The Wire War: Railroad vs. Telegraph

For the past week or so gangs of men in the employ of the Postal Telegraph Company have been digging post holes along the Northern Pacific Railroad Company's right of way between Tacoma and Kalama, and the railroad company has been engaged through its employees in filling up the holes as fast as they were dug by the telegraph company, and threatened to cut down the poles as soon as they were put up to place the wire on. Mr. Straw, one of the attorneys for the telegraph company, drew up the necessary papers, setting forth the facts as they exist and applied to Judge Hoyt for a restraining order enjoining the company and its agents from interfering in any manner whatever with the plaintiffs, or any of its agents, officers, servants, or employees in the construction of its line of telegraph upon the right of way of the Northern Pacific Railroad Company between Tacoma and Kalama.