Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1916-04-28

That the so-called arguments"
contained in the initiative bills pro-
posed by the Joint Legislative COM
mittee are not only not 'subter-
fuges," but wholly right, proper, legal
and customary forms, that have been
used both by the people and by the
legislature, in drafting the legisla-
ton of this state and have acted as
an essential guide to the courts of
the state in determining the intent
and purpose of such legislation, is
the argument of H. l.. Hughes, legis-
lative agent of the Washington State
Federation of Labor, in reply to the
following editorial appearing in the
Washington Standard (Olympia)
March 81:
1.-THE Initiative Decision.
''The merits of the suit brought
against the initiative measures for a
first aid bill and new fish code, that
is, whether the titles of these bills
are faulty, as alleged, or whether
they do contain arguments as sub
fee the initiative law requires, We're
not passed upon in the decision Su-
perior Judge Wright handed down
the other day-he simply ruled that
the questions raised were political
and that therefore the court had no
jurisdiction. So it seems to us rath-
err empty victory for the proponents
of the measures.
eff the titles of the bills are faulty,
they should be amended now so that
if adopted, the law enacted by the
people at considerable expense would
not encounter the risk of later being
thrown out for a reason such as that;
if arguments have wrOngfully been
incorporated in their preambles in
violation of the very law which the
proponents of these measures helped
to enact, that fact should also be de-
termined and the law properly drawn
before it is enacted. 1t is not suffl-
cient in itself to say there is no basis
at all for such charges against the
measures-it is perhaps more apt to
be true, than untrue, that the charges
were merely trumped up--but the
point is this: they have been made
and they have not been refuted. The
recent decision is based on as clear a
technicality as could be offered in
criticism of court decisions, though
it is undoubtedly right and proper.
I'm other words, we dislike to see
those who have been the chiefest
critics of technical court decisions,
rest content with this one; We dislike
to see those who have SO loudly
preached legislative righteousness,
resort to technicality to clear their
skirts of the charge that they have
i violated their own preachments, even
though the charge be absolutely base
less. We hope they will not rest con-
tent with that-we hope they will
pursue a vigorous course to demon
strate the charge unfounded. That
is the only course that will place
them right before the public"
Opponents Charge q Subterfuge.
| To begin with, the men who
brought the court action against the
first aid bill and the fish code were
not honest in their claims that the
bills were illegally drawn or that the
arguments" they were alleged to
contain were ''subterfuges to avoid
payment of the Fee claimed by the
secretary of state for printing the
arguments. The charge made was
used rather as subterfuge for bring
| ing this action purely for purposes
/ of delay, they hoping thereby to con-
sumo SO much time that the propo-
nents of the measure would be un-
able to secure the required number
of signatures to put the bills on the
ballot.
Bills Are Carefully Drawn.
The bills have been carefully
drawn by some of the ablest lawyers
in the state, who have spent months
of careful study in their preparation
"a care that is not given by the leg
islature of the state, which grinds
out goodly portion of it's grist of
laws under the strain, passion, tur-
Hull duu uou Vi TIC CAOoiA6 Ooyo VI
its session. Everything possible has
been done, every care taken, every
point closely scrutinized to make
these initiative bills conform to the
constitution and to the initiative law
under which they are to be submit
ted, and their proponents have abso-
Lutte confidence that they are correct
ly drawn Opponents of direct legis-
lation make a stock argument of this
CLOSELY drawn" stuff-but the fact
remains that all of the peoples leg
islation so far enacted in this state
has stood every test of the courts
That is at least a better record than
the legislature has ever made.
If Judge Wright's decision is pure
ly technical, it is no fault of the
proponents of these measures-they
did not write his decision. Nor is
anybody hiding behind his technical
decision; nor how can 1t be said that
the proponents of the bills "resort tQ