, 1886-02-11
CharEes o. Corruption

The Seattle Post It'niIigrursr con
tains the following:
Shortly before the meeting If the
legislature. the Northern Pacific
I Railroad company and the Oregon
| Railway and Navigation company
pooled issues in organizing strong
| lobby to be present at Olympia dur
ing the present session to work for
+ the defeat Of any and all measures
tending to relieve the people OF the
wrongs pyepetra;ed upon them by
! the railroad companies. The prIncI-
pal work this lobby was required to
ue.form was to defeat the repeal Of
| the gross earnings tax law, which
exempts from taxation all the prop
/ crty owned by company operating
q railroad IN the territory. 10 show
! the workings of this measure. 1t IS
only necessary to state that by its
provisions the saw mills, city dock,
ocean dock, valuable water front
property. and hundreds of valuable
! lots in Seattle, and thousands OF
acres of land in King county, be
| longing to the Columbia and Puget
Sound Railroad company, are cI-
cmptcd from taxation altogether on
the payment OF d small percentage
on the gross earnings Of the road.
By this law King county loses several
thousand dollars revenue every year.
The law applies alike to all COM
panics. and the above instance IS
cited To show the iniquIty of 1t. The
=, nj tho In
repealed. Neither did they want
railroad commission appointed to
regulate their traffic and prevcrt dis
examinations against towns and iudi
viduals. And, as stated before, to
prevent this Il strong lobby was
organized Il. Olympia, with abund
ance of coin. \ fine suite of rooms
were furnished, Il full bar, with
plenty OF whisky ana cigars opened,
and the machine was set in working
order The first thing to do was to
get control of one branch of the
legislature, and this was easily &C
complished, as several members OF
council were notorious corporation
lists, and tools of the Northern Pa
cifc Railroad company. One OF two
others were induced to join the rail
road crowd, and the machine was in
running order, with a strength of
seven TO five. All bills affecting
railroads in any manner, after pass
ing the house, would be referred by
a vote of seven to five to the COM
mittee on ways and means, in the
council, OF TJhich c. W. Young was
chairman, instead of to the Judiciary
committee where they should have
gone 1t is openly charged that Mr..
Young would carry the bills directly
to the headquarters of this railroad
lobby, where one of the attorneys
comprising the lobby would prepare
his report for him. The report
against the repeal of the gross earn
ings law, signed by Young, is said to
have been written by MIR. Sears, OF
Tacoma, the chief mogul of the lobby.
The result Is we'll known. Every bill
which had for its object the best
interests of the people, and which
affected the railroads in the slightest
degree, were killed by the famous
seven in the council.
Then follows 4 description of a
mock legislature headed by ex-Mayor
Demattos, Of Whateom, organized
after the regular legislature ad-
journed, tho object of which seemed
to be to throw mud at Seattle and
King county. An account is also
given of the hanging of Judge Lewis
in effigy by a lot of hoodlums on
Olympia's streets.