The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1921-07-22
REPORT OF LABOR'S LEGISLATIVE
AGENTS T0S. T. OF L. CONVENTION
Continued From Page II

ers were heard, all of them against
it, Not a single person spoke in
defense of it. Your president spoke
against it for an hour the first eve
ming and Brother Fred B. Norman
presented his arguments against it
on the second evening. We present.
ed all the reasons why labor was
against the code and no attempt
was made then or afterwards to
refute our arguments. The senate
considered the bill on January 81.
Every effort to amend the code was
voted down by the senate machine,
led by Senator Taylor. Senator
! Johnson offered an amendment to
strike out the emergency clause so
the people could have chance to
! vote on it, but he was not even al
! lowed to speak on his motion. The
! senate passed the code January 81
I by a vote of 81 for and 8 against.
I Senators voting against were Ryan
! of Pierce, O'Harra and Landon of
King. Thus, in the short period of
/ II days, this secret plan was put
over on the people of the state by
i a subservient legislature. A strong
effort has been made through the
press and otherwise to create the
impression that this code is SINH
lar to the "Lowden plan" 1t is
| its very opposite in most essentials
and particularly the industrial sec
ton. The "Lowden plan" provides
| for an industrial commission SINH
lar to the provisions of our bill.
Just as soon as the code passed
the senate steps were taken by
your representatives to attack the
constitutionality of the emergency
clause in the supreme court. If
this clause could have been stricken
it would have been an easy matter
referendum. A suit was filed in
. the supreme court by w. M. Short
and Fred B. Norman, for the State
Federation of Labor, to force the
secretary of state to accept a ref
erendum petition. The labor case
was handled by Attorneys Preston
! M. Troy of Olympia and George H.
Rummens of Seattle. The case was
heard February 25. Attorneys Troy
and Rummens presented a mastery
and unanswerable argument against
the emergency clause. The case
was heard by only eight supreme
court judges, as Judge Mount was
seriously ill at his home and unable
! to be present and hear the case.
The court handed down an order
March l sustaining the emergency
clause and denying the referendum.
They did not, however, file any
conclusions of law, but merely de-
MED the petition of labor without
giving any legal reasons. The order
was signed by Judges Parker, Full
lerton, Macintosh, Bridges and
Mitchell and Tolman upheld the con-
tention of labor. Thus the decid-
ing vote was cast by Judge Mount,
who did not even hear the case and
who was, therefore, not qualified to
pass proper judgment on it. 1t
has been reported that the order
was taken to Judge Mounts home
and that he was rolled over in bed
and asked to sign the decision
against labor, which he did, al
though he had never heard the case,
as presented in court. This is con.
/ trary to every ethic of the bench
and really one of the most danger"
Gus blows yet delivered against the
supposed sancity of the courts, but
neither ethics nor constitution seem
to count with many of those in
control at Olympia.
J Labor had previously presented its
bill for consolidation of the labor
departments of the state. This was
! introduced in the house and provided
! for a joint administration of the
departments by both employers and
labor, who jointly contribute the
funds for administering these de-
give any consideration to our bill
and it was killed as soon as it came
before the house.
Next in Importance to labor was
House Bill 179, which was the Fed
Grafton bill providing for increased
compensation to injured workmen
and to widows and dependents of
, workmen killed in industry. The
bill provided for a flat increase of
so per cent in awards and increased
the age limit of dependents from
| Is to 18 years. The bill was in
PRODUCED by Representative Adam
I DtGl6I VI otdIIlt WcIlO W Vic
industrial insurance committee, of
which Mark Reed was chairman.
A public hearing was held at which
your president and Fred B. Norman
spoke in favor of the bill. Facts
and figures were presented prov
! ing that 40 other states in the Unit
ed States had far better workmen's
compensation laws and that to bring
! Washington up to the level of these
states an increase of 1874 per cent
in awards would be necessary.
After labor's speakers had con-
cluded-they were allowed only 10
minutes each - eleven lumbermen
spoke against the bill and attempt
ed to quote some figures relating
| to the Washington law, which were
instantly repudiated by members of
1 the Washington Industrial Insurance
I Commission who were present. The
/ lumbermen were not able to refute
J the fact that Washington had one
of the poorest compensation laws in
/ the U. S., but all told hard luck
story and tried to leave the i'm
preston that they were all just
staggering towards the poor house.
The industrial insurance commit
tee returned two reports on the bill.
The majority report to kill the bill
was signed by Representatives
Reed Hufford, Turnkey, Allen,
Hastings, Erickson, c. w. Ryan,
Gillett, Sawyer, Banker, Whitcomb,
David, Dollar, Thomas and Moore.
The minority report that it pass
was signed by L. L. Miller. The
bill came up in the house, and a
motion to kill it was made by Rep