County Delays $10,000 Bid to Bring Widows' Home to Walla Walla
Business leaders urge Walla Walla officials to secure a charitable orphanage, despite questions regarding the legality of the county's $10,000 contribution.
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 matter of Walla Walla County making an appropriation of $10,000 to secure the location of the Stubblefield home in this city is still held in abeyance. The board of county commissioners decided they would not make a decision until Saturday. The members stated they were interested in the matter and desired the home to be established here, but the only obstacle was the legality of making the appropriation. A large delegation of prominent citizens, headed by Judge W. H. Upton, Ex-Governor Miles C. Moore, and W. P. Winans, urged the board to act. Judge Upton argued it would be a great boon to respectable but poor widows and orphans. Ex-Governor Moore addressed the remonstrance from Waitsburg citizens by stating he and other responsible citizens were ready to reimburse Waitsburg for any increased taxation. C. M. Rader, a trustee, noted that other cities in Washington and Umatilla County, Oregon, were competing to house the institution.
“It was an opportunity for Walla Walla to secure an institution which would be a credit to the city, and would also prove a great boon to the respectable, but poor and indigent widows and orphan children.”
The tension between municipal funding for social infrastructure and legal or taxpayer pushback remains a central debate in modern civic life. The struggle to attract or retain regional institutions like homes for the vulnerable mirrors current discussions about social service funding in Walla Walla.
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