George F. Cotterill
Encyclopedia
George Fletcher Cotterill (November 18, 1865 – October 13, 1958), born in Oxford
, England
, was an American
civil servant and politician. His public career in Seattle and the state of Washington lasted over 40 years; his politics were generally aligned with Progressivism
. An advocate of woman suffrage and Prohibition
, he was also concerned with the development of public parks and with public ownership of port and harbor facilities and of utilities.
before settling on a farm in Montclair, New Jersey
. After graduating from high school in Montclair—at the young age of 15 and as class valedictorian
—he worked as a rod man
on a railroad survey, while training to be a surveyor
and engineer
.
In 1883, he traveled to the Pacific Northwest
with his father and brother. They had hoped to find work for the Northern Pacific Railroad, but by the time they arrived the project in question had been suspended. His father and brother headed back East in 1884. Cotterill stayed on and managed to obtain a job as a bookkeeper for the Moran Brothers
shipyard in Seattle. Moran and Cotterill would each later serve the city as its mayor.
He was not a bookkeeper for long. The growing town and the Washington Territory
needed surveyors and engineers. Cotterill laid out the seating diagram for Frye Opera House (Seattle's premier theater of its time), worked for the Columbia & Puget Sound Railway, the Seattle, Lake Shore & Eastern Railway, and eventually for the Northern Pacific when they resumed development in the region. He was involved with the coal
mines in Gilman (now Issaquah, Washington
) and Grand Ridge. He surveyed land in West Seattle
(which at that time was not yet part of Seattle proper) and laid out the plan of the city of Sidney (later Port Orchard
) in Kitsap County
. Most importantly for his future career, though, he worked for City of Seattle Surveyor R. H. Thomson
, both as a surveyor and in building the city's first sewers.
Thomson became City Engineer in 1892 and appointed Cotterill as an assistant. They developed the basis of what remains Seattle's main water supply over a century later (see Seattle Public Utilities
), bringing in water from the Cedar River
. The financial hurdles were almost as daunting as the technical difficulties. In a July 8, 1889 election, barely a month after the Great Seattle Fire
(June 6, 1889) Seattle's citizens had voted 1,875 to 51 to acquire and operate their own water system. However, the Panic of 1893
wrecked the city's finances. Cotterill devised the then-novel plan of borrowing money for the pipeline by pledging the receipts from the water to be delivered when the $1,250,000 system was completed. This brought Cotterill into electoral politics for the first time, supporting his own plan in an 1895 special election. The Klondike Gold Rush
put Seattle on a sound economic footing and the 1901 completion of Cedar River Supply System No. 1 (active from February 21, 1901) gave the city a steady supply of clean water.
Other achievements by Thomson and Cotterill in this era included 25 miles of bicycle trails (later the basis of the city's Olmsted boulevard system) the filling of tideflats that compose much of today's SoDo
and Industrial District
south of Downtown Seattle
, and the development of the plat
s that still determine the general plan of the pier
s on Seattle's Central Waterfront. Each pier is more or less a parallelogram
. Most earlier piers, none of which survive, formed a perfect right angle to the shore, and the curvature of the shore meant that each pier was at a slightly different angle, causing potential for collisions. Their uniform northeast-southwest direction was prescribed by Thomson and Cotterill not only solved that problem but also spared freight trains from needing to make a sharp right angle.
Gold Rush money had turned Seattle into a wide open city: brothel
s and casino
s flourished, as did concomitant corruption. Cotterill had been a Republican, but in 1900 he supported populist
Democrat William Jennings Bryan
for President
and ran for mayor of Seattle, nominally as a nonpartisan
, but effectively as a Democratic. It was not the Democrats' year, and Cotterill lost (as he would also lose a Congressional
race two years later). He resigned his city job and resumed private practice.
In 1906, he finally achieved electoral success as one of only three Democrats elected to the Washington State Senate
, which then had 42 members. Crossing the aisle, he became the leader of progressive Republicans, and successfully built support for the direct primary law of 1907. As a legislator, he also backed the Lake Washington Ship Canal
and helped preserve shorelines for the University of Washington
and for city parks. He backed local option
as a step toward the prohibition of alcohol and drafted an amendment to the state constitution that granted women the right to vote in 1910, a decade ahead of the country at large. He was also instrumental in passing the law that allowed formation of port districts. The workman's compensation law he helped to write became a national model.
