$10 to Vote: Tacoma's City Hall Bribery Probe
Tacoma's council heard testimony that City Clerk Smyth paid Councilman Thompson $10 for his vote—and that Thompson tried to bribe the city attorney over a gambling house.
TACOMA, June 18.—Special.—Today the investigation of the charges alleging bribery and corruption on the part of City Clerk Smyth and Councilman Thompson began. The investigation is being conducted by a special committee of the council consisting of five members. The testimony of several witnesses was taken. The most important evidence given was that by Chief of Police D. Smith, who swore positively that Smyth had told him he gave Councilman Thompson $10 to vote for him as city clerk. Chief Smith said the clerk told him this as a fact, and did not appear to be joking. Councilman Bulger, at whose instance the investigating committee was appointed, testified that both the mayor and city attorney had told him of the two transactions alleged, namely: That Smyth bribed Thompson to vote for him and that Thompson attempted to bribe City Attorney Kershaw to allow gambling to run at the Haymarket variety theater. The investigation will be continued tomorrow.
“Chief Smith said the clerk told him this as a fact, and did not appear to be joking.”
Pay-to-play and backroom deals over gambling licenses are still recognizably modern. The Tacoma probe shows the machinery of municipal corruption in 1898: a small cash bribe, a special committee, and a city attorney pressured to look the other way.
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