The Scent of 'Unmarked Coin' at the Capitol
As local option battles intensify, rumors of a slush fund designed to sway legislators circulate through Olympia.
The saloon interests have a sack in Olympia—a sack well-filled with unmarked coin ready for the covetous hand of any legislator who will quit the desiccated ranks of the local optionists and come over where it is more humid. And in the face of the presence of the plethoric sack, the Anti-Saloon League has dispensed with the services of its private detective who has been dogging the steps of suspected lobbyists. The local option fight has become so rigid in its lines that 'money ain't no good no more.' The saloon men realize that a compromise is the best they can hope for, and with a compromise in view, they cannot make a vote bargain. The Anti-Saloon League workers do not believe that the sack has done any good or harm, while the local option fight is at a standstill for a minute; it has become so intense that the participants stand out in a clear light so conspicuous that none of them may change position undetected.
“The saloon interests have a sack in Olympia—a sack well filled with unmarked coin ready for the covetous hand of any legislator who will quit the desiccated ranks of the local optionists.”
Tacoma and Washington were engulfed in the 'Local Option' movement leading up to statewide prohibition in 1916. This report of 'unmarked coin' influencing legislative outcomes echoes the perennial concern over dark money and lobbying in the Washington State Legislature that continues to define state politics.
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