The Saloon at the Race Track
A legal battle over liquor licenses in the Duwamish precinct reveals the limits of civic power when faced with the relentless machinery of the law.
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.
It will be remembered that some time since Richard Pritchard and Thomas Smith applied to the Board of County Commissioners for a license to open a saloon for the sale of intoxicating liquors in the Duwamish precinct. It will also be remembered that at that time the legal voters of that precinct signed a remonstrance against the granting of the license. This remonstrance was laid before the Board of County Commissioners, and when the application for the license came up in the course of business, it was rejected. Joe F. McNaught, attorney for Pritchard & Smith, then applied to Chief Justice Greene for a writ of mandamus, compelling the Commissioners to issue the license. The Judge refused to grant the writ, on the grounds that there was nothing before him to show that the applicants were men of good moral character, or that they had deposited the necessary sum of money required for such license. But in his decision of the question he said that under the law, as it stands, the County Commissioners have no power to refuse licenses to any applicant or applicants who prove good moral character and deposit the sum of money required under the law for such license. As soon as this decision was rendered, McNaught got a certified copy of it, which he read to the Board. Pritchard & Smith then came forward with their bondsmen, W. A. Jennings, W. A. Harrington and another party, and proved their good moral character, put up their money and got their license, and on Monday will open a saloon at the race track.
“The County Commissioners have no power to refuse licenses to any applicant or applicants who prove good moral character and deposit the sum of money required under the law.”
This 1885 legal tussle over saloon licensing in the Duwamish district mirrors the perennial tension in Seattle between neighborhood opposition (NIMBYism) and the rigid, often unyielding application of municipal code. Even in the 1880s, the courts prioritized formal compliance over the collective will of the local community.
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