The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1921-03-04
CITIES
TO SELL POWER
TO OUTSIDERS

1t is real pleasure to record
something good done by the present
reactionary Legislature. The Jour
nal reprints the following telegram
to the Union Record from Frank
Walklin, the Records special cor
respondent:
"OLYMPIA, March after hav-
ing been lost, the electric energy
bill, House Bill 113, yesterday passed
the lower house by vote of "a
to AZ and will go to the Senate for
final disposition.
"This measure has been one of
the most important yet to come
before the lawmakers and would
have had no chance of passing had
it not been that the leader of the
reactionary forces in the House,
Mark E. Reed, of Mason County.
would benefit personally through
the measure. He carried with him
enough votes to put the measure
over despite the opposition of the
majority of the machine members,
"The test was a fight between the
personal desires of one man backed
by the liberal element of the House,
fighting for a principle, and the
react;onaries who oppose anything
that tends to put a larger power
in the hands of the public
THE bill will give to cities the
right to sell electric energy to
towns and individuals or corpora
tions within one mile of their lines
| and permits the sale at a greater
distance where the purchaser builds
the connecting lines.
THE measure was one whose
death would have been the greatest
possible stumbling block to the de-
velopment of the Skagit project of
the city of Seattle, for it would
have precluded the possibility of the
city supplying the towns between
the two points, and thereby would
have cut off large source of revenue
which should insure the uplleep of
the development project.
Every effort was made by those
opposed to municipal ownership to
block the bill and, according to
members of the House, the fact
that Reed wished to get current
from Tacoma for his own plants,
brought to the measure the needed
support.
Robert Grass of King County.
who has won the reputation of
talking the most and saying the
least of any man in the House, ar
gucd that this bill would permit
cities to undersell private interests
and that as a result it must be bad.
At the same time he said munich
pally operated concerns were from
25 to 80 per cent more expensive
to run, These two statements of
Grass are fair examples of his line
of reasoning.
In concluding he injected his po-
lit!cal opinions of the coming city
election by saying the Cedar River
dam, built by R. H. Thomson, was
municipal failure because it was
sponsored by George F. Cotterill.'
Ryan of Clarke, in opposing the
bill, said this would give future
cities the right to erect plants to
enter the commercial field and tried
to kill the bill by finally exploding;
where will this all end?"
The bill was favored by Beeler.
Teter. Slayden, Houser, Mckinney
and Gleason.
THE final vote was: For the bill
Adams, Allen, Aspinwall, Atkin-
son, Banker, Barber. Beeler, Beh-
rens, Brown, Colwell, Cory, David,
Erickson, Fulton, Gillette, Gleason,
Hastings Houser, Hubbard, Hub
bell, Kennedy, Kirkman, Lewis, Lu-
cas-, McGlinn, Mckinney, Meacham,
Meserve, Miller, j. A. Mires, Moul-
ton, Nash, O'Brien, Olson, Pearson,
Rawson, Reed, Remain, Reynolds,
Ryan, j. H. Satterlee, Sawyer,
Shattuck, Slayden, Spencer, Steig-
Its, Teter, Triple, Whitcomb.
Whitfield, Wolf, Zylstra.
Against the bill: Anderson, Ar
land, Baldwin, Bassett, Bruhl, Dan
skin, Davis, Dollar, Fulton, H. c.;
Glasgow, Grass, Harrison, Hopp,
Hufford, Hughes, Jones, J. r.;
Jones, R. H.; Kelly, Kenoyer, Knapp,
Kresky, Long, Lunn, Mann, Ma
nogue, Mansfield, Mclean, Mess,
Miller, L. L.; Moore, Morris, Muir
phine, Raftis, Richardson, Ryan, c.
W; Sanger, Stratton, Thomas,
True, Turnkey, Winfree, Guie,
with the exception of j. H.
Ryan and Lewis, none Of the men
voting for the bill did it from the
STANDPOINT of favoring municipal
ownership, but purely as a matter
of political eXpediency and to curry
favor with their own constituency
Even al. l.. Miller, who declares he
represents organized labor of Spo-
kane voted against the bill, as did
Murphine and Guie, who at times
seek to give the impression they are
somewhat progressive.
"The vote is of particular interest
to Seattle, as it shows how the
representatives from King County
| stand ON the Skapit nrniact