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

10 Part OneIn 1914, as table 2 shows, 1,816 workers were employed in consumer productlines, while 4,398 found work at small foundries, machine shops, lumber mills, printers,and publishers.Table 2: Major Manufacturers in 1914Type of ManufacturerTotal Product Value(in millions of dollars)Number ofWorkersSlaughterhouses and packinghouses $11.10 482Flour mills and gristmills $7.60 279Lumber mills $6.40 2,337Printers and publishers $4.60 1,057Foundries and machine shops $3.30 1,004Bakeries $2.40 534Coffee roasters and grinders $1.60 140Confectioners and ice cream makers $1.50 381Fight for Control of the WaterfrontThose interests that controlled the waterfront, the railroad companies, played acritical role in determining the city’s future. But one among them dominated: the GreatNorthern. As the builder of Seattle’s first transcontinental railroad, it sought to block outprospective entrants and to oppose construction of a common, or union, terminal. TheSeattle attorney Thomas Burke became James Hill’s front man. Burke had migrated to thecity in 1875 and had become one of its most influential men by 1890, ruling the chamberof commerce and placing his proxies in city council.His nomination to the post of territorial chief justice bythe Seattle Bar Association (upon the deaths in quicksuccession of two holders of that post) was indicative ofthe esteem he attracted. Though this appointment wouldmean a big financial loss, he accepted on the conditionthat he would resign on 5 March 1889, when BenjaminHarrison would succeed President Grover Cleveland.He also headed the Seattle, Lake Shore and EasternRailroad Company, whose line was described as starting“from so many places and reaching anywhere.” One ofthe company’s key assets was its lock on thirty feet oftideland beyond the meander line (the line of high tide)over which its railroad tracks ran on pile trestles beforethe harbor lines were legally established. It was calledRailroad Avenue. The Seattle fire of 1889 destroyedThomas Burke, lawyer, with a firm gripon Seattle’s Great Northern Railroad