Hiram C. Gill (August 23, 1866 – January 7, 1919) was an American lawyer and two-time Mayor of Seattle, Washington, identified with the "open city" politics that advocated toleration of prostitution, alcohol, and gambling.

In 1889 Gill graduated from the University of Wisconsin Law School and moved to Seattle, where he worked first as a waiter at a waterfront restaurant.

[2] A petition to recall Gill, drafted by Adella Parker, began circulating on October 8, 1910; a sufficient number to force an election were turned in by December 20.

[3] The town had risen to prosperity by "mining the miners" of the 1897 Klondike Gold Rush,[4] and then became a player in the emerging Pacific trade.

A prosperity based on miners and maritime trade inevitably carved out a large role for brothels, bars, and gambling dens.

[1] One of the most prominent figures on the other side of the debate was Presbyterian minister Mark Matthews, who already in 1905 had faced off against Gill, accusing him of "condoning vice";[2] other opponents included other church groups, but also progressives, prohibitionists, and women's suffragists.

Opponents attributed the remarkably high turnout to the Republicans importing unemployed men, lodging them in vacant houses and apartments, and effectively buying their votes.

reinstalled as chief of police Charles "Wappy" Wappenstein, whom Gill's predecessor John F. Miller had dismissed as corrupt.

[1] A petition to recall Gill, drafted by Adella Parker,[8] began circulating on October 8, 1910; a sufficient number to force an election were turned in by December 20.

Thus, when Gill's opponents managed to force a February 9, 1911 recall election, it was to a very different electorate, one that included 23,000 registered women voters, of whom 20,000 showed up at the polls.

Labor troubles and the Potlach Riots of 1913 allowed Blethen at the Times to paint Cotterill as an ally of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW),[12] laying ground for Gill's political revival in the 1914 election.

He took labor's side in several (though not all) strike actions, and even spoke out on behalf of the IWW after the 1916 Everett Massacre, earning him the wrath of the Times (while doing nothing to ingratiate him with his longtime enemies at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer).