The Gem worker and the Idaho labor herald. (Boise, Idaho) 1914-1917, 1915-04-08
Smooth Game Of Corporation
Tools Exposed and Battle
Now in the Open
Friends of Labor to Meet the Champions
of Corporate Greed at the Polls
Two Years Hence

of corporations. and is not the bread
wanted but is the stone prepared by
craft and cunning.
1t was an old game that Conner and
The Statesman worked in the interest
of the corporations. Conner drafted
the bill as the corporations wanted it
and The Statesman proclaimed it the
real Compensation Act desired by la
Dor. In years gone by this was suf-
5cient; the first round in this manner
would go to the corporations and the
law once upon the statute books
would take decades to amend or annul.
But this time these gentry counted
without thei host. They did not re-
alize that in the last quarter OF CEN
tury the workers had learned much
by bitter experience and they little
knew the sterling worth of the man
whom the people of Idaho had placed
in the Governors chair. They thought
that Governor Alexander was a poll
tician of the usual kidney and that
when the corporations jol1ied him a
little, cajoled and threatened, if nee
essary, that he would sign the bill
They did not think that organized la
Dor had sense enough to see through
the measure and they did not think
that Governor Alexander would listen
to the mob" when the corporate
interests Of the State sought his ear.
Thank God. there was a man in the
Governors office when the last STEP
in this infamy was to be consummated.
A man who listened to the voice of
labor; a man who saw the "nigger in
the woodpile;" a man who refused to
be intimidated by threats or bribed by
promises; man who defied corporate
greed and who took up the gauntlet
thrown down by the tools of special
interests. By the action of Governor
Alexander in vetoing this infamous
measure. the Corners and the States
man and all the small fry corporation
organs have been driven into the open
and the battle is on for a just Com
pensation Act and organized labor is
ready and anxious for the conflict.
There will be something doing in
Idaho when the next general election
is oni
Governor Alexander was besieged
with letters, kilograms and personal
representatives of the big interests to
sign the measure, and some recogniz-
ed friends of labor also urged this ac-
tion upon the ground that it would be
an entering wedge and that the Act
could be amended at the next session.
But this latter plea is also always
urged by the hypocrites Of the Conner
Statesman type, who realize that il
would be harder to amend an Act than
to get a good one enacted if there
were none on the statute books; and
the action of Governor Alexander in
vetoing the measure makes the Work
man compensation issue a leading
one in the next campaign, with the
friends of fair play on one side and
the corporation tools and hire
lings upon the other.
The labor unions of all sections Of
the State are endorsing the action of
the Governor and at the meeting of
the Boise Typographical Union. No.
z7l, held on April 4th resolutions were
adopted, which state the contention
OF the laborers in such strong and
vigorous language as to be worthy Of
general circulation and we present Il
herewith, in full:
Whereas, Governor Alexander has
seen fit to vetoe House Bill No. ISL
by Conner. known as the Workman's
Compensation Act passed BY the
Thirteenth Idaho Legislature, and
Whereas, the said bill as passed bv
the Legislature failed in every ma
terial feature to meet the approval of
this body; that it failed to provide
adequate compensation in case Of the