The Battle of the Wishkah River Bridge
A city’s municipal gridlock and the bizarre arrest of a councilman over anti-bond propaganda.
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 inhabitants of Aberdeen have for some weeks been in a ferment about the question of bonding the city. No warrants for work or salaries have been issued, as the city council reached its debt limit. It was proposed to bond the city to refund the debt, but at the last minute, a new condition was tacked on: that the vote would be conditional upon the purchase of the toll bridge across the Wishkah river. The bonds carried by a majority of seven and four-fifths. A curious outcome and funny episode was the arrest Saturday night of Councilman James Stewart, an active opponent. He had some dodgers printed treating on 'boodlers and no bonds,' and indiscreetly posted some of them about the polling places. This led to information being sworn against him. The matter is causing more amusement than otherwise.
“He had some dodgers printed treating on 'boodlers and no bonds,' and indiscreetly posted some of them about the polling places.”
Small-town municipal feuds over debt, public infrastructure, and 'boodlers' remain a staple of local civic life, where the line between political protest and criminalized public nuisance is often blurred.
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