Seattle: 1900-1920 -From Boomtown, Through Urban Turbulence ...

Shipyard Strike: “Thunder on the Left”153surplus energy PSTP&L had and to discuss the intertie. Ross, suspecting this would happen,hired a consulting engineer from San Francisco. When Perrin received both reports, hedecided to postpone action on City Light’s bond proposal.The next in line, the War Department, came down hard on the city, threatening toseize its plant unless it agreed to interconnect with PSTP&L. Mayor Hanson urged SenatorWesley Jones to submit a resolution to impound the subcommittee’s records. On 13 Julythe U.S. Senate passed the resolution. A second hearing was then granted for 1 August todecide the matter solely on the basis of the region’s power needs. When PSTP&L offered tomeet these needs with a dam at Sunset Falls, the city councilman R. H. Thomson counteredthat only the Skagit could provide the capacity required. The subcommittee agreed withThomson and approved the bond issue. By the time City Light could begin construction,the war had ended, and the subcommittee’s qualifying stipulations became moot. The fallsnows prevented any surveying of the site until spring 1919. By then the General Strikewould be history, and the city would have consummated its deal for PSTP&L’s tractionsystem.While events moved toward a showdown between the shipyard workers and theShipbuilding Labor Adjustment Board, Stone and Webster was preparing, without sentiment,to part with its decrepit transit lines. Nationwide, street railways were no longer profitable,having peaked as an investment in about 1915. Furthermore, little capital was being routedto their maintenance. PSTP&L owed the city about $400,000 for nonpayment of taxes onits 1916 and 1917 gross revenues. Its franchise limited fares to five cents, and the farescollected at each transfer point did not compensate the company adequately. The companywas also waiting for the state supreme court to decide whether its franchise required it topave between its tracks. Finally, the city was suing it for not paying its prorated share foruse of the Fremont Bridge.Scene from the Armistice Day celebrations that spread spontaneously throughout the city.