Cotterill was the Democratic candidate for the United States Senate
in 1908 and 1910, but lost both races.
Hiram Gill
ran successfully for the Seattle mayoralty in 1910 on "open city" platform, defeating real estate man George W. Dilling. Gill opposed municipal ownership of utilities, arguing not only for privatized transit, but for privatized waterworks, and opposing the then-young Seattle City Light
electric utility. He was generally anti-tax and anti-union
. Gill reinstalled police chief Charles "Wappy" Wappenstein, whom Gill's predecessor John F. Miller had dismissed as corrupt. Wappenstein promptly established a regime far more "open" than any that Gill had overtly advocated. Every prostitute in Seattle was expected to pay $10 a month to "Wappy", and the police department made sure they paid. Beacon Hill
became home to a 500-room brothel
with a 15-year lease from the city. It did not take long for the voters to get fed up, and Gill was recalled from office
in 1911, though it would not be his last time as mayor. Dilling finished out Gill's term. Wappenstein eventually went to prison.
Gill ran for mayor again in March 1912, and Cotterill ran against him. Seattle Times publisher Alden J. Blethen
ardently supported Gill, but Cotterill won. The election wasn't even close, and a third candidate, Socialist
Hulet Wells, received nearly as many votes as Gill. Reformers, many of them with no party affiliation, formed the majority of the Seattle City Council
. Theodore Roosevelt
's "Bull Moose" candidacy carried the stat in the presidential election
later that year, though Roosevelt did not win the country.
Although in some ways his moment of triumph, Cotterill was by this time, in Roger Sales's words, riding "two horses… moving in different directions". His desire for municipal ownership of utilities and public control of ports allied him with labor and populism; his lifelong Prohibitionist views did not. The Prohibitionist movement was, by this time, aligning itself with issues that wanted small government on most other issues, because they had come to believe that big government inevitably meant corruption. Meanwhile, labor was moving farther left
, toward socialism
and even anarcho-syndicalism
.
Prohibitionism and the temperance movement
had always been at the center of Cotterill's morality. His parents had been members of the United Kingdom Temperance Alliance. During his childhood in England, he attended the Band of Hope, an organization for children's temperance education. His mother had formed the local chapter. He attended a convention of the International Order of Good Templars in 1897 and was involved with the Templars for the rest of his life, serving for a time as Grand Secretary of the Washington State division and later as Chief Templar of the national division. He was a member of the Anti-Saloon League
and in 1909, was appointed by President Taft
to represent the U.S. at the International Congress against Alcoholism; in 1913 he was reappointed to this role by President Wilson
.
As mayor, Cotterill instigated an anti-vice campaign that raised civil liberties
issues, and he soon became embroiled in other issues, as well. There were thousands of vice-related warrantless arrests, and the crackdown on vice may simply have created new and different modes of police corruption.
At this time, Seattle had a big summer celebration known as Potlatch Days, the name deriving from the potlatch
ceremonies of the indigenous peoples of the region
. In summer 1913, during the Golden Potlach celebration, Blethen succeeded in stirring up already hot tempers and sparking a riot that destroyed the local offices of the Industrial Workers of the World
and of the Socialist Party
. Cotterill shut down the saloons, suspended all street meetings, and attempted to close the Seattle Times. In this last, he was stopped by a judge; he and police chief Claude Bannick nearly found themselves arrested. However, he survived a recall attempt instigated by Blethen.
That was hardly the last of the labor troubles Cotterill faced as mayor. Later that year, the Teamsters
struck
for union recognition and a closed shop
. Cotterill attempted to remain neutral, which the employers viewed as support for the union.
. Again, he lost. In 1916, he was appointed Chief Engineer of the state highway department. In 1922, he was elected to the first of four three-year terms on the Seattle Port Commission
, after which he worked a variety of jobs, including working for the King County Assessor
's Office until retiring at the age of 84.
Cotterill seems never go have given up hopes of resuming a career in electoral politics. He ran for governor in 1928 and for at least five various city and state offices between 1932 and 1951. His finances fared poorly in the Great Depression
, which was part of the reason he worked into his 80s. Most likely, he would have worked even longer if the state had not adopted a mandatory retirement law for government employees over 70.
Roughly a decade after his retirement, he died in a Seattle nursing home.
