Tacoma’s Public Works Board Accused of Coercing City Employees
Depositions before the city council allege that public works bosses used their power to make employees campaign for the waterworks purchase—and that the board paid too much for sewer pipe.
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.
TACOMA, Aug. 8.—[Special.]—The burden of the depositions before the city council today, regarding alleged misconduct of the board of public works in connection with the waterworks sale, was to the effect that the board had used its influence to compel employees under it to do its bidding. In one instance, Dick Shannon, of the Sixth ward, who was in the employ of the city under the board during the election campaign, testified that he was not allowed by the board to attend the primaries and prevent delegates being sent who were opposed to the purchase of the water plants. Other witnesses testified to similar conduct on the part of the board. It was shown that the board had paid more for its sewer pipe than the trustees of the insane asylum, but no facts were adduced tending to show there was a conspiracy to defraud the city. The investigation did not develop anything further today, but City Attorney Wickersham proposes something for tomorrow.
“The burden of the depositions before the city council today was to the effect that the board had used its influence to compel employees under it to do its bidding.”
The Tacoma inquiry turned on patronage and procurement: whether public works officials used employees as campaign foot soldiers and paid above-market prices. Those are still live questions whenever a city buys a utility or signs a big contract, and the 1891 hearing shows how hard conspiracy can be to prove even when the atmosphere is thick with suspicion.
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