The Axe That Struck the Root of Corporate Greed
A landmark 1885 federal land order threatens to forfeit the Northern Pacific Railroad's vast land grants for failing to meet its building requirements.
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.
Day by day, the policy of the administration regarding the great land grants where they have failed to perform their contracts is being developed. The Northern Pacific Railroad, which has flourished under the corrupt administration of the Interior Department by the past regime, is now being brought to account. Acting Commissioner Wilkes of the General Land Office has issued an order that strikes at the root of the evil. The government granted the Northern Pacific Company land on the condition that the company should perform certain work within a fixed time. That work was not performed. Consequently, the Interior Department maintains it has no right to assume the government is willing to give the company the lands whether the work is performed or not. The matter is thrown back to Congress, and the company can hold no more land until that body takes action. The order will have the double effect of protecting the rights of the government pending litigation and of compelling action which will finally settle the question. Congress must either renew the grant, which it dares not do, or declare it forfeited, which it appears reluctant to do. Either way, the company gets no more land. This decision is a splendid vindication of the principles the people of Washington Territory endorsed at the last election; it is a stunning blow to land-stealing corporations and a triumphant assertion of popular rights.
“Either the company gets no more land. This decision... is a stunning blow to land-stealing corporations and a triumphant assertion of popular rights.”
In 1885, Seattle residents were cheering federal efforts to strip land from a powerful railroad monopoly that had failed to deliver on its public promises. Today, the struggle has shifted from railroads to housing developers, but the core tension—whether public land and public policy should serve corporate profit or the common good—remains a defining, unresolved issue in Washington state politics.
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