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, was an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
civil servant and politician. His public career in Seattle and the state of Washington lasted over 40 years; his politics were generally aligned with Progressivism
Progressivism
Progressivism is an umbrella term for a political ideology advocating or favoring social, political, and economic reform or changes. Progressivism is often viewed by some conservatives, constitutionalists, and libertarians to be in opposition to conservative or reactionary ideologies.The...
. An advocate of woman suffrage and Prohibition
Prohibition
Prohibition of alcohol, often referred to simply as prohibition, is the practice of prohibiting the manufacture, transportation, import, export, sale, and consumption of alcohol and alcoholic beverages. The term can also apply to the periods in the histories of the countries during which the...
, he was also concerned with the development of public parks and with public ownership of port and harbor facilities and of utilities.
Youth and early career
Born in Oxford, England, Cotterill was the son of a gardener Robert Cotterill and his wife Alice. The family immigrated to the United States in May 1872, when he was six, arriving in BostonBoston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
before settling on a farm in Montclair, New Jersey
Montclair, New Jersey
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 38,977 people, 15,020 households, and 9,687 families residing in the township. The population density was 6,183.6 people per square mile . There were 15,531 housing units at an average density of 2,464.0 per square mile...
. After graduating from high school in Montclair—at the young age of 15 and as class valedictorian
Valedictorian
Valedictorian is an academic title conferred upon the student who delivers the closing or farewell statement at a graduation ceremony. Usually, the valedictorian is the highest ranked student among those graduating from an educational institution...
—he worked as a rod man
Measuring rod
A measuring rod is a tool used to physically measure lengths and survey areas of various sizes. Most measuring rods are round or square sectioned, however they can be flat boards. Some have markings at regular intervals...
on a railroad survey, while training to be a surveyor
Surveying
See Also: Public Land Survey SystemSurveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, and science of accurately determining the terrestrial or three-dimensional position of points and the distances and angles between them...
and engineer
Engineer
An engineer is a professional practitioner of engineering, concerned with applying scientific knowledge, mathematics and ingenuity to develop solutions for technical problems. Engineers design materials, structures, machines and systems while considering the limitations imposed by practicality,...
.
In 1883, he traveled to the Pacific Northwest
Pacific Northwest
The Pacific Northwest is a region in northwestern North America, bounded by the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains on the east. Definitions of the region vary and there is no commonly agreed upon boundary, even among Pacific Northwesterners. A common concept of the...
with his father and brother. They had hoped to find work for the Northern Pacific Railroad, but by the time they arrived the project in question had been suspended. His father and brother headed back East in 1884. Cotterill stayed on and managed to obtain a job as a bookkeeper for the Moran Brothers
Robert Moran (shipbuilder)
Robert Moran was a prominent Seattle shipbuilder who served as the city's mayor from 1888 to 1890.A native of New York City, Moran was 18 when, in 1875, he arrived penniless in Seattle, a frontier outpost in the Pacific Northwest, which had been settled in November 1851, and only incorporated...
shipyard in Seattle. Moran and Cotterill would each later serve the city as its mayor.
He was not a bookkeeper for long. The growing town and the Washington Territory
Washington Territory
The Territory of Washington was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from February 8, 1853, until November 11, 1889, when the final extent of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Washington....
needed surveyors and engineers. Cotterill laid out the seating diagram for Frye Opera House (Seattle's premier theater of its time), worked for the Columbia & Puget Sound Railway, the Seattle, Lake Shore & Eastern Railway, and eventually for the Northern Pacific when they resumed development in the region. He was involved with the coal
Coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...
mines in Gilman (now Issaquah, Washington
Issaquah, Washington
Issaquah is a city in King County, Washington, United States. The population was 30,434 at the 2010 census.Based on per capita income, Issaquah ranks 25th of 522 areas in the State of Washington to be ranked....
) and Grand Ridge. He surveyed land in West Seattle
West Seattle, Seattle, Washington
West Seattle comprises two of Seattle, Washington's thirteen districts, Delridge and Southwest and encompasses all of Seattle west of the Duwamish River. It was incorporated as an independent town in 1902 and was annexed by Seattle in 1907. Among the area's attractions are its saltwater beach parks...
(which at that time was not yet part of Seattle proper) and laid out the plan of the city of Sidney (later Port Orchard
Port Orchard, Washington
Port Orchard is a city in and the county seat of Kitsap County, Washington, United States. It is located 13 miles due west of West Seattle and connected to Seattle and Vashon Island via the Washington State Ferries run to Southworth...
