F. Albertson; treasurer, H. A. Rhodes; trustees, S. R. Balkwill, G. L. McCormick, William H. Snell, R. G. Hudson, William Virges, and Ben Olham. The regular ticket named by the nominating committee had W. R. Bronson for president, A. F. Albertson for vice-president, Henry A. Rhodes for treasurer, and S. R. Balkwill, G. L. McCormick, A. Tilling, William Virges, Henry Hewitt, Jr., and Carl Stebbins for trustees. The election will be held September 5.
“The railroad interests were undoubtedly trying to get the control of the organization for purposes of their own, and ... such control would be prejudicial to the best interests of the city.”
The 1904 fight over who spoke for Tacoma's business community rhymes with modern debates about corporate money in local elections, chambers of commerce, and business improvement districts. Then as now, the question was whether civic institutions answer to every business—or to the most powerful few.
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