Tacoma Votes Overwhelmingly for Municipal Power
Citizens reject private utility monopoly to authorize a city-owned power plant on the Nisqually 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.
The municipal power plant won. By 3,181 to 1,232, the voters Saturday declared their freedom from the extortion of private monopoly and for the building of the municipal plant on the Nisqually. By 3,035 to 1,215, they voted to issue the $300,000 to pay for the land and water rights on which to build the plant. In every precinct in the city but one, the majority was recorded for the plant. The city council will meet to canvass the official vote on Tuesday.
“The voters Saturday declared their freedom from the extortion of private monopoly.”
This 1909 landslide vote marked the beginning of Tacoma Public Utilities, setting the stage for the city's long-standing independence in hydroelectric power generation. The 'extortion of private monopoly' mentioned in the text remains a defining rhetorical touchstone for modern municipal power debates in the Pacific Northwest.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.