The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, April 12, 1917, Page 6

..... 0 It took political action for Seattle to rid itself of the market parasites. “Business” didn’t like a farmer’s simple plan, but now ‘“business” praises the man who has made Seattle through pub- lic-ownership the leading port on the North Pacific coast. Out on the coast now they laugh at the sleepy communities that are still content to cling-to private ownership and they pity those g whom monopoly has in its grasp. was due to his wife's management and economy that they saved money out of his meager wages as a laborer. They bought a little home. Later they sold it to pay their way to the Terri- tory of Washington, where they arriv- ed in 1887. The young Scot had found time to study at What Cheer. It took bhim many long years to master the art of reading and writing, but he learned, and this opened up to him the realm of books. Irom then on he be- came a student, although it was to be many years yet before he won for him- self freedom from manual labor. FORSAKES THE MINE FOR GREATEST OF CALLINGS In the then new country on Puget 8ound he found work at his old profes- sion, mining. He worked in the coal mines at Black Diamond, Wash., near Seattle. Some years later he had saved enough capital to start a small store in Seattle, and he quit mining forever. For a time he was assistant superintendent of sewers for the city of Seattle, and in March, 1893, he be- came what he now is, a farmer. He leased 40 acres of state school land in the White River valley in King county, in which Seattle is located. Later he bought this tract and 10 acres adjoining. This land, to be farmed, had to be hewed out of the forest. To clear it and 122 acres nearby that they bought later, it took Bridges and his sons 10 years. They made their living in the meantime on the land. Mr. Bridges is still a farmer, though he is chairman of the Port Commission, which pays no salary. From 1896 to 1900 Mr. Bridges served as state land, commissioner of Wash- ington, being elected as a Democrat. He left the farm to accept this office and he went back to the farm, still the home of his sons and his family, after his term was up. This is the background of experience that Robert Bridges had when he was called by the people of King County, Washington, to be a member of the first Port commission of Seattle. He had been a leader in the agitation for publicly owned and operated termi- rals. He was a farmer and he knew the toll those who control the termi- rials and markets take from the price the farmer gets and the consumer pays. He was elected port commissioner in , 1211, along with two other men, having the next to the highest vote of all the candidates running for the three jobs. GRAFT SCHEME BECOMES THE PEOPLE’'S OPPORTUNITY In August, 1912, all Seattle was afire with enthusiasm regarding'r a project for new port terminals known as the Harbor Island, or “Bush” project. The newspapers of the city had stirred up the people with glowing accounts of this project, which was “to make Seat- tle a second New York.” The chamber of commerce was for it. The business interests, big and little, were for it. Few people really knew what it was. -1t was in fact, a very clever scheme to sell the people out, and it wasn’t in- tended that they were to know much about it. Most anybody would tell you it was some sort of a terminal improvement and gort development plan that was to give Seattle splendid facilities to handle the great business on Puget Sound of transferring freight from ships to cars and cars to ships. That was all the average person knew about it, except that everybody seemed te be for it and that it was “to be great for Seattle.” In the face of what appeared to be the unanimous demand of the people, the chamber of commerce and all the business- interests, big and little, for the construction of these terminals, one man opposed it. There were a few others, of course, who had looked into it and condemned it, but the opposi- tion to the project centered in one man. SUFFERING THE FATE OF ALL REAL REFORMERS This man was Robert Bridges, mem- ber of the Seattle Port commission, " the big, loose-jointed Scotchman from Ayrshire. For his opposition to this plan he was cartooned, ridiculed and denounced by the press of the city. He became the most despised man in Seattle. Men whom he had long known ' and counted as friends didn't see him on the street. His most intimate asso- ciates came to him expressing aston- This is Robert Bridges, the farmer who stubbornly fought for the interests of the people when every business interest was against him and the newspapers were abusing him for standing in the way of “progress”—and fat profits for privato monopoly. Sk ishment at his position and reasoned with him, pointing out that he was not only trying to block an important and needed improvement for the city, but that he was digging his own poli- tical grave. Robert Bridges stood pat. It is hard to explain the pitch of ex- citement that Seattle got into over this Harbor Island project. When the agi- tation of Robert Bridges and others for publicly owned terminals had crystall- ized a sentiment for such an undertak- ing, the enemies of public ownership— Big: Business, the water front mono- poly, the railroads, the chamber of commerce and business men generally —decided to use this very sentiment to defeat public ownership. As recounted in a previous article they decided to support the plan to develop the Seat- tle harbor by a bond issue to be voted by the people. But they planned to use the money voted by the people to finance a private syndicate and build terminals for the syndicate to operate. Robert Bridges, farmer, man of the people, who began life as a coal miner Get the point to this story: at the age of nine back in Scotland, was the first man to_see through this scheme. He was for public ownership and operation of wharves, cold storage plants, grain elevators, fruit ware- houses, ete. He did not think the people should give their credit for the erection of such utilities to be privately- operated. But the other side controlled the press and other avenues of publicity, and the people actually voted to use a $5.000,000 bond issue to finance the Facific Terminal company, the corpor- ation formed, after conference with the business interests of the city, to operate the terminals’ the people were to build. As a member of the Port commis- sion Robert Bridges fought this plan tooth and nail, and it was submitted to the people for a vote over his pro- test as commissioner. After the bonds were voted, further opposition by Commissioner Bridges seemed folly. The people had approv- ed the plan. But the Scotch miner and It was a farmer, a worker, who stood out against a ‘busi- ness’ combine to get justice for the people. The producers’ troubles will never be solved by the voluntary action of a class which profits by their loss. WIVE farmer of White River valley believed the peole had been deceived. When it came time for the Port commission to sign the lease and agreement with the Pacific Terminal company, giving away the people’s rights to operate the terminals the people were to build, he was found still fighting the proposal One member of the PPort commission acted as president and one as secre- tary and at this time Commissioner Bridges was secretary. such it was his duty to sign_contracts and leases entered into by the commission. He refused to sign this lease as secretary and the commission removed him from that office and elected to it one of the other two commissioners, both of whom were for the Harbor Island pro- Ject. ‘When the contract finally came be- fore the commission for ratification Robert Bridges asked so many ques- tions about it, peinted out so many loopholes in the agreement and gen- erally showed it up to such good effect that the commission sat for nearly a week j,ofore the agreement was finally sigr.ed. The news papers in the mean- time were in a frenzy at the delay. They screamed in black headlines for action. The chamber of commerce ar- - ranged with all the factories on the land and all the ships on the water to toot their whistles in unison on.the moment that Robert Bridges’ questions should finally be answered, Robert _Bridges’ arguments finally cut off and the lease signed by the other two members of the commission. The papers announced this coming blast of celebration from all the whistles of the city and the city waited day by day for it, knowing that it would mean the final overthrow of Commissioner Bridges, who was “standing in the way of the development of the port of Seat- tle.” SHOWS UP THE JOKERS IN LEASING PROJECT Before those whistles finally screech- ed their message, Robert Bridges, alone but unconquerable, found so many jokers in the contract that his_asso- ciates on the commission had to sub- stantially change many provisions they had passed over hitherto with approv- al. He showed, for one thing, that the private syndicate had the papers word- ed so it was doubtful if they would even have to pay rent for the use of the terminals the people were to build. He showed that a 60-year lease to the company was proposed, while the con- stitution prohibited the commission making more than a 30-year lease. He found the Port district was supposed, under the proposed lease, actually to pay the premium on the bond the com- pany was to put up to secure the peo- ple for the payment of the rent money. All these things and many more that Robert Bridges pointed out were changed by the commission before the whistles blew. But they finally blew. The stubborn Scotchman was voted down and the lease signed by a ma- jority of the Port commission. Robert Bridges afterwards testi- fied to a grand jury that they at- tempted to bribe him into silence & not the support of the Harhor island deal. He testified that he was offered $250,000 worth of the stock the Pacific Terminal company was to issue on the strength of having the people build terminal facilities for the company to oper- ate. He was to get this to with- draw his opposition to the project. With the offer, he told the grand jury, also was an offer of a Seattle bank to pay at once 70 cents on the dollar for this stock. He also testi- fied that he was offered half of all over $340,000 the Port commission would pay for water front land held by land speculators. This was the land the people were to buy on which to erect the Harbor Island terminals. If Robert Bridges, as port commissioner, got the commission to pay $400,000 for this land, he was to get $30,000, half of the difference between $340,000 and $400,000. The grand jury returned no indict- ments. Mr. Bridges says that the facts were proved but that technicali- * ties of the law prevented indictments, as what was charged was not a crimi=- nal offense. It is a strange fact but true that neither the original or any certified copies of this remarkable agreement