James Burke’s allies considered him honest and fearless, driven by civic pride and a sense of duty. His political enemies questioned his motives and called him a demagogue. He sometimes called them “corporate interests” or “foreign capitalists.”
He was no friend of Elias Lyman’s
coal company, for example, or of the Masons and the railroads. In his 1904 race
for mayor, he publicly forced the Republican candidate, Rufus Brown, to deny that
his campaign was financed by Burlington Gas Light.
One of the most difficult
crusades of Burlington’s first progressive era put him at odds with both the
Central Vermont and Rutland Railroads over public ownership of waterfront land.
The railroads had owned and controlled the water’s edge since Burlington
emerged as a commercial center, and weren’t willing to let the city take any
part of the land for a “public wharf.” That was precisely what Burke proposed
to do.
Robert Roberts, a Republican
mayor before Burke, later claimed that the idea was really his own. This does
make some sense, since he was on the executive committee of the Lake Champlain
Yacht Club. That and the local trolley company were run by Lyman, who also
headed the Board of Trade. But aside from having the idea Mayor Roberts did
little about it during his time in office.
The first breakthrough came in
1902. In December, only days after the city won a legislative go-ahead for a light plant, it also received approval to operate a “public wharf…for the
landing, loading and unloading of boats and vessels.”[1] In addition, the
city would be permitted to take land by eminent domain. The idea was popular
and embraced by candidates of both political parties. By 1905 Burke was confident
that Burlington would have a wharf within months. But months ended up
stretching into years.
Since the railroads were refusing
to sell the city any land, Burke hunted down some frontage at the foot of Maple
Street that had, as he put it, “escaped the eyes of corporate greed.”[2]
Most land in that area was owned by the Rutland line. In June 1905, as the city
sought construction bids, the railroad won a court order to block construction.
Filling in the slip would destroy its “property right,” the company claimed.
The court battle dragged on into
the next mayoral election. The Burlington Free Press, whose staff member Walter
Bigelow frequently ran against Burke, urged the city to negotiate with the
other railroad, Central Vermont, for a lease while simultaneously accusing the
mayor of trying to “make political capital” out of the issue.[3]
Burke won anyway, by 140 votes,
mainly based on his popularity in waterfront neighborhoods. In his fourth
annual message, he charged that, “The citizens of Burlington are getting
impatient over this question (the wharf)…An outraged people will hold us
responsible if we show any inclination of shirk our duty in this great battle
now going on with corporate interests which are ever vigilant and successful in
watching after their own interests.”[4]
Despite public opinion or
impassioned speeches, Central Vermont aggressively opposed the city’s public
wharf plans for three more years. In a variety of legal actions, including a
1909 Supreme Court case, the railroad put its objection this way: First of all,
the city had no legal right to be a “wharfinger” – slang for running a wharf,
and the land was already being used for a public purpose – that is, whatever
the railroad chose.
Second, they claimed federal
approval was required by law – in this case by the Secretary of War, who had not
spoken. In any case, the state law authorizing the city to seize land was
unconstitutional as it denied the railroad due process. And finally, even if
taking land on College Street was legal, it wasn’t necessary since the city
already claimed to own another wharf site at the foot on Maple Street, not
coincidentally land also claimed by Percival Clement’s Rutland Railroad.
Like the private utilities, the
railroads wanted to establish that Burlington had no legal right to run a
public business that would “enter into competition with the world at large.”
The state’s top judges disagreed. Vermont government could, they ruled, “build
or aid others in building, wharves for public use and in aid of trade and
commerce; and it is equally clear that whatever the state can do in this
behalf, it can delegate to a municipality to do.”[5]
The project didn’t have to be
within the narrow purpose of local government, said Vermont’s High Court. It
could be almost anything of special local benefit, anything considered “proper
means for promoting the prosperity of its people.”
The decision was handed down on
January 16, 1909, less than two months before Burke returned to City Hall after
defeats in 1907 and 1908. Even journalists such as James Tracy, who thought
Burke tactless and possibly a dangerous demagogue, had to concede in a Vermonter
Magazine profile that his persistence and success on the wharf issue had netted
him “prestige among the common people who look upon him as a safe leader and
wise counselor.”[6]
Nevertheless, the negotiations
continued to drag on. Optimism that Central Vermont might let go of its College
Street property faded when the railroad, after agreeing to sell for $27,500,
demanded to retain the right to run tracks across the property. The land was
condemned and the corporation went back to court.
Having lost at the ballot box,
the economic establishment hoped to win by wearing down the opposition and
exploiting technicalities. By 1910 Burlington was under legal attack by the
railroads, Burlington Light and Power, and the Masons. Before all the disputes
could be resolved, Burke, the politician at the center of them, was out of
office again. His old rival Robert Roberts had returned to electoral politics
after a ten-year absence to defeat the mayor in five of the city’s six
recently-redrawn wards.
But comebacks were Burke’s forte.
In 1913 he made yet another one, and immediately after winning another term as
mayor picked up his discussions with the railroads. Now he linked the purchase
of wharf property with plans for a Union Passenger Station nearby.[7]
The Public Service Commission was invited into the debate, and the Supreme
Court ironed out the details. Both Central Vermont and the Rutland Railroad
eventually accepted the city’s proposal.
In 1915 the city purchased 160
feet of lakefront property near College Street for $8,000. A decade-long battle
with corporate power had been won.
[1]
Vermont General Assembly,
December 11, 1902.
[2]
Mayor’s Message to the Board of
Aldermen, April 3, 1905.
[3]
Burlington Free Press and
Times, June 7, 1905
[4]
Mayor’s Message to the Board of
Aldermen, 1906.
[5]
Vermont Supreme Court opinion, Burlington v. Central Vermont Railway, Co.,
January 16, 1909.
[6]
James E. Tracy, The Mayor of Burlington, Vermonter Magazine,
March, 1909.
[7]
Mayor’s Message to the Board of
Aldermen, 1913.
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