The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1898-11-08


The fusion party TWO years ago pretend
ed 10 have sprung from the people. and il
cried aloud for reform in legislative mat
terS''
The fusion fesislssura-!n fun control
az both houses-lefs Olympia after sixty
days session. with a record for yenality
unequaled by any Legislature in the state.
Instead Of laws. il was gold. gold. gold;
instead of reform Ii was Doodle. doodle.
Doodle No pubic speaker during the pres
ent campaign anywhere has had the cour-
age 10 face AT audience and defend the
acts Of that venai body OF pretended law
makers. but IN reality lawhreakers.
Fifty bills were put into the legislative
hopper against railroad corporations be-
fore the agents of those corporations were
forced 70 appear and protec; their interests
BY placing the cold gold in the itching
palms OF those reformers What was the
result? Out of those fifty bills only one
ever became a law.
What law was that?' a voter may ask.
1t was the freight rate bill. The reform
ers had pledged thefegsslature 10 pass laws
reducing freigh; rates 10 s2.75 per ton en-
grain from Eastern Washington. The rail-
roads agreed To allow "a bill 20 pass to
appease the wrath Of the farmers al rate
of sI25. Thus the difference between the
promise and the price in the law was 30
cents a ton Fifty cents ton taken from
the farmer and given 10 the railroad cor
porations Our grain shipments are easily
2.eo,ooo bushels. or 6a0e0 tons. In
dollars thar one act alone cost the farm
ers and gave 20 the railroad corporations
SD. 900 year. $61s.eo1 in the TWO years
between the legislative sessions Of 1897
and 1893. The grain rate in 1891 was 81
from Sprague, but il was reduced by Re-
publican legislatures.
But what OF the forty-nine other rail-
read bills ?" you ask
Not one passed-not one. =. Among the
bills smothered and killed were: A s.
cent per mile passenger rate pledged in
the fusion platform of 1896. the reduction
Of rates by express. telephone. telegraph
and sleeping car companies. pledged in
the fusion platform of lSs: bill prohibit
ing the use of free pass By any public
Official, pledged in the fusion platform:
school books 20 be furnished TO pupils
free by the state. pledged in the fusion
platform; a law furnishing a general sys-
ten of non-interest bearing warrants, re-
ceivasle for taxes throughout the state.
pledged in the fusion platform Of 1896; the
Torrens system of registering land titles.
pledged in the fusion platform of 1896:
fair division Of the state into COMPRESSION
al districts, pledged in the fusion platform
of 1886; the unconditional repeal of our
present election laws. which it was claim
ed were in the interest of political rings
pledged In the fusion platform Of 1896; and
a score OF bills in the interest OF the tax
payer.
Not one Of the above bills was enacted
into law: not one of these pledges was
kept. And yet, without explanation. with
out Furnishing the guilty, or even con-
demning the wrongdoing. the fusion party
goes ahead, makes more pledges in the
hope OF securing the deluded citizens
votes again. and once more i, attempts to
have a fusion legislature elected.
The people OF Washington have had
enough OF fusion legislatures.