The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1920-04-02
COMMITTEE OF "48"
FORMED IN SEATTLE

On Saturday afternoon, March
27, $50 well-known Seattle mer
land women met in Carpenters
/ Hall. Seattle, and organized the
King County branch of the "Na-
tional Committee of Forty-eight.'
This organization is the result OF
a meeting of prominent political
Ireformers in st. Louis last year, in
which every State in the Union was
represented; hence the name, ma
Itional Committee of Forty-eight."
That meeting discussed a union
of all reform forces and unani-
mously agreed upon a tentative
program or platform of which the
three following planks were
adopted:
Public ownership of transporta-
| ton. including stock yards, large alb
| batoirs. grain elevators. terminal
| Public ownership of other public
utilities and of the principal natural
resources, such as coal, oil, natural
gas. mineral deposits large water
! powers and large commercial timber
tracts.
NO land (mcluding natural re-
| sourCes) and no patents be held out
of use for speculation or to aid
monopoly. We favor taxes to force
idle land into use
Equal economic, political and le-
gal rights for all, irrespective of sex
or color. The immediate and abso-
| lutte restoration of free speech, free
press. peaCeable assembly, and all
civil rights guaranteed by the Con-
stitution. We demand the aboli-
ton of injunctions in labor cases.
We indorse the effort of labor to
share in the management of indus
try and labor's right to organize and
bargain collectively through repre-
sentatives of its own choosing"
The aims of the National Com
mittee of Forty-eight" are set
forth in the following paragraphs:
THE above program is tentative.
The delegates to the Conference of
the Committee of Forty-eight found
they could unanimously agree upon
this program. But they also agreed
to submit this program to the
American people for discussion in
the hope that popular discussion
may create a demand for a politi-
cal convention attended by repre-
delegates. Such con-
vention would be free to change or
modify our program according to
the will of the delegates.
The present purpose of our
work is to provide a channel
through which the people may dis
cuss this tentative program in its
relation to the facts of our national
life.
In affiliating yourself with the
Committee of Forty-eight, you be-
come one of large group of people
who are organizing the popular dis
cussion of issues in which the peo-
pie are interested enough to take
the initiative in their solution"
The declared intention of the
King County branch is TO unite all
forces opposed to big business" in
all that those two words mean, DO
litically and industrially-to de-
stroy the power for evil of big
business and institute a real rule
of the people on democratic lines,
by and with the consent Of the
Government. such as contemplated
in the Constitution of the United
States and the Declaration of hide
pendence.
In giving an account of the St.
Louis conference, c. J. Chamberlain
said; What we need is a second
political party. Talk about a third
party candidate! United States
Senators, Republican and Democrat
ic, look alike, talk alike and vote
alike. What we need is a second
political party; we only have one
now"