The Great Bed-Sheet Debate
Legislators in Olympia waste the public's time by bickering over the legal length of hotel linens.
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 legislature of the sovereign state of Washington is struggling with a momentous question: when is a sheet not a sheet? The house wrestled with the problem and finally passed a bill requiring all sheets in all hotels, inns, or other places of public refreshment to be at least nine feet in length. The senate, wishing to act as a check upon the popular branch, amended the bill to require sheets to be no less than 90 inches. Here is the legislative function of a great state torn apart over bed clothing; the lawmaking function gagged and bound by 18 inches of linen. Let us trust the legislature to work out a compromise, and turn our attention to Wisconsin, which has been busy passing laws regarding campaign expense accounts instead of bedsheets.
“Truly, while politics makes strange bedfellows, in this case it shreds the bed linen.”
This piece highlights a recurring tension in Washington politics: the friction between the 'popular' house and the 'conservative' senate, a dynamic that remains a central feature of the state legislature's work today. Just as in 1909, legislative debates can often feel like a mix of grandstanding on trivial details while larger, systemic issues like campaign finance go unaddressed.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.