Miners Denounce Lawyers and Lawmakers at Roslyn Meeting
Coal miners and residents gather at Unity Hall to demand labor protections and criticize the legislature for failure to pass worker-sponsored bills.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
On Monday afternoon the miners and citizens in general assembled in Unity Hall to hear and take action on the report of Messrs. Lane and Lewis, the committee heretofore appointed to attend the legislature in furtherance of certain bills of importance to the labor interests. Mr. Norton, editor and proprietor of the Tacoma Sun, was called on for a few remarks and he interested all for over an hour with a graphic description of how certain bills were not considered by the legislature. He explained the operation of the initiative and referendum, a plan now being urged upon the people by the trades unions of the country, and he paid his respects to Milo Root, of Pierce, and Rose, of Snohomish, as well as others, whom he held particularly responsible for the failure of the legislature to consider and pass the labor bills. Resolutions denouncing Helm, Kinnear, and Smithson, of this county, and other members of the legislature who opposed the bills drafted by the labor committee, were adopted. After a few remarks reprobating the practice of sending lawyers to the legislature instead of workingmen, the meeting adjourned.
“After a few remarks reprobating the practice of sending lawyers to the legislature instead of workingmen, the meeting adjourned.”
The frustration expressed in Roslyn in 1893—that lawyers and not working people controlled the legislature—remains a central tension in Washington state politics. Today, labor advocates and grassroots organizers continue to push for the initiative and referendum as tools to bypass established power structures in Olympia.
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