Labor Journal Launches Campaign Against the State Supreme Court
Everett’s labor organ alleges that five sitting justices conspired with corporations to rig the nomination process and undermine direct democracy.
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 five members of the Supreme Court who are seeking re-election are directly responsible for the amendment to the direct primary law whereby their nomination was taken from the people and given over to a machine-made convention. The judicial convention law was born in the corporation-keen brain of Frank T. Post of Spokane, a close friend of the court. Justices of the Supreme Court actually lobbied for the passage of the bill in the House and the Senate, and pressured Governor Hay not to veto it. Furthermore, these justices have systematically reversed precedents regarding employer liability, effectively shielding corporations from responsibility when workers are injured by incompetent colleagues or defective machinery. The Non-Partisan Judiciary League and the Labor Journal are now calling for these judges to be defeated at the ballot box.
“The case of the Supreme Court versus the People of the State of Washington is not based on any appeal to the reason of the public, but is directed to the sympathy, the heart and the spirit of equity and justice.”
This 1910 call for judicial reform highlights a recurring tension in Washington state history: the struggle between public mandates (like the direct primary) and the perceived capture of the judiciary by corporate interests. The demand for 'clean hands' from public servants remains a sharp focus of civic debate in the Pacific Northwest today.
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