The Battle for Power in Tacoma’s Streetcar Industry
E.J. Felt reaches out to Snoqualmie Falls Power Company, highlighting a desperate attempt to bypass local utility monopolies.
The story, cleaned up
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E.J. Felt, who recently secured a franchise for new street railways in Tacoma, sent a desperate dispatch from Cleveland asking for power pricing from the Snoqualmie Falls Power Company. Charles H. Baker, president of the power company, suggested that Felt was being forced into a corner by the 'Stone & Webster' combine, which has effectively monopolized local utility access. Baker argued that his own White River plant would have supplied Felt, but claimed Stone & Webster used legal tactics to block its construction, effectively forcing competition to either pay high costs for their own steam plants or yield to the monopoly.
“This is another illustration of how the Stone & Webster combine is injuring the city of Tacoma by obstructive tactics.”
Infrastructure wars—where new entrants struggle against established monopolies to build necessary capacity—remain a vital part of Tacoma’s historical and contemporary struggle with utility regulation and public ownership.
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