Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1898-10-17
Mr.. PAYNE'S PLIGHT.
Would.be Senator INDUCES in a
long-winded Effort to Ex-
plain Himself.
SUPPORT OF GARNIsHMENT LAW

Claims He Thought He Was Voting for
the Interests of Labor and That the Glass
Legislation Rushed Through at the
Last Moment Was Designed for the Ben
eft of the Wage Farmers.
Hon. William Payne, republican
candidate for the state senate, has
made answer, or rather has attempted
to make answer, to the questions
propounded by the Tri-City Labor
Congress through it's legislative COM
mittee Three of the four questions
presented, those in favor of the repeal
of the Allen law, the employers liza
bilitv bill and the enactment of a law
prohibiting the hiring of convict la
Dor by contract. he answers in the
affirmative, but to the query as to the
repeal of the Case garnishee law he
replies with an argument In this
he sets forth what were to him the
disadvantages of the old $50 eXemp-
ton law, maintaining that under its
operation the debtor was subject to
persecution resulting often in the loss
of position, and then refers to the bill
prepared by the Retail Grocers' and
Merchants association. and intro
duced in the last legislature, exempt
ing 75 per cent of wages from garn-
ishment. This, too, was oblectiona bic,
as bearing down too heavily on the
wage earners Just as the old law did,
PAYNE contends, as it opened the way
to persecution, and so as the final
panacea for the ills of the debtor class
came the Case garnishee law, against
which laboringmen all over the state
are now arrayed. Payne does not
attempt to explain any of the cir
cumstances of the substitution of this
measure for the Retail Grocers' and
Merchants association bill in the
closing hours of the session, and of
its being rushed through, as all class
legislation is, when the lawmakers
are tired and anxious to get home.
PAYNE does not attempt to explain his
vote-but like Adam of old, places the
responsibility on another. To Hon.
John Mclaughlin, of La Sale county,
PAYNE laws the blame for his vote. In
other words, Mclaughlin is made the
scape goat for the Rock Island county
statesman's blunder. Payne says he
recognized Mclaughlin as a repre-
sentative of labor. and he went to him,
and he said the IS garnishment law
express was all right. So Payne
caught on to the lightning express
and went through with it. The entire
performance was so quickly executed
that Payne did not get moment to
think of home, and it proved to be a
time, it seems, where instead of
catching train for Yuma to consult
his constituents he got aboard another
train with a fellow member, and per-
mitted him to dictate the way he
should travel. After making these
admissions, Payne gives expression to
a sentiment in favor of repeal
ing the obnoxious law, and adj
vances the argument that as it is
the rule of legislative committees
to sit with open doors all classes will
have ample opportunity to present
arguments in favor of their interests
"a proceeding that seems strangely
to have been denied in the case of the
through Case garnish-
ment enactment If it can be found
that no law can be agreed upon"
Payne vouches the highly intelligent
assurance, Il shall, as l have
done in the past, give labor the bene-
tit of my vote"
Sees Benefits Nevertheless.
The ambitious statesman follows up
this convincing declaration with an
argument to the effect that 1.-The bill
as it now stands is greatly beneficial
to the low wage Garner - and furth-
er indulgence in discussion of laws
that might have been or may be, but
the categorical answer to the direct
question is conspicuous in its absence
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