) in Kitsap County
Kitsap County, Washington
Kitsap County is a county located in the U.S. state of Washington, named after Chief Kitsap of the Suquamish tribe. As of 2011 state estimate, its population was 253,900. Its county seat is at Port Orchard, and its largest city is Bremerton....
. Most importantly for his future career, though, he worked for City of Seattle Surveyor R. H. Thomson
R. H. Thomson
Robert Holmes "R. H." Thomson, is a Canadian television, film and stage actor.Thomson was born in Richmond Hill, Ontario. He studied at the University of Toronto, and the National Theatre School. His own play The Lost Boys was staged at the Great Canadian Theatre Company in March 2000 and at...
, both as a surveyor and in building the city's first sewers.
Thomson and Cotterill
Seattle Public Utilities
Seattle Public Utilities is a public utility agency of the city of Seattle, Washington, which provides water, sewer, drainage and garbage services for 1.3 million people in King County, Washington...
), bringing in water from the Cedar River
Cedar River (Washington)
The Cedar River is a river in the U.S. state of Washington. About long, it originates in the Cascade Range and flows generally west and northwest, emptying into the southern end of Lake Washington...
. The financial hurdles were almost as daunting as the technical difficulties. In a July 8, 1889 election, barely a month after the Great Seattle Fire
Great Seattle Fire
The Great Seattle Fire was a fire that destroyed the entire central business district of Seattle, Washington, USA, on June 6, 1889.-Early Seattle:In the fall of 1851, the Denny Party arrived at Alki Point in what is now the state of Washington...
(June 6, 1889) Seattle's citizens had voted 1,875 to 51 to acquire and operate their own water system. However, the Panic of 1893
Panic of 1893
The Panic of 1893 was a serious economic depression in the United States that began in 1893. Similar to the Panic of 1873, this panic was marked by the collapse of railroad overbuilding and shaky railroad financing which set off a series of bank failures...
wrecked the city's finances. Cotterill devised the then-novel plan of borrowing money for the pipeline by pledging the receipts from the water to be delivered when the $1,250,000 system was completed. This brought Cotterill into electoral politics for the first time, supporting his own plan in an 1895 special election. The Klondike Gold Rush
Klondike Gold Rush
The Klondike Gold Rush, also called the Yukon Gold Rush, the Alaska Gold Rush and the Last Great Gold Rush, was an attempt by an estimated 100,000 people to travel to the Klondike region the Yukon in north-western Canada between 1897 and 1899 in the hope of successfully prospecting for gold...
put Seattle on a sound economic footing and the 1901 completion of Cedar River Supply System No. 1 (active from February 21, 1901) gave the city a steady supply of clean water.
Other achievements by Thomson and Cotterill in this era included 25 miles of bicycle trails (later the basis of the city's Olmsted boulevard system) the filling of tideflats that compose much of today's SoDo
SoDo, Seattle, Washington
SoDo is a neighborhood in Seattle, Washington, that makes up part of the city's Industrial District. It is bounded on the north by South King Street, beyond which is Pioneer Square; on the south by South Spokane Street, beyond which is more of the Industrial District; on the west by the Duwamish...
and Industrial District
Industrial District, Seattle, Washington
The Industrial District is the principal industrial area of Seattle, Washington. It is bounded on the west by the Duwamish Waterway and Elliott Bay, beyond which lies Delridge of West Seattle; on the east by Interstate 5, beyond which lies Beacon Hill; on the north by S King and S Dearborn Streets,...
south of Downtown Seattle
Downtown Seattle
Downtown is the central business district of Seattle, Washington. It is fairly compact compared to other city centers on the West Coast because of its geographical situation: hemmed in on the north and east by hills, on the west by the Elliott Bay, and on the south by reclaimed land that was once...
, and the development of the plat
Plat
A plat in the U.S. is a map, drawn to scale, showing the divisions of a piece of land. Other English-speaking countries generally call such documents a cadastral map or plan....
s that still determine the general plan of the pier
Pier
A pier is a raised structure, including bridge and building supports and walkways, over water, typically supported by widely spread piles or pillars...
s on Seattle's Central Waterfront. Each pier is more or less a parallelogram
Parallelogram
In Euclidean geometry, a parallelogram is a convex quadrilateral with two pairs of parallel sides. The opposite or facing sides of a parallelogram are of equal length and the opposite angles of a parallelogram are of equal measure...
