The City vs. The Depot: Seattle's 1889 Eminent Domain Fight

The threat made by two or three parties who feel themselves aggrieved that they will resist the opening of the street in the courts is probably nothing more than a foolish strip of bad temper. It is impossible that the power of the city to condemn and appropriate the property in question can be denied. It is ripe and absolute. Every city has the power of eminent domain; it is by this power that Seattle, like any other city, condemns land for streets where it is desired to create or extend them. After the power of the city is admitted, the only question that remains is the matter of damage; and here comes the difference between public and private corporations. Immediately upon the enactment, approval and publication of an ordinance of condemnation, the city becomes the absolute owner. In view of these facts of law, the action of the Oregon Improvement Company in attempting to blockade South Third Street is ridiculous. Throughout this whole controversy, the position of the Improvement Company has been offensive in the extreme. It has attempted to dictate terms to the council as if it had rights. The threat of its manager that if the public interest did not give way to its private interest, the depot of its business would be transferred to Tacoma is about as manly as the whine of an insolent schoolboy that if the teacher flogs him, his father will take him to another school. The Oregon Improvement Company is not more important to Seattle than Seattle is to the Oregon Improvement Company.