The Last-Day Bill Rush—and a Women’s Suffrage Amendment
Washington’s Senate introduced dozens of measures on the final day of bill introduction, from railroad assessments and a company-store ban to a referendum on votes for women.
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, Feb. 27.—[Special.]—This being the last day for the introduction of bills, the senators took advantage of it and introduced a batch surpassing any day of the session. Among them were:
S. B. No. 277, by Eshelman—Providing for an additional judge for Kittitas and Yakima counties.
S. B. No. 278, by Brown—To change the name of Sidney, Kitsap County, to Port Orchard.
S. B. No. 279, by Forsyth—Prescribing the manner and form for the assessment of property of railroads and railway corporations.
S. B. No. 280, by Richards—To provide for the economical management of county affairs.
S. B. No. 281, by Rutter—To prohibit mining and manufacturing corporations from engaging in the business of carrying on stores known as company stores or general supply stores.
S. B. No. 282, by Dyer—To amend the code relative to the community property rights of husband and wife.
S. B. No. 292, by Dyer—To amend the code in relation to the state university, allotting public lands and appropriating $300,000 for the university.
S. B. No. 293, by Campbell—For the prevention and penalty for enticing and harboring seamen.
S. B. No. 295, by Edens—To authorize the survey, appraisal and sale of the beds of lakes, rivers and waterways capable of being reclaimed.
S. B. No. 296, by Forrest—To establish a naval battalion to be attached to the National Guard.
S. B. No. 307, by Shaw—For the purchase of an oil painting of Isaac I. Stevens, first governor of the territory.
S. B. No. 308, by Shaw—For voting on a constitutional amendment providing for woman’s suffrage.
Senator Forsyth’s bill to establish a state normal school at Kelso was passed. The section appropriating $10,000 was stricken out. The emergency clause passed.
The vote by which Senate bill 217, in relation to the primary election law, was indefinitely postponed, was reconsidered and the bill was tabled.
The Senate passed the emergency clause of Senate bill 210, by Rutter, to establish a bureau of agriculture and statistics.
Senate bill 271, which was the bill introduced by the World’s Fair Commission appropriating $50,000 to carry on the work, was passed. The emergency clause was also passed.
Senate Memorial No. 9, by Richards, asks for the eradicating of the consular seal privilege from the revenue laws of the nation, and Senate Memorial No. 9 for the relief of Dennis Storrs and heirs for opening the Skagit River to navigation by moving a jam of logs, were referred to the committee on memorials.
“For voting on a constitutional amendment providing for woman’s suffrage.”
Women in Washington would not win the vote until 1910, so this 1890s suffrage amendment was a trial balloon that did not reach the ballot. It shows that suffrage was already being debated in the legislature decades before the state enfranchised women—and that last-day legislative dumps are a very old tradition.
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