. Most earlier piers, none of which survive, formed a perfect right angle to the shore, and the curvature of the shore meant that each pier was at a slightly different angle, causing potential for collisions. Their uniform northeast-southwest direction was prescribed by Thomson and Cotterill not only solved that problem but also spared freight trains from needing to make a sharp right angle.
Politics
An increasingly prominent figure in the city, Cotterill was soon embroiled in matters unrelated to his technical skills (or even his financial skills)Gold Rush money had turned Seattle into a wide open city: brothel
Brothel
Brothels are business establishments where patrons can engage in sexual activities with prostitutes. Brothels are known under a variety of names, including bordello, cathouse, knocking shop, whorehouse, strumpet house, sporting house, house of ill repute, house of prostitution, and bawdy house...
s and casino
Casino
In modern English, a casino is a facility which houses and accommodates certain types of gambling activities. Casinos are most commonly built near or combined with hotels, restaurants, retail shopping, cruise ships or other tourist attractions...
s flourished, as did concomitant corruption. Cotterill had been a Republican, but in 1900 he supported populist
Populism
Populism can be defined as an ideology, political philosophy, or type of discourse. Generally, a common theme compares "the people" against "the elite", and urges social and political system changes. It can also be defined as a rhetorical style employed by members of various political or social...
Democrat William Jennings Bryan
William Jennings Bryan
William Jennings Bryan was an American politician in the late-19th and early-20th centuries. He was a dominant force in the liberal wing of the Democratic Party, standing three times as its candidate for President of the United States...
for President
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
and ran for mayor of Seattle, nominally as a nonpartisan
Nonpartisan
In political science, nonpartisan denotes an election, event, organization or person in which there is no formally declared association with a political party affiliation....
, but effectively as a Democratic. It was not the Democrats' year, and Cotterill lost (as he would also lose a Congressional
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
race two years later). He resigned his city job and resumed private practice.
In 1906, he finally achieved electoral success as one of only three Democrats elected to the Washington State Senate
Washington State Senate
The Washington State Senate is the upper house of the Washington State Legislature. The body consists of 49 senators, each representing a district with a population of nearly 120,000. The State Senate meets at the Legislative Building in Olympia....
, which then had 42 members. Crossing the aisle, he became the leader of progressive Republicans, and successfully built support for the direct primary law of 1907. As a legislator, he also backed the Lake Washington Ship Canal
Lake Washington Ship Canal
The Lake Washington Ship Canal, which runs through the City of Seattle, Washington, connects the fresh water body of Lake Washington with the salt water inland sea of Puget Sound. The Ship Canal includes a series of locks, modeled after the Panama Canal, to accommodate the different water levels...
and helped preserve shorelines for the University of Washington
University of Washington
University of Washington is a public research university, founded in 1861 in Seattle, Washington, United States. The UW is the largest university in the Northwest and the oldest public university on the West Coast. The university has three campuses, with its largest campus in the University...
and for city parks. He backed local option
Local Option
Local Option is a term used to describe the freedom whereby local political jurisdictions, typically counties or municipalities, can decide by popular vote certain controversial issues within their borders. In practice, it usually relates to the issue of alcoholic beverage sales...
as a step toward the prohibition of alcohol and drafted an amendment to the state constitution that granted women the right to vote in 1910, a decade ahead of the country at large. He was also instrumental in passing the law that allowed formation of port districts. The workman's compensation law he helped to write became a national model.
Cotterill was the Democratic candidate for the United States Senate
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
in 1908 and 1910, but lost both races.
Mayor of Seattle
Hiram Gill
Hiram C. Gill was an American lawyer and two-time Seattle mayor, identified with the "open city" politics that advocated toleration of prostitution, alcohol, and gambling.-Rise:...
ran successfully for the Seattle mayoralty in 1910 on "open city" platform, defeating real estate man George W. Dilling. Gill opposed municipal ownership of utilities, arguing not only for privatized transit, but for privatized waterworks, and opposing the then-young Seattle City Light
Seattle City Light
Seattle City Light is the public utility providing electrical power to Seattle, Washington and parts of its metropolitan area, including all of Shoreline and Lake Forest Park and parts of unincorporated King County, Burien, Normandy Park, Seatac, Renton, and Tukwila...
