A Parting Call for Reform from Governor Mead
In his final message to the legislature, Washington's outgoing governor challenges the political status quo, targeting the saloon industry, gambling, and the exploitation of child labor.
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Governor Mead's message is the most statesmanlike document of the kind ever sent to a legislature in the state of Washington. It is an object lesson of what may be expected if public officials can be freed from the weight of party expediency and political aggrandizement. Governor Mead is about to retire. He has no axes to grind. He is soon to be shorn of power and he was free to speak as an honest man unswayed by the multiplying hand of the politician. He told the legislature what the people want and have a right to expect. He was not afraid to call a spade a spade. He was not afraid to point to the saloon and tell the legislature that it is the cause of much of the crime, insanity and poverty, and to urge that the people be given the opportunity to remove the evil. The message demands legislation that will stop gambling, calls for the shortening of hours for women, the protection of childhood from factory grind, and the creation of state employment bureaus to eliminate graft from private agencies.
“He was not afraid to call a spade a spade.”
Governor Mead's 1909 push against the influence of saloons and for labor protections prefigures the complex civic battles Tacoma would face leading up to Prohibition and the rise of organized labor. His critique of 'party expediency' remains a perennial theme in Washington politics, where the tension between political machines and populist reform continues to surface.
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