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

66 Part TwoPart TwoCity Politics, 1904–1912: Progressivism EmergesAs it had earlier, the railroad lobby continued unabashedly to dominate state politicsduring this period, chiefly through James Hill’s Washington Political Bureau, headed by J.D. Farrell, whose control of legislators was notorious. Until the 1904 election of Farrell’sgubernatorial choice, Albert Mead, the lobby had managed to block the establishment ofa railroad commission. When the legislature established one, Mead dutifully appointedcommission members who were not to take their mission too seriously. It was not uncommonat this time for legislators to directly represent their own business interests, as did manyin the forest products and utilities industries, reinforcing the legislature’s conservative—business bloc.As elsewhere, in Washington State liberal members of both major parties joinedforces to overcome the conservatives by passing several pieces of reform legislation. WithinSeattle, reform forces coalesced to form short-lived organizations such as the Citizens’Non-Partisan League, the Municipal Ownership Party, the Civic Union, the Workingmen’sParty, and the Public Welfare League. These ephemeral groupings focused on specific issues,such as establishing municipally owned utilities for water, electricity, and street railwaysand funding public parks, schools, and other public amenities. However, it was often theThe raising of three skyscraperson Second Avenue symbolized thegeneral buoyancy and optimismof pre-WWI Seattle. All three,the Alaska Building, the HogeBuilding, and the Smith Tower,are seen or implied in this viewtaken from the Hoge not long afterthe Smith Tower, far right, wasdedicated on 4 July, 1914. TheTower’s owners counted fortytwostories—a number stretchedsome in the pyramid top to itsslender tower. Completed in 1904,the Alaska Building, on the left atthe southeast corner of CherryStreet and Second Avenue, wasthe first high-rise constructed inSeattle with reinforced steel. Kittycornerto the Alaska Building, theHoge Building quickly reachedeighteen floors in 1911. It wasbuilt with startling speed in lessthan one year filling the cornerwhere only fifty-nine years earlierCarson Boren assembled the firstresidence in Seattle from splitcedar logs. As evidence thatSeattle was a prime example of a“western American boomtown,”the 88-year-old pioneer was stillliving in the area when the HogeBuilding was completed.