The Dry Party That Wanted Woman Suffrage, Equal Pay and Public Railroads
One hundred and fifty Prohibitionists from thirteen Washington counties met in Tacoma in 1894 and wrote a platform that went far beyond liquor — endorsing votes for women, equal wages regardless of sex, government ownership of railroads and telegraphs, and the forfeiture of unearned land grants.
TACOMA, Sept. 6. — [Special.] — About 150 Prohibitionists, representing thirteen counties, assembled in a hall here and convened as the state convention of the Prohibition party. The permanent officers of the convention were Everett Smith of Seattle, president; vice presidents, G. W. Sammier of Goldendale, O. W. Stewart; secretary, Mrs. Mattison.
The following ticket was nominated: For congressmen, W. W. Vandusen of Spokane and B. F. Brown of Vancouver; for supreme court judges, John W. Peter of Dayton and O. A. Byers of Seattle. When Everett Smith of Seattle was nominated for supreme judge west of the mountains, he refused to serve, and O. A. Byers of Seattle was selected.
The platform declares the laws of God the standard to which human enactments should conform, indorses the national Prohibition platform, and declares the liquor traffic to be a fruitful source of anarchy, often rendering impossible an amicable adjustment of industrial difficulties. The platform declares drink the greatest enemy of labor, and rejoices at the rapid growth of the anti-rum sentiment; declares that the Christian and temperance forces uniting at the polls will kill the drink traffic; favors woman suffrage and equal wages, regardless of sex; wants the president and vice president elected by a direct vote of the people; favors the initiative and referendum, and a non-partisan tariff commission to fix a tariff policy; demands government ownership of railroads and telegraph lines; favors gold, silver and paper money on a basis of a stated sum per capita, to be increased as the population increases, and asks that books be furnished by the state for the primary schools. One of the concluding paragraphs reads: "We favor the immediate forfeiture to the government of any and all unearned land grants throughout the United States."
After an hour's discussion a clause favoring restriction of immigration was retained in the resolutions. A resolution was adopted attacking the government for furnishing tobacco to soldiers, sailors and prisoners in government prisons.
The state central committee elected Rev. Clark Davis of Seattle, chairman; W. H. Gilstrap of Tacoma, secretary, and Dr. N. G. Coleman of Montesano, treasurer.
“The platform declares drink the greatest enemy of labor... and favors woman suffrage and equal wages, regardless of sex.”
A third party dismissed as a single-issue temperance crusade actually ran in 1894 on equal pay regardless of sex, votes for women, public ownership of railroads and the reclaiming of unearned land grants — a reminder that Washington's reform politics have always bundled moral crusades with economic ones. The demand to forfeit unearned land grants speaks directly to a state built on railroad land grants and tide-land giveaways. And the plank restricting immigration, adopted after an hour's debate, shows the same coalition pulling in two directions at once.
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