Ten to Five: Tacoma's Water Chief Keeps His Job, and His Lawyer Weeps
The Tacoma city council fell short of the two-thirds vote needed to convict the president of the board of public works over water-pipe purchases. In the wreckage: an old inspector fired for refusing to 'get in and drill,' and an attorney crying real tears over his client's disgrace.
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. 11. — [Special.] — The city council, by a vote of ten to five, has failed to pronounce President Demorest, of the board of public works, guilty of corrupt conduct in connection with the management of the city's water department, and especially of buying water pipe for a third party. A two-thirds vote was necessary to convict, and Cavender, who made the charges, went over to Demorest. Seven votes would have been required to adjudge him guilty.
Dr. Lee, ex-president of the council, who championed Demorest, spoke in his behalf, while the special committee reported in favor of finding him guilty.
One incident of the investigation concerned the board's method of getting water pipe. Mr. Kennedy, a water inspector and the oldest man on the force, produced a note sent him by the board's president last fall, about as follows: "If you are working against me — you would take a tumble to yourself and get in and drill." That president was one of the councilmen who voted for the purchase of the water plant. He was succeeded by a Populist in his ward because the people there did not like the administration of the board of public works. Kennedy did not drill, so he was discharged.
One interesting feature of the arguments of attorneys in the case was the copious tears shed by K. W. Colmer, representing Demorest. He pleaded for Demorest's protection from disgrace, while real tears rolled down his fat cheeks.
“He pleaded for Demorest's protection from disgrace, while real tears rolled down his fat cheeks.”
A council vote, a two-thirds threshold, an official who survives because the numbers were not there — and an inspector punished for failing to fall in line. The 1894 fight over Tacoma's water department has a very modern shape: who watches the utility, and what happens to the employee who complains about how it buys its pipe.
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