The Campaign to Defeat the Eight-Hour Day
As Washington prepares for a series of initiative votes, a new business-backed league emerges to lobby against labor reforms, starting with the proposed eight-hour workday.
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.
The 'Stop, Look, Listen' League, a state-wide organization with local branches in every county, has been organized for the purpose of laying before the voters the facts in connection with the proposed eight-hour law and other initiative measures to be voted upon next fall. The league will seek to make clear the effect of these measures, and every county in the state will be organized to defeat those which the league considers inimical to the business and industries of the state. A campaign of education will be waged among the voters to discourage the signing of initiative petitions. Under the law providing for the initiative and referendum, enacted by the last legislature, about 33,000 signatures of qualified voters are necessary to insure each measure a place on the ballot at the next general election.
“The league will seek to make clear the effect of these measures and every county in the state will be organized to defeat those to which the league considers inimical to the business and industries the state.”
This 1914 report documents a classic 'Astroturf' campaign, where business interests organized to block progressive labor reforms like the eight-hour day. Today, as gig economy debates and labor regulations continue to dominate Washington politics, the tension between legislative initiative and corporate lobbying remains as sharp as it was a century ago.
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