electric utility. He was generally anti-tax and anti-union
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
. Gill reinstalled police chief Charles "Wappy" Wappenstein, whom Gill's predecessor John F. Miller had dismissed as corrupt. Wappenstein promptly established a regime far more "open" than any that Gill had overtly advocated. Every prostitute in Seattle was expected to pay $10 a month to "Wappy", and the police department made sure they paid. Beacon Hill
Beacon Hill, Seattle, Washington
Beacon Hill is a hill and neighborhood in southeast Seattle, Washington. The municipal government subdivides it into North Beacon Hill, Mid-Beacon Hill, Holly Park, and South Beacon Hill, though most people who live there simply call it "Beacon Hill." Home to the world headquarters of Amazon.com...
became home to a 500-room brothel
Lester Apartments
The Lester Apartments was a building in the west side of Beacon Hill, Seattle, Washington, USA. It was constructed in 1910–1, originally intended to be the world's largest brothel. After scandal forced Seattle mayor Hiram Gill from office, the building was converted to be an ordinary apartment house...
with a 15-year lease from the city. It did not take long for the voters to get fed up, and Gill was recalled from office
Recall election
A recall election is a procedure by which voters can remove an elected official from office through a direct vote before his or her term has ended...
in 1911, though it would not be his last time as mayor. Dilling finished out Gill's term. Wappenstein eventually went to prison.
Gill ran for mayor again in March 1912, and Cotterill ran against him. Seattle Times publisher Alden J. Blethen
Alden J. Blethen
Alden J. Blethen was editor in chief of the Seattle Daily Times from August 10, 1896 until his death...
ardently supported Gill, but Cotterill won. The election wasn't even close, and a third candidate, Socialist
Socialist Party of America
The Socialist Party of America was a multi-tendency democratic-socialist political party in the United States, formed in 1901 by a merger between the three-year-old Social Democratic Party of America and disaffected elements of the Socialist Labor Party which had split from the main organization...
Hulet Wells, received nearly as many votes as Gill. Reformers, many of them with no party affiliation, formed the majority of the Seattle City Council
Seattle City Council
The Seattle City Council is committed to ensuring that Seattle, Washington, is safe, livable and sustainable. Nine Councilmembers are elected to four-year terms in nonpartisan elections and represent the entire city, elected by all Seattle voters....
. Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States . He is noted for his exuberant personality, range of interests and achievements, and his leadership of the Progressive Movement, as well as his "cowboy" persona and robust masculinity...
's "Bull Moose" candidacy carried the stat in the presidential election
United States presidential election, 1912
The United States presidential election of 1912 was a rare four-way contest. Incumbent President William Howard Taft was renominated by the Republican Party with the support of its conservative wing. After former President Theodore Roosevelt failed to receive the Republican nomination, he called...
later that year, though Roosevelt did not win the country.
Although in some ways his moment of triumph, Cotterill was by this time, in Roger Sales's words, riding "two horses… moving in different directions". His desire for municipal ownership of utilities and public control of ports allied him with labor and populism; his lifelong Prohibitionist views did not. The Prohibitionist movement was, by this time, aligning itself with issues that wanted small government on most other issues, because they had come to believe that big government inevitably meant corruption. Meanwhile, labor was moving farther left
Left-wing politics
In politics, Left, left-wing and leftist generally refer to support for social change to create a more egalitarian society...
, toward socialism
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
and even anarcho-syndicalism
Anarcho-syndicalism
Anarcho-syndicalism is a branch of anarchism which focuses on the labour movement. The word syndicalism comes from the French word syndicat which means trade union , from the Latin word syndicus which in turn comes from the Greek word σύνδικος which means caretaker of an issue...
.
Prohibitionism and the temperance movement
Temperance movement
A temperance movement is a social movement urging reduced use of alcoholic beverages. Temperance movements may criticize excessive alcohol use, promote complete abstinence , or pressure the government to enact anti-alcohol legislation or complete prohibition of alcohol.-Temperance movement by...
had always been at the center of Cotterill's morality. His parents had been members of the United Kingdom Temperance Alliance. During his childhood in England, he attended the Band of Hope, an organization for children's temperance education. His mother had formed the local chapter. He attended a convention of the International Order of Good Templars in 1897 and was involved with the Templars for the rest of his life, serving for a time as Grand Secretary of the Washington State division and later as Chief Templar of the national division. He was a member of the Anti-Saloon League
Anti-Saloon League
The Anti-Saloon League was the leading organization lobbying for prohibition in the United States in the early 20th century. It was a key component of the Progressive Era, and was strongest in the South and rural North, drawing heavy support from pietistic Protestant ministers and their...
and in 1909, was appointed by President Taft
William Howard Taft
William Howard Taft was the 27th President of the United States and later the tenth Chief Justice of the United States...
to represent the U.S. at the International Congress against Alcoholism; in 1913 he was reappointed to this role by President Wilson
Woodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the United States, from 1913 to 1921. A leader of the Progressive Movement, he served as President of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and then as the Governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913...
