The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1916-08-11

Tacoma, Wash.-To Organized La
Dor in the State Of Washington, Greet
ing: The executive committee of the
Washington State Federation of Labor
in its meeting July Is spent several
hours discussing the initiative and
referendum campaigns which we have
! conducted, trying to put our finger on
mistakes, if any occurred, and find
where more effectiveness could be
brought about. While the committee
has no power to determine legislative
policy, that power being vested in the
membership expressed in convention.
yet the committee wishes to lay be.
fore the membership facts and deduc-
tions arrived at in its discussion.
In the first place the committee
believes the legislative principle en-
bodied in the initiative and referen-
dunn to be fundamentally sound. The
people ought to have the right to a
direct voice in the passage Of laws
affecting their welfare. Our system
of state legislature gives the peo-
pie that right in theory only. The
people ought to have the right to re-
view the acts of their hired men in
the legislature, and, if they have been
false to their trust, have some method
of setting their action aside. No, we
are decidedly not ready to abandon
the initiative and referendum or see
it's machinery crippled
Nor are we by any means tdesirous
of abandoning our legislative coalition
with the organized farmers They
have kept faith with us and in no
campaign did they sacrifice our meas
ures for their own. You may term
them employers, but they are just
as much victims of legislative Chi
canery, of our whole political indus
| trial and financial system of robbery,
as are the city workers. Nor has any
movement in twenty years got under
the hides of the exploiting classes in
this state as has the trade unionists
sailing under the banner of the joint
legislative committee. Every member
of that committee is as cordially hated
by the powers that prey as were the
snakes of Erin's isle by the good st.
Patrick.
In 1914 We circulated seven initia-
tive bills, known as the Seven Sisters.
The machinery of initiation was un-
tried and We did not realize just how
hard a task we had set ourselves.
We succeeded in getting enough sig
natures to place them upon the bal
lot, but only after the hardest kind
of work and a campaign of misrepre-
sentation and bitter opposition which
aroused the fighting blood in our
people. In that campaign an average
of 1896 signatures were secured on
each bill. The farmers furnished 81
per cent of that number, or an aver
age of POLIO; the union forces fur
nished So per cent, or an average of
1876 signatures.
In 1915 we referred to the people
seven bills passed by the legislature
This campaign was necessarily short,
but it was decisive. public sentiment
being enraged at the reactionary leg
islature. In that campaign the farm
ers furnished AS per cent of the sig
natures and the cities 50 per cent. In
a short campaign of a negative ma
ture, it was to be expected that the
cities would furnish the major por-
ton of the signatures. The bulk of
population centered in the cities and
the machinery could be and was more
quickly set in motion.
This year the joint legislative com
mittee selected four measures and
they were endorsed by the State Fed
Grafton of Labor in annual session at
North Yakima. In this campaign we
found the cards stacked against us.
The universal registration law passed
by the last legislature placed nearly
insurmountable obstacles in rural
precincts. Registration in country
districts was new and unfamiliar
process to rural residents. Every
trick and device was used by our op-
ponents to make rural registration
difficult In the cities intimidation
was practiced in some instances to
scare working people. Outside of
our labor papers we were unable to
get publicity for our bills We fell
on an average about ten thousand
short of enough signatures to place
our bills upon the ballot. The aver
age number of signatures received
was 22,796. OF this number the farm
ers furnished 3S per cent, or $500
names, the cities 50 per cent, or IA