Seattle's Saloon Keepers Face the 'High License' Squeeze
As 1885 begins, the city cracks down on liquor sellers, leaving many owners struggling to pay their bonds—and prompting some to consider an honest day's work instead.
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.
At the close of the year, the bonds of a large number of liquor dealers ran out, and it appears to be a difficult matter for some of the dealers to get them renewed. The Council, at its last meeting, allowed these an extension of ten days in which to file their bonds. All city licenses were due on the 10th instant, but people have become so used to having their time extended to the 10th that many imagine that it is not necessary to pay till that time. And as the time for filing bonds has been extended, these dilatory fellows appear to think that they can put off paying their license as well for this additional time. This is not to be tolerated, and City Attorney Dement and Policeman Hudson, who has charge of collecting licenses, wish it distinctly understood that licenses of all kinds must be paid forthwith, or proceedings will be commenced against all delinquents. Only about fifty of the saloon keepers have as yet filed their receipts with the Auditor. It is quite certain that many saloon keepers are intending to go out of business and are just holding on and running their places as long as they can without paying the license. Whiskey dealers are making a howl about high license, and claim that unless it is reduced, some of them will have to go to work. Well, that is just what the high license law was passed for. We have for a long time had far too many dives, and now that the high license law is about to rid us of some of them, we must expect these fellows, who had sooner jerk beer than work, to squeal. Times are hard and wages low, and it is not right for the laboring classes to support too many lazy fellows who would sooner take a poor man's last nickel for slops of beer than to go out and do honest work.
“We have for a long time had far too many dives, and now that the high license law is about to rid us of some of them, we must expect these fellows, who had sooner jerk beer than work, to squeal.”
The tension between municipal revenue generation and the proliferation of local 'dives' mirrors modern debates over Seattle’s business licensing, taxation, and the struggle to balance neighborhood character with civic regulation. The 1885 editorial voice, prioritizing 'honest work' over the service industry, reflects a century-old moral framing of labor and leisure that still haunts the city’s discourse on economic development.
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