The State's First Great 'To-Do' List
Acting Governor Charles E. Laughton’s 1891 address to the legislature provides a rare, wide-angle snapshot of a young Washington State struggling to build its infrastructure, protect its forests, and define its civic identity.
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In his January 9, 1891 address to the legislature, Acting Governor Charles E. Laughton detailed the urgent challenges of a newly formed state. Stepping in for the ailing Governor Elisha P. Ferry, Laughton highlighted the 'transition from an incomplete territory to completed statehood,' noting that the government was still operating out of scattered, inadequate rooms in Olympia. He advocated for a massive state building project to house archives and officials safely, warning that historical records were being stored in sheds. Laughton also sounded an early environmental alarm, calling for a forestry commission to stop the wholesale 'stripping' of timber tracts, which he warned would permanently damage Washington’s climate and water supply. He further urged the legislature to end the financial burden on working families by having the state provide school textbooks, arguing that requiring parents to buy them was akin to a 'tuition fee' that hampered the freedom of public education. Finally, he called for the direct election of U.S. Senators to curb the 'pernicious' corruption and secret backroom deals that defined legislative sessions of the era.
“The purchase of the needed text books is a heavy burden on the wage-earner, who often has to face the problem of rearing and educating a large family of future citizens on a small and precarious income.”
Laughton’s 1891 priorities—the need for a permanent state capitol, the preservation of timberlands, and the struggle to fund public education without overburdening the working class—remain central to the Washington political discourse today. His observation regarding the influence of senatorial appointments on the legislative process mirrors modern anxieties about the role of special interests in state governance.
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