The People's Party Rallies at Columbia Street
In 1894, Seattle's populist coalition gathered to challenge the dominance of corporate interests and demand equal rights at the ballot box.
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 county convention of the People's Party of King County is hereby called to meet at Ackerson Hall, at Second and Columbia streets, Seattle, on Wednesday, September 26, 1894, at 10 o'clock A.M. for the purpose of nominating candidates for the legislature and transacting such other business as may come before it. All People's Party voters of King County and all others in the county who believe in the platform of the party—the protection of the public, the securing of equal civil and political rights to every adult citizen without distinction of sex or race as the basis of government, and a higher duty than the preservation of private property, resolute opposition to corporate combinations and trusts, equal and just taxation, and elective reforms which will secure an honest ballot and breaking down the power of political machines—are requested to meet and elect delegates to this convention at primaries to be held at the usual polling places in the several precincts on Monday, September 24.
“The basis of government, and a higher duty than the preservation of private property, [is] resolute opposition to corporate combinations and trusts.”
The People's Party, or Populists, emerged in the late 19th century as a response to the same concentration of corporate power and wealth inequality that defines Seattle's current political discourse. Today's debates over tax reform and public versus private interest mirror the exact language used in this 1894 call to action at the corner of 2nd and Columbia.
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