The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, February 4, 1918, Page 6

i [ i { ! against the railroad domination of the state. A State Where a Big Idea Made Good Washington Learns That Farmers and City Working People—the Producers—Can and Will Co-operate to Get Better Government—=Seventh of Leader’s Historical Series : Threshing and sacking wheat in eastern Washington. The farmers of Washington in the past have successfully co-operated with union labor of the cities in electing good men to office and in getting legislation favorable to producers. Read about the tremendous obstacles they have had to fight and how they have not won complete, or anywhere complete, victory yet. BY E. B. FUSSELL N THE state of Washington, clear out in the northwest corner of the country, the politicians have quit saying that farmers and labor men can’t work together in politics. There’s a reason, and a good one. The name of the reason is “the joint legislative committee.” Through this ;-committee the working men and women of country and city have been working together for six years now. Washington is and always has been a progres- sive state. It was one of the People’s party. strong- holds 20 years ago. In 1896, largely 'through the union of the labor men, west of the Cascade moun- £ tains, and the farmers, east of the mountains, the state was swept by the fusion ticket, formed by the alliance of the Populists, the Democrats and Silver Republicang. Fusion came as a protest The ruling politicians made fun of the triple alliance and called the fusion convention at Ellensburg in | 1896 the “three ringed circus.”- They made more fun than ever when Robert Bridges led a little Seattle delegation on foot across the mountains, nearly 200 miles, to attend the con- vention. Bridges tramped there as a protest against riding on railroad passes, the accepted form of transportation for all politicians at that time. But the delegates to the Ellensburg convention didn’t look at it as a joke. They nominated a full ticket, with Bridges for state land commissioner, and elected it. Four years later they re-elected their governor, John R. Rogers. Although the fusion movement died away, it ac- complished what it set out to do, driving the rail- roads largely out of the politics of the state. It developed men who have been prominent in politics since. Besides electing their state ticket ‘the fusionists sent George Turner, a Silver Republican, to the United States senate, and elected “Wheat Chart” Jones and “Jim Ham” Lewis to congress, the last named being still active in politics as TUnited States senator from Illinois. BiG INTERESTS STILL IN THE POLITICAL GAME" Bridges has been a leader always in the fight for public ownership and now is chairman of the Seat- {. tle port commission, which has revolutionized the bhandling of farm products in public elevators and warehouses. Ernest Lister, the present governor . of the state, first came into office during the fusion days. While he has grown more conservative later in life he is the only governor other than Rogers to be re-elected, being chosen in preference to op- ponents with less enviable records. But while the railroads were driven out of politics for the most part, they still maintained an active interest in the Washington supreme court. A few years ago. a lively scandal was caused by the dis-. covery that the chief justice of the supreme court had sent a decision, which the court intended to make in a railroad case, to the chief counsel for the Northern Pacific railroad before issuing it, requesting the railroad lawyer to make any changes he wanted. The flare-up that followed forced the judge to resign. It was a sign that while the Big Interests were still alive, the people resented their corrupt activities. Other business interesis besides the railroads were getting into politics, notably the lumbermen, who had succeeded in grabbing millions of acres of timber that had originally belonged to the gov- ernment, and the fishing interests. But the people of Washington were progressive. They were demanding that the old line politicians who served the railroads, the lumber trust and the fisheries, be driven. into retirement and that the . A scene in the Cascade mountains, western Wash- ington. The western part of the state is devoted to _lumbering, mining-and ocean shipping, as well as some farming on. logged-off lands. Eastern Wash- _ ington is mostly a farming country, - - 5 people be given a larger share in their own gov- ernment. Particularly they demanded the initia- tive and referendum, so that they might make their own laws or kill bad laws passed by the legislature, and the recall of public officials, including judges, when they proved untrue to their trust. This de- mand culminated in 1910, when the so-called pro- gressive Republicans swept the state, giving the standpatters the worst beating they ever had, and electing a legislature pledged to draft and submit to the people constitutional amendments calling for the initiative, referendum and recall. LABOR AND FARMERS LEARN TO CO-OPERATE Most of the legislators were also pledged indi- vidually for other reform measures—a workmen’s compensation act, to protect the thousands of work- men killed or injured each year in accidents in the woods and factories of the state, a grain inspection act desired by the eastern Washington farmers, and other measures. The farmers and workingmen didn’t make the - mistake of allowing the legislators pledged to these measures to go by themselves. The workers came down to Olympia to watch proceedings. At all times there were 20 or more of the representatives of the farmers and labor men at the capitol. They got well acquainted with each other. They found out, what a few of them had begun to realize be- fore, that the interests of workers in country and city are largely the same—that they had a common enemy in the Big Interests and the selfish politi- cians. They found, too, that a good many of the legislators, who had been willing to promise any- thing before election, needed watching afterwards. Among the farmers and workingmen at Olympia were C. B. Kegley, master of the State Grange, Charles R. Case, president of the State Federation of Labor, his sister, Miss Lucy R. Case, L. C. Crow, . bresident of the Farmers’ union,-Almer McCurtain, and Fred Chamberlain, farmers, and Pete Dowler, “Dad” Young and Peter Henretty, labor leaders. This group got into the habit of holding a meeting every night and talking over the program for the next day. All were interested in the initiative, ref- erendum and recall. The ‘labor men were also in- terested in measures of their own like the compen- sation act, and the farmers in their own measures. The farmers found that they could help the labor ' men in measures that they wereg, interested in, by - explaining these measures to members friendly to the farmers, and similarly the labor men helped the farmers. . ; PERMANENT ORGANIZATION OF FARMERS AND UNIONS The net result of this co-operation was that the .- : 1911 session of the Washington legislature put on the stat_u@e books more people’s. legislation. than had- ever ‘been put ‘by any previous Session. ' Be: