The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, June 2, 1919, Page 9

ThéLégislatiVe Session in C\olorado@ Leaguers Fight Kills Measures to Perpetuate State Constabulary and Repeal Primary Law—Heavy Bond Issues The writer of this digest of the work of the Colorado legislature, which recently ended its session, is the editor of the Colorado. Leader, a newspaper man thh many vears “of experience in Colorado politics. BY VANCE MONROE 7 |HE record of the twenty-second | Colorado legislature is true to past form. The verdict of the people is, “Impotent as usual and rotten as possible.” Early in the ‘session it became evident that no laws of consequence to the people would be passed. There was the usual machine arrangement of committees under the general man- agement of corporatlon lobbyists: The regular henchmen were placed in control of the different avenues of expression and action. There was not a chance for the honest legislator to get his bills or even his opinions before the house or the senate. This was more true of the house than the senate, for in the latter body the Nonpartisan league had two splendid men who kept the old gang busy de— vising ways and means to throttle them. After the legislature had been in session for a time there came to be danger that besides failing to give the people relief by enacting any progres- sive measures, the legislators would go to the other extreme and pass laws taking from the people what liberties they had already gained. One of ‘the dangerous bills pressed for passage by the reaction- aries was a measure to make permanent a state constabulary that was created for war purposes only. LEAGUE SENATORS HELP: TO DEFEAT CONSTABULARY Colorado labor and the farmers were opposed to the constabulary. They so expressed themselves before and after the election. Still-many repre- sentatives and senators, in fact the large majority of the former, went on record for the constabulary and voted to maintain the infamous organization which _has almost disrupted the civil life of Colo- rado. The bill to maintain the constabulary passed the house in the face of state-wide opposition by the average man and woman. Later the bill was killed in the senate, largely through the efforts of the League senators, who fought long and well to | | IS SAUCE FOR THE GANDER 2 Yo BE FREE TRUST TO RK THE. GENEROS\TY® carry out the real wmhes of the people they repre- sented. The most sinister feature of thé recent session was the attempt on the part of big business to kill the -Colorado pnmary law that the old gang poli- ticians might again be able to dominate the pohtlcal situation throughout the state. This was the prime effort of the legislative old liners. All their force, practically, was expended on trying to kill one of the few real privileges left to the voters of the state. They were successful in the house, as the bill went through in a hurry. After it reached the senate, however, there was another situation to face. Immediately upon the arrival of the League senators at the capitol they had been a source of wonder and of intense study by the rest of the senators. The average legisla- tor knows very little about economics, and prac- tically nothing about the merits of the.farmers’ political program. Still they knew that the Leag-ue men simply were the vanguard of the economic forces which are to appear in the coming years and they were both interested and afraid. They seemed to be able to decipher the handwriting on the wall without the aid of an interpreter. When the primary bill arrived at the senate all eyes were turned towards the League senators, They immediately attacked -the position of the representatives who had sup- ported the bill and urged the senate to kill the attempt of reactionaries to destroy one of the elements of political democracy. Most of the senators were inclined to follow the ex- ample of the house and do away with the primary. Pleas from the big interests all over the state urged this action., The bill, however, was killed in the senate through the fight made upon it by the Leaguers. The defeated bill was the product of the ma- chine politicians of the ‘state, who hoped it would serve to halt the progress of the farmers’ political organization and again throw the absolute power to manipulate into the hands of the besses of the old regime. The-farmers of Colorado have been watching the & situation ‘and are tremendously pleased with Ze victory. By such action on the part of represéntative men they have been brought - to see the value of organized action. The legislature passed a bill for the submission of. bonds for the boring of James Peak tunnel through = _5- ) [} \N DEPENDENTLY* oF BiG BUSINE$$ ~ ACT [NDINIDUALLY - BUT Hor counecTiveLy, SiGNeD —Drawn expressly for tl\e Leader by Congressman John M. Baer. workers. They ‘know how strong union is. .0n the other hand, the business