The Tacoma times. [volume] (Tacoma, Wash.) 1903-1949, 1913-04-28
SHE WOULD REFORM THE LEGISLATURES
~ .."o.os!.D AboAisH ~ oMOniH0 ~ ~.
SHE WOULD FINE ABSENT MEMBERS
heLady From
Pierce Wants
Many Reforms
BY FRED l.. BOALT.

from Pierce, and it is not polite ia
dispute the word of a lady. The
Lady from Pierce says the male
Legislators at Olympia are chival'
rOus gentlemen with charming
manners. Being gentleman
yourself, you are willing to take
the Iady's word for it.
Far be It from you to deny the
excellent qualities of the sex that
you adorn! But
/ have just returned from an
interview with DR.. Nena Jolidon
Croake, suffragette. physician and
Lady from Pierce
DIR. Croake, having put herself
on record as saying that the
members of the house at Olympia
are chivalrous and charming gen.
tlemen, touched the flame of heI
scorn to the dry tinder of fact,
and set above the conflagration a
grille for the toasting Of her chiv-
alrous and charming male col
leagues.
Do you hear a sputtering, siz-
zling sound?
1t is Speaker Howard Taylor
frying.
"Taylor," said the Lady from
Pierce, "is a young man with old
fashioned ideas. l like him, but ]
do not like his methods. IL seems
never to have been borne in upon
him that he is servant of the
people and paid by them faithfully
to perform certain duties. Rath-
er, it seems to he his idea that he
is playing fascinating game al
which he is an expert.
"When we approached him and
the powerful group which he DOM
mates with bills which we want
ed introduced, they did not ask /:
Are those goods bills? Are they
the sort of bills that ought to be
enacted into laws?' but rather, If
we let your bills come before the
house, what will you do for us?
If we scratch your backs, will you
scratch ours The legislator of
the Taylor type is a trader"
I asked the Lady from Pierce
what reform was, in her opinion,
most needed at Olympia
"The abolition of the rules COM
mittee," she replied. "Under the
present archaic system we are
representatives who do not repre-
sent. Our hands are effectively
tied.
"The rules committee consists
of the speaker, and Simms, Con-
ner, Farnsworth, Halsey, Stevens,
Adams Goss, Stevenson Sumner
and Mccoy. Unless you stand in
with these men, and can be use
full to them, you cannot get your
bills introduced. AS soon as pos
sible,' they say. They are very
polite about it, but-your bills
never get beyond the rules COM
mittee.
"The committee room is back
of the speakers chair. 1t is COM
monty referred to as the garage, ;
because it is there that the ma
chine is kept.
'The house as whole should
be a rules committee.
"Any other reforms?"
Eyes. There should be fines for
members absent from their seats.
We might have a clock at which
members could ring in and out as
in a factory. Mrs. Frances Axtell
of Bellingham, the only other
woman member, and l did not
miss a single roll call. We were
in our places when the sessions
began and did not leave them un-
til adjournment.
81 cannot say as much for the
men. One man, whom / will not
name, was not in his seat a quar-
ter of the time. I wonder If Ii
ever occurs to these men, who
draw pay for work they do not
do, that it is not honest? Won
der II they would permit such
laxity in their own employes?"
what else?"
81 would forbid smoking" said
the Lady from Pierce. I'm form
er sessions 1t was the custom
daily for some member to move
that rule 46 be suspended and
out would come the pipes, cigars
and cigarettes.
"On the very first day of the
last session, a thoughtless men,
Der moved the suspension of the
smoking rule, and, to his sur
prize, 1t was overwhelmingly voted
down. Now you understand why
l say that both Mrs. Axtell and
found the men chivairous and
Kind.
mot once during the session