The Shadow of the Railroad Lobby
A scathing editorial from 1885 warns of the corrupt influence of railroad corporations over the Washington Territorial Legislature.
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.
Now that it is settled that the next Legislature will be Democratic in both houses, the people will await its action with some curiosity. It will be the first Democratic Legislature that has met in Washington Territory in years, and it will be interesting to see how the Democrats will use the power in which they are so anxious to be seated. Without regard to the political complexion of the body, however, it is to be hoped that it will represent the people of Washington Territory more creditably than did the wretched Legislature of 1883. It is impossible to conceive of a more corrupt, worthless and infamous body than the upper house of the last Legislature. Upon the members of that house the railroad strikers of Oregon and Washington set to work as they had never set to work before. A lobby was established at Olympia by the United States, the real salary of the last Legislature, of the lobby established by the great corporations who combined in the nefarious work of defeating the will of the people, of the open and notorious corruption which was employed to hold a majority of the Council as with hooks of steel to their capitalistic masters, of the manner by which all legislation in the interest of the people was prevented—that story has never been told, and if it ever is told and told truly, the people will listen with amazement to a full account of the disgrace of that government.
“A lobby was established at Olympia by the United States, the real salary of the last Legislature, of the lobby established by the great corporations who combined in the nefarious work of defeating the will of the people.”
This 1885 editorial echoes a perennial Seattle sentiment: the suspicion that wealthy corporate interests—then railroads, now big tech or large-scale developers—effectively 'own' the legislature, subverting the public interest for private gain. The struggle to keep local government accountable to the citizenry rather than to lobbying entities remains a defining friction point in Washington politics.
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