interests are against orgamzatlon by the farmers and the industrial Union labor has become so strong that these organiza- tions dare not attack it with the same vituperation that they assail the farmers’ organization—the N onpartisan league. But they work against the ‘organized workers. no'less strenuously. If organization of the business interests is good for the business interests, organization: of the fa:mer and the worker mnst be . even better for the prodneets. Passed the Rockies for the purpose of getting an outlet to the west. If the voters of Colorado, through the referendum, make this bill a certainty it will help the farmers of two or three counties in the north- west part of the state. . At the same time it will probably add from 50,000 to 100,000 population to Denver and contnbute vastly to the resources of big business in the Capital City. The Denver legis- lators went the limit on state ownership in this case. These same gentlemen helped to defeat the state ownership bills of the Nonpartisan league, declaring they were socialistic and “un-American.” Another bill authorized the submission of $5,000,- 000 bonds for a good roads program, which includes also legislation calling for a tax on gasoline, a spe- cial mill levy on property and increased motor vehicle license fees. This means a direct tax of $35 on every taxpayer in the state. The money is to be used to perfect the roads running into- Denver from the east and the mountain. roads leading to the mountain parks. The bill is for the direct ad- vancement of Denver “promoters” and the farmers will not receive the slightest benefit. This bill was fought by the League senators, but they were not strong enough to overcome it. The Nonpartlsan league, reinforced by the opin- ion of the various farm orgamza’clons of the state, - such as the Farmers’ union, Grange, beet sugar organizations, etc., asked for a bill to permit the state to mine coal from its own holdings instead of leasing the state lands to the Coloradp Fuel & Iron company and receiving 10 cents a ton for all coal mined. This bill was laughed and hissed out of the senate. A hard fight was made by the League senators, but the Rockefeller interests are at present too strongly intrenched in Colorado for the farmers: and laboring men to have any success in attempting to claim what is their own. With the farmers and labor getting together in this state, as they are at the present time, it is practically certain that the bill will secure the proper recognition two years from now. LEAGUE BILL TO PROVIDE SOLDIERS LAND IS KILLED The Nonpartisan league senators presented a bill providing for the placing of soldiers on Colorado land. This bill has been declared by soldiers and their officers to be the best yet devised in the United States. The returning warriors were intensely in- terested in the success of the bill and were keenly - disappointed when they found that the old gang henchmen had refused even to report the bill out of committee. If the bill had passed, the present difficult problem in regard to returned Colorado,. soldiers would have been solved and general satis= faction would have been the result. As it is, no one is pleased except the old gang, who seem tc care nothing for the. interests of the soldiers. The League senators made a valiant fight to get this bill before the senate, but there wasn’t a chance.: Many of them are going out to organize for the Nonpar-' tisan league, as they declare it is the only hope for: The men from-France are appreciating this. the establishment of democracy at home. One re- turned soldier, L. P. Wood, who has had charge of many squads in France, now is organizing, as he phrases 'it, squads to build justice and democracy - He is signing up farmers as fast as he can, here. get to them. The fight by the two old machines on this bill is going to result in the absolute organiza- tion of the farmers of Colorado and the amalgama- tion of the farmers’ organization with labor to get a square deal for all the people. The people of the state are disgusted with their representatives in the legislature. They have hoped against hope and trusted in vain. The men who were elected pledged themselves to carry out a cer- tain program and after they were elected forgot all about the people and listened to the lobbyists who were at hand with money and advice. The League senators fought the great fight. They - - have paved the way for others who will come. They have learned that under the present system ‘there is not a chance for the common man to achieve real liberty or to secure beneficial laws. They are tell- ' ing the people, and the result will be known in the great campaign of 1920, when the farmers and labor unite in a gigantic effort to down the selflsh ;i interests which have controlled their destiny since the tlme when Colorado first became a state & - CE SRR S |- RS T S L < s