The Price of the Iron Horse
Boosterism, county subsidies, and the hidden cost of corporate expansion in Walla Walla.
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.
A Northern Pacific scheme is now before the people of Walla Walla. The company proposes to have the several counties pledge their credit for their railroads. It would be the depth of folly to pledge the credit of the people in every county where a railroad might be built, and yet this is exactly what the proposal to amend the state constitutional rule would open up. Mr. Hunt proposes to receive the individual pledges to a subsidy of eighty odd thousand dollars already promised, in exchange for county bonds for thirty years, in consideration of the extension of his lines into districts already fairly well provided with transportation. The Northern Pacific Railroad company and Hunt's road are nothing more or less than one, and the company will certainly not stop the extension of its system simply because local subsidies are not provided. If this scheme is made to work at Walla Walla, the Northern Pacific will organize twenty similar schemes for other counties in Eastern Washington, and in addition to its ownership of valuable land through its original subsidy, it will soon have its vaults full of county bonds. There are those who think that the Northern Pacific Railroad Company already owns quite enough of the Territory and who protest against further development of such mammoth corporate power.
“There are those who think that the Northern Pacific Railroad Company already owns quite enough of the Territory.”
This 1889 editorial captures the high-stakes battle between municipal autonomy and the massive corporate influence of transcontinental railroads. Today's Seattle struggles with similar power dynamics, as city hall debates the extent to which private developers and corporations should influence infrastructure and public policy in exchange for urban growth.
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