A 50-Year Teamster Tells the Legislature to Keep Its Hands Off His Wagon Wheels
A Moran Prairie farmer pushes back against a Seattle-backed bill to mandate wide wagon tires, arguing that city men who never drove a loaded team shouldn't legislate for the men who do.
Editor Ranch and Range: In your issue of January 12, I notice an article headed "King County for Wide Tires." I proceed to read and I find the names of two gentlemen, one of which is certainly partial to wide tires, the other presumably so also, although he may never have driven a team to a loaded wagon in his life; if he ever did, he has done something that some of the "elect" from this side of the mountains never did.
If Mr. Prosch wants to favor the "farmers and teamsters" by legislation he should first consult them. It seems very plain to me from the gist of his argument that it is the city of Seattle he wishes to favor. No doubt a heavily laden wagon will crush an old pine sidewalk when it is well soaked, let the tires be either wide or narrow.
Mr. Prosch says "farmers and teamsters know that the wide tire is better than the narrow, and yet they will not adopt it." Hence, he says, "It is necessary to ask the legislature to require them to do what is best for them." If his logic is not at fault, farmers and teamsters should have their duties to themselves and their fellow men formulated into laws and a police force strong enough to force them to obey.
Now, Mr. Editor, I have been a teamster and farmer for over 50 years; have hauled oil in the oil regions, iron from the furnaces of Pennsylvania, sawlogs in the Sierra Nevada mountains and elsewhere, and all I have to say is that wide tires for general purposes on the kind of roads we have in this country, especially in these Western states, won't do. If our legislature would do as the writer of the article in Ranch and Range suggests, it would prove to be a great calamity, and the law would soon have to be repealed. If the legislature is wise, it will leave the question of tires to the people that use them, and then nine out of every ten that have had an extensive experience in drawing loads either on the road or on the farm will vote to retain the kind of tires we have, for most of them have tried both.
I would say to all farmers and teamsters who read the good Ranch and Range to send to your member of the legislature a postal card with a "bit of your mind" on the subject of tires.
J. E. Reed. Moran Prairie, Spokane Co., Wash.
“If his logic is not at fault, farmers and teamsters should have their duties to themselves and their fellow men formulated into laws and a police force strong enough to force them to obey.”
A century before debates over bike lanes, road diets and who gets to decide how streets are built, Spokane County teamsters were already fighting Seattle-driven mandates imposed on rural roads. Reed's complaint — that urban legislators legislate for people whose work they've never done — is the same rural-versus-metro grievance that shapes Washington politics today.
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