, 1889-08-15
CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION.
OLYMPIA, Aug. 3, 1889.

A communication vas received by the
convention from Spokane and reads rs
| follows:
Il am instructed to pIo'ess in the
name of the Spokane County Farmers
Alliance Trades Council and all assem-
blies of the Knights OF Lab in Eastern
! Washington against changing sections 8
and 81 of the committees report on cor-
porations; also against allowing aliens
to acquire real estate"
Signed, W. Il. GALvAIN,
President Trades Council
\ petition signed by the medical prae-
titioners of Pierce county asking for the
establishment Of board OF health, a
bureau OF vital statistics and that the
| legislature be given power to enact laws
to guard the public against imposition
by either incompetent physicians or
druggists.
| The chamber of commerce OF Tacoma
through its chairman has sent the fol-
! lowing to the conventions:
II am Instructed to advise the com
mittee through its chairman that it is the
desire of the Tacoma chamber OF com
merce expressed through this ccmmuni-
cation that section 8 and q Of the report
of The committee on corporations, are in
jun:ious to the future welfare of the
state and developments OF it's resources !;
fharnfnra oh fr,l llxy
tests against the adoption of said sec
sions and asks that they be stricken
from the report"
Mr.. Moore moved that the ten minute
rule be suspended so far as it related to
the article reported by the committee on
state, school and granted lands Mr..
Turner moved that the rule also be sus-
pended so far as refers to the article re-
ported by the committee on harbors, tide
waters AMI navigable streams.
The movers Of the above motions said
the questions to be considered in the ar
ticles referred to, were important ones
and latitude should be allowed in de-
bate; carried.
The convention then proceeded to
further consideration OF the article re-
ported by the committee on corporations
other than municipal.
A rumber of the delegates debated
section 81, space will not permit me to
report them all and 1 have taken the
speech OF Mr.. Turner which closed the
argument.
Mr.. Turner said that as between a
railroad commission in the constitution
and no railroad commission, he was I'M
equivocally in favor of q commission,
though this present section might re-
quire modification. This was a marking
out and defining of parts of government,
and might just as well be put into the
constitution as section upon the judi
ciary. executive or any other part
Railroad development and the neces-
sity for commissions had arisen since
the constitutions of most of the states
had been framed, and hence they had
necessarily to be created by legislatures.
He did not believe that capital was driven
away by railroad commissions, unless by
the abuse of such powers, and that was
no fault of the system. Railroad abuses
had pressed upon Washington Territory
with strong hand, and he did not wish
to wait until giant monopolies had the
state so by the throat that it was power
less. He preferred to have progress and
justice go hand in hand
He doubted such statements as that
freight could be shipped cheaper from
Indiana than from elsewhere; else why
did merchants buy in Chicago and New
York. Spokane Falls has been ground
down and cursed by a corporate monopo
ly, and has grown in spite of it, and is in
ferment to-day because that monopoly
gives Tacoma and Seattle and Portland
such rates that freight can be sent there
and then re-shipped back to the very
doors of Spokane Falls, and yet her
merchants be undersold.
Yakima in 1884 had 700 souls, and
taxable property of half million. The
gavel fell and he stopped, but was, by
general consent, and numerous calls of
go on" allowed to proceed One of the
delegates offered him his time.
Proceeding, Mr.. Turner said: The
Northern Pacific railroad had then COM
pleted its road to within % miles of
Yakima. 1t had a section of land four
miles further along and refused to stop
its trains ut Yakima, though running
through its corporate limits, and built a
station and a town on that section of
| land. Yakima was ruined, and houses
were actually placed on wheels and
moved along to that other depot. Its
inhabitants sought relief from the
courts. and the courts granted
their request, but the railroad
company appealed to the y. 3. Supreme
court. In its musty archives to-day re-
pose both that appeal and the rights of
the people of Yikima and OF the town OF
cid Yakima there is not now q vistage,
some old novels and huts remaining.
This ,s the most unspeakable outrage
that has disgraeed the annals of the his
tory of Washington Territory, aud did
more than any thing else to wipe out the
immense Republican majority thereto
fore existing 10 the territory and making
that party the minority party Of the state.
This case also shows how inadequate the
courts are to grant relief in snch cases
The trouble is that courts cannot act un