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JOURNALEDITORIAL
Panic of 1893 took
toll on Mason
County, Northwest
These are tough times in our region.
Mason County's "official' jobless rate
is 9.4 percent (unofficially, it's a lot
higher). It's worse in our neighboring Grays
Harbor County, at 11.3 percent. But the
bad times today certainly do not compare
with the economic disaster that struck here
and everywhere more than a century ago.
Historians call it the Panic of 1893, one
of the two worst economic depressions to
ever hit America. Only the 1930s Great
Depression is considered worse. The '93 di-
saster was especially cruel to timber towns
like Shelton and to mill towns like Everett
and Bellingham.
"The crash came in
May of 1893," wrote Mur-
ray Morgan in "Puget's
Sound," his history of the
South Sound region. His
account has a familiar
ring, seemingly presaging
the economic woes that
have faced America since
By JOHN" the housing collapse of
KOMEN 2008.
"There was the classic
run on the banks," wrote Morgan. "Credit
dried up as though a spigot had been
turned. Construction stopped, services were
cut, men were laid off by the tens of thou-
sands."
It was as if a switch had been thrown.
Visit Port Townsend and you will see where
everything stopped. Many of those historic
buildings preserved today as tourist attrac-
tions were abandoned by their owners in
the Panic of'93. It is as if Port Townsend's
downtown was preserved in historical am-
ber.
Timber towns were devastated. Centra-
lia's population fell from 5,000 in 1891 to
1,200 in 1893. Towns such as Port Discov-
ery, Port Madison and Seabeck virtually
disappeared when sawmills shut down.
On Hood Canal, "Dreams of making
Union City into the 'Venice of the Pacific'
failed to materialize," wrote historian J.
Kingston Pierce. "Union City was booming
prior to the Panic."
East Coast financiers had plans to make
Everett "New York on Puget Sound." Their
plans collapsed; they sold out to John D.
Rockefeller, who a year later also bailed
out. Everett's paper mill, factories and
street car company withered and died.
Other abandoned projects included a
planned steel mill at Kirkland on Lake
Washington. High-powered industrialists
invested $1 million in the Kirkland project
and lost it all.
Tacoma suffered grievously. Only four
of Tacoma's 21 banks survived 1893. In
Bellingham, the city's two largest banks --
The First National Bank and Bellingham
Bay National -- closed their doors. Eleven
banks in Seattle went under.
Bellingham had to stop construction of
its new city hall. Tourists today visit the
classic structure that now houses a well-
supported museum full of local artifacts,
including exhibits relating to the Panic of
1893.
Robert E. Ficken in his "The Forested
Land, A History of Lumbering in Western
Washington" writes "Under the financial
strain, trade fell off and the Pacific North-
west economy collapsed." Some merchants
began accepting shingles "in lieu of cash."
Morgan relates the tale of Tacoma's
Paul Schulze, a Northern Pacific Railroad
executive, whose various major business
enterprises went into bankruptcy. "Schul-
ze's house at 601 North Yakima was mort-
gaged beyond its worth. He owed 35-thou-
sand dollars alimony. His debts exceeded
three hundred thousand, not counting the
more than a million it was later discovered
he had embezzled. His assets were about
five thousand." The broken businessman
killed himself with a bullet to the temple.
The tragic stories continued, until finally
in 1897 gold was discovered in Alaska, and
the ancillary effects sped recovery on Puget
Sound.
There's no gold strike to spur recovery of
today's Great Recession. Unless you want
to consider government bailouts the equiva-
lent of a gold mine.
LETTERSTOTH EEDITOR
• John Komen, who lives on Mason
Lake, was for 40 years a reporter and edi-
tor, TV anchorman, national TV network
correspondent, producer, columnist, edito-
rial writer and commentator. His column,
Komen Comment, appears each week in the
Shelton-Mason County Journal.
Shelton-Mason County
's try to
less
ent
Two men and a 16-year-old girl
were charged with first-degree
murder, among other charges, in
Mason County Superior Court last week
in connection with the shooting of Shel-
ton resident Barbara Giles on Nov. 21.
She died of her injuries three
days later. Authorities allege that a
child custody case between Giles and
37-year-old Anthony Miller of Shelton
sparked a dispute. They say Miller gave
his 16-year-old daughter's boyfriend
-- who they say pulled the trigger --
money to purchase a gun prior to the
murder.
All three individuals charged in con-
nection with the shooting death are
being held in the Mason County Jail on
$1.5 million bail apiece.
The act leaves an entire community
with more questions than answers.
While we may not ever know exactly
what took place between all of the in-
volved parties, we're sad to see another
violent crime take its toll on Mason
County this year. Including this most
recent shooting, we've seen six murders
take place within our county in 2012.
That doesn't include attempted mur-
ders and othere deaths ruled homicides.
The majority of cases have involved
drugs or alcohol.
In May, we wrote that it's no longer
acceptable to sit back and watch our
county crumble under violent crime.
That was shortly after Mason County
had suffered a rash of murders and ho-
micides.
We asked residents to speak out --
we wanted them to let our county, city
and school officials know that one homi-
cide in Mason County is too many.
The last line we wrote was "(speak-
ing out) is the least we can do to make
sure this year doesn't end like it began."
It seems that it has.
So we ask again.
We just elected two new county corn-
missioners, as well as a number of state
and federal office holders, into office.
Let's make sure they hear us say that
violent crime in our county is not accept-
able.
As we've expressed before, attend a
public meeting, write us a letter to the
editor, or call an elected official. Hold
them accountable.
But that's just the first step.
We know that the Shelton Police De-
partment and Mason County sheriffs
deputies can't be everywhere at once.
But we as a group of citizens can edu-
cate our family members and children
on the dangers of drugs and alcohol. We
can tell a friend who's worried about
domestic violence about the resources
we have in Mason County.
Whether it's fair or not, we all have
to be accountable. Hopefully, looking
introspectively will help.
Let's try to make 2013 a better year
than 2012.
Status quo
is not
Editor, the Journal
The re-election of Tim
Sheldon for a third term as
county commissioner Position
2 all but cements in place a
paternal form of governance
that percolates down to every
citizen advisory committee in
Mason County.
Let's face it, some lead-
ers in our community see
themselves as beneficent
benefactors; entitled by stat-
ure and endowed by heritage
to maintain the status quo.
As a result, every solution to
every problem carries with it
the same mindset that helped
create the problem we're at-
tempting to fix. Citizen advi-
sory committees, therefore,
are the only means by which
the public has any meaning-
ful say in the process. But
whatever objectivity those
members may bring to the is-
sues that come before them,
it would be foolish to think
decisions are not influenced by
outside forces.
At the end of the day, com-
mittee members are citizens
first and advisory members
second, and no one wants to be
the lone voice that speaks out
against the status quo. Adding
to this problem are committee
members who represent special
interests, staff support, elected
officials and ex officio watch-
dogs. They may or may not
have a vote in the proceedings
but leave little doubt as to their
preferences.
There are all types of
methods by which influence is
exerted, and citizens come to
the table unprepared for the
pressures asserted by knowl-
edgeable professionals with an
agenda. In this way a member
may be nuanced or even bul-
lied into a decision.
On a larger scale, well-
intentioned decisions that
appear to benefit the commu-
nity may turn out to enable a
sea change of unanticipated
consequences, as was the case
with last year's comprehen-
sive plan amendment that
allows long-term commercial
forest lands to be rezoned for
residential development (just
ask the folks out at Lake Nah-
watzel).
Still, there can never be
too much citizen participa-
tion. Case in point: county
commissioners' mismanage-
ment of labor negotiations
that turned a budget surplus
into a mandatory minimum
ending balance. Only after the
fiscal plane crashed was the
flying public asked to partici-
pate in the flight plan. Until
then, negotiations were held
outside of public view. Yet,
when these conditions are
challenged, reaction is quick
and decisive: new regulations
are adopted and existing
regulations are manipulated
in such a way as to keep the
old machine churning out new
mistakes.
In this iaanner the status
quo is carried forward on a
carpet of what would appear
to be clear reasoning, but is
nothing more than blind alle-
giance to a corrupted system.
And when things fail, as they
so often do, the revisionists
are all too ready to roll out
the smoke machine and ask
citizens to shoulder the conse-
quences.
For this reason, pitfalls
notwithstanding, public par-
ticipation at every level of gov-
ernment and at every stage in
the policy process cannot be
overstated.
Because, if things go really
bad and it looks like we're
headed over the cliff, you can
bet that the folks you thought
were driving the car will not
be in it.
Tom Davis
Shelton
Shelter
doors will
stay open
for now
Editor, the Journal
Last month, the Journal
published a letter from Ann
Baker, director of the Cold
Weather Shelter that operates
in the St. David's Parish Hall
from November through April.
