Olympia Legislative Chaos
A bitter brawl erupts in the Washington House over a new criminal code, featuring accusations of 'jobbery' and an eleventh-hour ban on private-home gambling.
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.
Olympia, March 5.—Amid great confusion the house passed the criminal code yesterday after putting in 50 amendments. The confusion came in a bitter tilt between Representatives Shutt and Slayden of Pierce, with Bell of Pierce in the chair. In the excitement, a motion was put through by Slayden allowing billiard and pool rooms to keep open Sundays. Shutt, when he discovered it, charged Slayden and Bell with jobbery in getting the thing through. There was almost a riot but it was finally quelled by an amendment excluding minors from the places on Sunday. The house put back in the code the section taken out by the senate prohibiting gambling in private homes. The bill finally passed 77 to 6.
“Shutt, when he discovered it, charged Slayden and Bell with jobbery in getting the thing through. There was almost a riot.”
The frantic legislative wrangling over public morality and 'jobbery' (corruption) highlights how the Washington State Legislature has long been a theater for intense regional rivalries and moral crusades. The debate over regulating pool halls and gambling mirrors modern-day debates over local ordinances and the balance of power between state-level policy and municipal life.
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