The Kennewick courier-reporter. [volume] (Kennewick, Wash.) 1939-1949, 1945-02-15
Legislature Still
Slow with
Vital Bills
Make $50 minimum on
pension bill; change
lection law

lection law
Olympia, Feb. II: The picture
as the state legislature moved
toward the two-third mark OF
its 60-day session here this week
was one confounding some early
session prognosticatorS who said
the only likelihood for a coaii-
ton to block extreme left-wj1g
legislation lay in the senate.
These prognosticators noted
powerful Democrat majorities in
both houses, counted noses and
promptly announced that there
were 10 so-called conservative
Democrats who would vote with
the Republicans in the senate. The
99-member house was just too
big, they said, to count on.
= When the legislative show re-
sumed Monday, however, these
were the facts: the House, its COM
mittees working diligently and
with cooperation between the
major parties, had acted on IS of
the more than 500 bills and reso-
lutions offered in both houses
The Senate. still engaged in much
acrimonious debate, had disposed
of only Is measures, only one of
which could be called important.
Typical of the House was its
action Friday when, without a
dissenting vote, it approved a
$50 old-age pension measure. Rep.
William Pennock, Seattle Demo-
crat, praised Gov. Mon c.. Wall
grenn for advocating a bill which
gave the senior citizens $50
monthly floor, and which en-.
abled the state to pay more than
$50 in needful cases.
Rep. Henry w. Cramer, Re-
publican floor leader from Seattle,
was on his feet in a minute,
thanking Pennock for "lucid'
description of the measure. Cram
er pointed out that for 35 years
the House had been approving
legislation of benefit to all the
people, citing the first workmen'S
compensation act in 1911. Max
ing no reference to Gov. Wall
gren (nor to former Gov. Arthur
B. Langlie, Republican, who
also advocated $50 pension,
Cramer merely said that no party
could claim a monopoly on meas
ures of benefit to the people. He
urged Republicans to support the
bill. They did, to a man.
The Senate's lone important
accomplishment was typical of its
disunity. It approved the mildest
of series of drastic election law
changes offered by Sen. Howard
Bargreen, Everett Democrat. The
measure said that, henceforth,
election registration shall be. void
ed only if the voter has failed to
vote every four years.
Bargreen pointed to the 100000
voters who were disqualified for
failure to vote in the 1912 toff-
year" elections and said the presi-
Dental elections were the vital
ones. Conservative said it was
essential that voters be required to
60 to the polls at least every two
years in order to make them keep
an interest in local governments.
Charges were made and denied
that back of this move was a
Democrat attempt to preserve for
1913 the huge Democrat registra-
ton which retained the New Deal
last November. Four Democrats
Don Miller, Wenatchee; Kelvin
Henehan, Seattle; w. r. Cradorff,
Tacoma, and Kieron Reardon,
Monroe voted with the Repub-
licans and lost, 18 to %. It was
far from a coalition.
Again on Friday, the Senate,
after more bitter debate, voted
down every one of the regency
appointments made by Langlie be-
fore he left office. Republicans
said that among these were many
Junior college regents who had
held office prior to Langlie's re-
gime and who were serving in a
virtually "non-portisan" mariner
to build up their institutions.
Democrats said Gov. Wallgrcen
should be given a "clear deck" to
make his own appointments. e.
Other action last week: IS
The House twice took an inter-
est in improving fross-state travel
by approving a 100000 appro-
priation for surveying a Cascade
route linking Skagit & Okanogan
counties and an equal sum for
surveying proposed 29-mile low
level tunnel under the Cascades;
killed an antinepotism bill apply
ing to the state and its political
subdivisions; gave public en-
ployes vacations with pay, allow
ing a permissive accumulation in
two years for a 24-day holiday;
approved a $250,000 statewide
fight against insect pests and plant
diseases; moved to eradicate sal
woodworking seals and other
predatory animals; approved
standard sack sizes for flours and
cereals; opened the volunteer fire
mems relief fund to rural fire
protection districts. 81
Other Senate accomplishment
increased the pay of superior
court bailiffs; put a penalty on
lawyers who "forget" to file final
divorce DEGREES; and passed me.
mortal to Congress for railroad