The Battle for Elliott Bay

The convention is currently debating a constitutional provision regarding tide lands. There is a move to declare that the grant of tide lands in Elliott Bay to the Seattle & Walla Walla Railway & Transportation Company be vacated without a dissenting voice. As will be remembered, both the city of Seattle and the territorial legislature gave these tide lands to the railroad company in 1873. The generosity of the gift was equaled only by the power of the rivers to deliver it; the territorial legislature had no title to the lands in question, and the city had not even a pretense to a shadow of title. The granting act still remains upon the statute books, though its worthlessness is so apparent that nobody has thought it worth while to urge its repeal. The Columbia & Puget Sound Railroad Company, successor to the former company, hopes to see a clause in the constitution validating all acts of the territorial legislature which have never been repealed. Such a clause would validate the grant of the Elliott Bay tide lands and give the railroad a good title to several million dollars' worth of the people's property. For this reason, the convention should adopt the strongest forfeiture resolution that can be framed, so that not the slightest loop-hole will be left. The tide lands are the property of the people of Washington, and they should be retained for the benefit of the state.