Washington's 1889 Convention Settles Prohibition, Corporations
Delegates in Olympia rush to finalize state constitutional provisions, including contentious debates over railroad commissions and alien land ownership.
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.
Olympia, Aug 11.—By continuous sessions from morning to evening, the constitutional convention accomplished even more during the week than it did the week before. The articles on corporations, the legislative department, education, revenue and taxation, and water rights were disposed of. The compact required by the United States was ratified, and the prohibition question settled. The corporations article caused the hardest fight, as champions of a railroad commission were defeated, settling only on a clause that the legislature might establish one. A highly controversial section was added regarding alien land ownership, declaring the ownership of land by aliens is prohibited, except when acquired by inheritance or under mortgage. Legal experts note this may amount to a declaration that property now held by aliens shall be confiscated, a provision that will likely face court challenges.
“If you want it, it's fundamental, but if you don't want it, it's legislative.”
The 1889 Constitutional Convention was obsessed with limiting corporate power and defining who 'belonged' in the new state, mirroring current debates about Seattle’s role in regional growth and the legal status of foreign investment in local housing.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.