The Great Tide-Land Grab
As Seattle approaches statehood, a newspaper sounds the alarm against land speculators plotting to seize the valuable tide-lands from the public.
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.
There is no more important duty connected with the public interest than that involved in the making of a state constitution. The work is of a sort demanding wisdom and patriotic spirit of the highest order. The Territorial Post-Intelligencer hopes, certainly, that a constitution will be formulated which it, in common with the best citizenship of the territory can cordially support, but it will not be forced into approval of a bad constitution by its desire for admission. There are many signs that the interests of greed are vigilant and active with a view to effecting the work of the forthcoming convention. For example, those who are planning to rob the state of its rich inheritance of tide-land property have effected an organization for the 'protection' of their alleged rights—'rights' in direct opposition to the interests of the people. The lands in question are worth anywhere from fifteen to fifty millions of dollars and their prospective value is beyond estimate. Their loss would mean not merely the loss of their cash value, but something very much more important. It would put upon commerce, which on its way from sea to land or from land to sea must cross the narrow tide-land strip, a perpetual tax. At Seattle, Tacoma and other places on the coast, it is possible that the tide-land grabbers may secure the election of delegates favorable to their interests. We very much fear this will be done. But from those districts not thus viciously affected, especially from Eastern Washington, we may look to see men firm for the public interest in this tide land matter.
“Organisation of the tide-land crowd, whatever its professed purposes may be, is really organisation to corrupt the constitutional convention.”
The 1889 struggle over the state's tide-lands—the narrow waterfront strips crucial for commerce—foreshadows Seattle's contemporary battles over public versus private control of the waterfront. Just as then, the tension between massive economic 'grabbers' and the preservation of public access remains a central theme in Washington's civic identity.
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