The Hypocrisy of Seattle’s 'Conservative' Moralists
A citizen's sharp critique of the local council and police force, highlighting their hypocrisy in failing to enforce Sunday closing laws while positioning themselves as pillars of order.
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.
I have always thought I was born a conservative, and I want to know if, through all these years, I have been laboring under a mistake. I arrived in Seattle one week before the election of last July, and I will confess the sound of 'the conservative ticket' quite pleased my ear and won my attention. I listened interestingly to both parties, and I remember being very positively assured by, I think, an ex-Governor, that if the conservative ticket was elected there would dawn upon Seattle such a year of business prosperity as its past had never known. Since that election day, I have plodded through the months, nearly straining my eyes for a glimpse of the promised dawn of business prosperity. Yet, while it has been generally claimed that this city is by far the most active business point on Puget Sound, I have been repeatedly assured by old and leading business men here that never before was there a year of such scarcity of money and general business depression. I had been told that the pressure in money matters the preceding year came from the rule of fanatics, and as I by degrees began to question the correctness of this theory, I asked, why, during those months of waiting for the dawn, what the officials of last year did that was so disastrous? I was always told: 'They tried to close the saloons on Sunday.' I have tried in vain to make it clear to my own mind how a community's general prosperity could be enhanced by giving the saloons a chance to scrape in the workingman's spare change during his rest day. If it should be missed out of the saloon's till, it might be in the workingman's pocket. Although considering myself a conservative, I have been somewhat confused at times as to what that term signifies in this locality. I had supposed, as there was already a Territorial law closing saloons as well as general business houses on Sunday, that it would be conservative to fall into line as a city, upholding and enforcing this law. But just here my conservatism seems to be at fault, for our conservative council and police force have certainly disregarded all law on this subject. If hereafter, in order to be conservative, it is necessary to stand poised on the top of the fence on all questions of a moral character, or if it is necessary to train with the law-breaking saloon element, I am no longer a conservative.
“I have not yet seen the promised dawn of hard times... I have been repeatedly assured by old and leading business men here that never before was there a year of such scarcity of money and general business depression.”
This 1886 letter perfectly captures the perennial Seattle political tension between 'business-friendly' governance and moral regulation. Just as the writer observed a gap between campaign promises of prosperity and the reality of local enforcement, current residents continue to debate whether city councils prioritize public order or specific economic interests.
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