She pointed out the absolute
importance of the shelter to
homeless people in our com-
munity and to the community
in general. She also made it
clear that given the funds on
hand and what was expected
to become available, the shel-
ter would not be able to pay
its very modest operating
expenses after Feb. 1, 2013,
and could be forced to shut
down. The people who operate
and support the shelter were
disturbed by this prospect, but
accepted the harsh reality of
the situation.
It seems that Ann has a
good sense of the generous na-
ture of people in our commu-
nity. In the few days since the
letter was published, 30 peo-
ple have come forward with
donations totaling more than
$4,500. The donations came
from across the economic
spectrum -- ranging from $1
to $600, reflecting the willing-
ness to sacrifice by people of
all financial means. The funds
received will cover 16 nights
of shelter operations (a typical
winter month sees the shelter
open for 17 nights).
Ann says that the honor
isn't all hers. Journal reporter
Gordon Weeks published an
article the same week about
the Cold Weather Shelter and
the Shower Ministry that St.
David's provides. Mr. Weeks'
article was very compelling
and covered a lot of informa-
tion that Ann's letter did not
have room for.
We can't say enough to
thank the generosity of those
folks who came forward with
donations. It looks as if the
shelter doors will stay open at
least through February. Of
course, if more community
members come forward to
help, we can ensure that we
have enough money to cover
the remaining two months
of the cold weather season.
Donations can be directed to
St. David's Parish Hall Min-
istries, PO Box 339, Shelton,
and are tax-deductible.
Toby Kevin
Shelton
Election
shouldn't
define
marriage
Editor, the Journal
This recent election shows
that people are misguided in
thinking that marriage is sole-
ly the union of two individu-
als. Marriage is so much more
than that. Marriage provides
the very foundation of our
society. For this reason, mar-
riage was established to pro-
vide a positive environment to
produce and nurture the next
generation of our society.
What this recent election
shows us is that same-sex
union proponents used ar-
guments that would touch
people's emotions and not the
reality of what is needed to
continue our society. What is
the main purpose of every spe-
cies here on earth? That pur-
pose is to continue their own
species, otherwise what is the
point of that species existing
at all? How is a human be-
ing created? The creation of a
human being comes from the
union of a male and a female.
This process is the same today
as it has always been.
This is what the same-sex
union proponents hoped that
people would not base their
vote on in this past election.
That homosexuals are mak-
ing a choice that goes against
human nature. Males and
females were created with
biological and psychological
differences so to complement
each other as two halves.of a
whole. Since the two halves
of a same-sex couple are the
same, this type of union does
not have the pieces to com-
plete the whole.
It's this wholeness that
provides the backbone of
marriage. The biological and
psychological differences of
a male and female are the
very foundation of the true
definition of marriage. These
differences provide all the
necessary elements required
to fulfill the true definition
of marriage. Marriage is
the environment in which a
child is created and nurtured
from the differences of its
biological parents to take its
place in society. The union of
these individuals is just the
consequence of marriage, not
the sole definition of mar-
riage.
Betsy Maddux
alyn
"Farmball"
raises $500
Editor, the Journal
On Nov. 24, the Davis
Farm in Belfair hosted its
15th annual farm football
game, known as "Farmball."
This year included a post-
game lunch and wreath-mak-
ing tutorial.
The game was originally
an opportunity for friends
and foes to gather for a good-
spirited game of house rules
tackle football, but it has
grown into a community-
building event.
Players, spectators and
wreath makers donated more
than $500 to the Tom and
Irene Davis Memorial Schol-
arship funds. Their ideals of
hard work and community
involvement are celebrated
during this event. The funds
generated are used to sup-
port students who share
these values.
This event is always open
for participation at noon
on the Saturday following
Thanksgiving on the Davis
Farm. Consider joining us
next year, and please remem-
ber the importance of hard
work and community involve-
ment.
Sam Maupin
Belfair
USPS 492-800
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County Journal, P.O. Box 430, Shelton, WA 98584.
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at 227 West Cota Street, Shelton, Washington
Mailing address: P.O. Box 430, Shelton, WA 98584
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Owned and published by
Shelton-Mason County Journal, Inc
Kari Sleight, publisher
Newsroom:
Adam Rudnick, editor
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Advertising:
Dave Pierik, Sr. Acct. Executive
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Front office:
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Page A-4 - Shelton-Mason County Journal - Thursday, Dec. 6, 2012