Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1916-06-09

hundreds of thousands oC dollars to
the most heartless, soulless corpora
ton in this United States, for which
they are receiving less than nothing,
and ] have reference here to the
school book trust.
Experience Of Other States.
'In California, Kansas, Minnesota,
and other states where they have
state publication of text books, the
students are furnished books at less
than one-third what We have been
paying here in the state of Washing
ton. Take for instance, a geography
which costs 80 cents in California, we
are paying for no better book, 1920
to $1.4O. A primary book on santa
ton, sold to our students of Washing
ton for IS cents, Minnesota furnishes
to her pupils for 16 cents. But why
continue these illustrations? Our
recommendation is, and We hope the
committee on education will make a
strong report favorable to state pub
LEGATION of text books and their sale,
direct to the pupils. at cost.
"In making this recommendation
we are not doing so without full
knowledge that we are entering into
what might be termed forbidden
grounds and that the school book
trust will fight every inch Of the way.
but we are aware, also, that nothing
worth having is gotten without a
hard fight"
Reform in the system of public
government to eliminate lneficiency
and waste is necessary before taxes
can be reduced, Mr.. Kegley said.
citing the legislature Of 1915 as an
especially striking illustration (Which
l approach as one would eggs Of the
vintage of 1900" Continuing, he
said:
"Some of these legislators are high
class men-most of them are honest.
It Is not the men we wish to criticize,
it is the system. Here we have a
large body thinking, or trying to
make themselves think, they are leg
islators, when not half Of them could
tell you now how they voted on half
the measures that passed the house
and senate, when not one in ten read
one bill in ten, only as it was read by
the reading clerk-and you must sit
by and listen to the so-called reading
of some of these bills to realize what
that means.
A Legislative Commission.
"a small body of good, honest. able
men and women. paid according to
their worth-say a committee of Is
paid each $4,000 per year-would
not cost the state half what session
of ordinary legislature costs for so
days time-and this committee, or
commission, would give all their time,
or such time as would be required, to
working out the legal phases of legis-
lative questions, and to drafting such
legislation as would meet public de-
mands-not, as now, spending 80 days
of the 60 days session, building pork
barrels on which to trade through
pet measures, or special legislation
in the interest of those controlling
the session. But, some one says, that
is contrary to our idea of a demo-
cratic form of government. Not so,
it is simply businesslike application
of our politics. And why not? Con-
centration of power. What OF the
last two sessions when three men.
yes, practically one man. dictated all
the legislation, in one branch OF the
legislature, having his parrot and
man Friday to do his talking? Con-
centration of power? No one ia
miliar with conditions at Olympia
will deny that three special interests
in past years have dominated legisla-
tion-whiskey. fish and sawdust.
Whiskey is eliminated--at least we
shall hope it is-but 1t will be little
trouble to revive the old railroad
gang that used to play the game
with a rush in years gone BY"
Farmer and Merchant Marine.
In his discussion. later on in his
address, OF a government-owned mer-
chant marine, Mr.. Kegley said.
ITO the farmer who is thousands
of miles from his markets, the matter
of a square deal in transportation is
a matter almost of life and death. A
fair deal in transportation, other
things being equal. means prosper
ity, and a crooked deal means the
robbery of profits to the point Of
making farming mere slavery. Our
greatest danger from transportation
today is on the ocean,
and the greatest need we have today