The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1909-03-18
THE LATE
LEGISLATURE
Has Taken Supreme Court
Judges From the People
(E. p. AIarsh.)

The llth session of the legislature is
now history and it is well to take a
moments time to review its work from
a laborimg mans view point. The men
and women who work in some form or
other for their daily bread form the
vast majority of our population and GER
tainly had every right to expect some
legislation in their behalf They elect
the legislators, they pay the bills. They
have every right to demand that the
men they appoint as their stewards
should give an account of their steward
ship.
Year after year. certain well defined
measures of remedial legislation have
been asked for by the legislative COM
mittee of the State Federation of Labor,
representing all toilers organized and un.
organized. 1t is true that the union men
have borne the brunt of the fighting
for these laws but it oueh to be very
plain that the unorganizcd would bene
fit more by their passage than the or
ganized. Why! Because the mionists
have the protection which close affilia-
tion and mutual effort gives thcm the
other class every man for himself, is
defcnseless. Four distinct labor meas
ures were asked for at the hands of the
legislature this winter: Employers
Liability, Eight hour law for Female
Workers. Eight hour law for Miners, In
itiative and Referendum. No man, unless
he were an employer bent on making
profits out of the lives of his fellow
creatures, could honestly deny the merit
in these measures. The republican par
ty in convention at Spokane incorporat-
ed three of them in their state platform.
They were good enough measures to
appeal for votes with at least. Yet from
the day the speakers gavel announced
the opening of the session until its
stormy close, these representatives OF
the peopc-Our scrvants-scoffed at,
ridiculed. voted against these laws
which we had dared to ask them for.
is thy servant a dog that he should
do this thing" was their indignant re-
sponse to the appeals of the wage earn
crs. Employers Liability-killed Wo-
mems eight hour law-killed! Initiative
and Refcrcndum-killed! Only one bill
of the four survived and it compro-
mise measure. 1t is to the eternal cred
it of Il few staunch men that they fore
ed the passage of few other measures
through which though not centered upon
as leading issues by our legislative com
mittcc are of import to working peo-
pie. The right of the dependents of a
single man to sue for recovery in case
of death or injury a female deputy
labor commissioner and a few others of
minod character But with these few
exceptions business with big b" was
stamped all over them. Nothing else
Gods before me- thundered business and
our servants heard and needed. A home
for the INDECENT blind? No; they ought
to die anyhow! Give the money to S.
to entertain an Irrigation Congress; !"
land 100000 ought to irrigatc them WELL
too.l Working people! Bah! Wen
tab hai
they will stay sober and work harder
1t would never do to tighten their burd-
ems or shorten their hours. They might
spend their leisure time in study and
learn how we have been fooling them
And we might not come back. Were
they aetuated by such motives; l won.
der, or were they dead to all sense of
what was right and just to the working
people of this state
You have had time to think this over,
Mr.. Legislator, and aren't You just
little bit ashamed OF your record? II
your wife or daughter were compelled to
stand long hours at daily toll, while
muscles achcd and nerves We're shatter-
ed, wouldn't You want her hours short.
cned and the burdens lifted somewhat
from her shoulders? If you were a
factory hand and through no fault of
yours You were mangled and torn,
wouldn't You he glad to know that your
family would not have to suffer want
and privation because we had an EN-
ployers liability law in this state that
amounted to something's Your actions
didn't show that You had much feeling
in the matter
And, you, good working people, until