.
As mayor, Cotterill instigated an anti-vice campaign that raised civil liberties
Civil liberties
Civil liberties are rights and freedoms that provide an individual specific rights such as the freedom from slavery and forced labour, freedom from torture and death, the right to liberty and security, right to a fair trial, the right to defend one's self, the right to own and bear arms, the right...
issues, and he soon became embroiled in other issues, as well. There were thousands of vice-related warrantless arrests, and the crackdown on vice may simply have created new and different modes of police corruption.
At this time, Seattle had a big summer celebration known as Potlatch Days, the name deriving from the potlatch
Potlatch
A potlatch is a gift-giving festival and primary economic system practiced by indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast of Canada and United States. This includes Heiltsuk Nation, Haida, Nuxalk, Tlingit, Makah, Tsimshian, Nuu-chah-nulth, Kwakwaka'wakw, and Coast Salish cultures...
ceremonies of the indigenous peoples of the region
Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast
The Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of the Pacific Northwest Coast, their descendants, and many ethnic groups who identify with those historical peoples. They are now situated within the Canadian Province of British Columbia and the U.S...
. In summer 1913, during the Golden Potlach celebration, Blethen succeeded in stirring up already hot tempers and sparking a riot that destroyed the local offices of the Industrial Workers of the World
Industrial Workers of the World
The Industrial Workers of the World is an international union. At its peak in 1923, the organization claimed some 100,000 members in good standing, and could marshal the support of perhaps 300,000 workers. Its membership declined dramatically after a 1924 split brought on by internal conflict...
and of the Socialist Party
Socialist Party of America
The Socialist Party of America was a multi-tendency democratic-socialist political party in the United States, formed in 1901 by a merger between the three-year-old Social Democratic Party of America and disaffected elements of the Socialist Labor Party which had split from the main organization...
. Cotterill shut down the saloons, suspended all street meetings, and attempted to close the Seattle Times. In this last, he was stopped by a judge; he and police chief Claude Bannick nearly found themselves arrested. However, he survived a recall attempt instigated by Blethen.
That was hardly the last of the labor troubles Cotterill faced as mayor. Later that year, the Teamsters
Teamsters
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters is a labor union in the United States and Canada. Formed in 1903 by the merger of several local and regional locals of teamsters, the union now represents a diverse membership of blue-collar and professional workers in both the public and private sectors....
struck
Strike action
Strike action, also called labour strike, on strike, greve , or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Strikes became important during the industrial revolution, when mass labour became...
for union recognition and a closed shop
Closed shop
A closed shop is a form of union security agreement under which the employer agrees to hire union members only, and employees must remain members of the union at all times in order to remain employed....
. Cotterill attempted to remain neutral, which the employers viewed as support for the union.
Later career
Rather than seek reelection as mayor, in 1914 Cotterill ran again for the United States SenateUnited States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
. Again, he lost. In 1916, he was appointed Chief Engineer of the state highway department. In 1922, he was elected to the first of four three-year terms on the Seattle Port Commission
Port of Seattle
The Port of Seattle is a port district that runs Seattle's seaport and airport. Its creation was approved by the voters of King County, Washington, on September 5, 1911, authorized by the Port District Act. It is run by a five-member commission. The commissioners' terms run four years...
, after which he worked a variety of jobs, including working for the King County Assessor
King County, Washington
King County is a county located in the U.S. state of Washington. The population in the 2010 census was 1,931,249. King is the most populous county in Washington, and the 14th most populous in the United States....
's Office until retiring at the age of 84.
Cotterill seems never go have given up hopes of resuming a career in electoral politics. He ran for governor in 1928 and for at least five various city and state offices between 1932 and 1951. His finances fared poorly in the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
, which was part of the reason he worked into his 80s. Most likely, he would have worked even longer if the state had not adopted a mandatory retirement law for government employees over 70.
Roughly a decade after his retirement, he died in a Seattle nursing home.