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Class Warrior: On Washington State’s Primary Law. 1900

Class Warrior
On Washington State’s Primary Law. 1900

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table of contents
  1. Cover
  2. Foreword
  3. Introduction
  4. Part I: Selected Writings of E. T. Kingsley
    1. 1900   On Washington State’s Primary Law
    2. 1903   On Political Action
      1. On Reformism and Electoral “Fusion”
      2. On Trade Unions
    3. 1905   On the Single Tax
      1. On a Journey to Seattle
    4. 1906   On the Arrest of US Labour Leaders and State Power
    5. 1908   On the Socialist Movement and Travels across Canada
    6. 1909   On War
      1. On the Vancouver Free Speech Fight
    7. 1911   On Property
      1. On the Workers’ Awakening
      2. On Economic Organization
      3. On the Capitalist State
    8. 1914   On the Causes of the First World War
    9. 1916   On Carnage
    10. 1917   On Slavery and War
      1. On War Finance
      2. On the War Effort
    11. 1918   On the Bolshevik Revolution
      1. On Capitalism Getting Rich Quick
    12. 1919   On Control of the State by the Working Class
      1. On Reconstruction
      2. On Collaboration between Labour and Capital
      3. On Wealth
      4. On Gold
      5. On Class War
      6. On the Paris Peace Conference
      7. On Capitalist Civilization
    13. 1921   On the 1921 Canadian Parliamentary Election
  5. Part II: Selected Speeches of E. T. Kingsley
    1. 1895   On the Aims of Socialism
    2. 1896   On Socialism and the Economy
    3. 1899   On American Imperialism in Cuba and the Philippines
    4. 1903   On the Labour Problem
      1. On the Political Organization of Miners in Cumberland
      2. On Stirring the Emotions of His Audience
      3. On Wages, Profit, and Capital
      4. On the 1903 British Columbia Election
    5. 1905   On the 1905 Russian Revolution
      1. On Workers and Rockefeller
      2. On the Mission of the Working Class
    6. 1906   On the Paris Commune
    7. 1908   On Labour and Its Economies
      1. On the Working Class Using Clubs If Necessary
      2. On Working-Class Political Power
    8. 1912   On the Vancouver Free Speech Fight
    9. 1913   On the Vancouver Island Miners’ Strike
    10. 1914   On the Komagata Maru Incident
    11. 1917   On Conscription
      1. On Working-Class Opposition to Conscription
      2. On Conscription and Wiping Out Ruling-Class Laws
      3. On the 1917 Conscription Election
    12. 1918   On the Formation of the Federated Labor Party
      1. On Laws
      2. On Reconstruction
      3. On the Armistice and Postwar Moment
      4. On Allied Intervention in the Russian Civil War
    13. 1919   On Lenin and Trotsky
      1. On the Belfast General Strike, Unemployment, and the Postwar Challenge to Capitalism
      2. On the Bolshevik Revolution
      3. On the One Big Union
      4. On the Class Struggle
      5. On the Machine
      6. On Capitalism
      7. On the Defeat of the Winnipeg General Strike
      8. On the Machinery of Slavery
      9. On Civilization
    14. 1920   On Mechanization of Production
      1. On the Paris Commune
      2. On the Collapse of Civilization
      3. On the Bankruptcy of the Capitalist System
  6. Part III: The Genesis and Evolution of Slavery
    1. 1916   The Genesis and Evolution of Slavery: Showing How the Chattel Slaves of Pagan Times Have Been Transformed into the Capitalist Property of To-day
  7. Part IV: On the World Situation
    1. 1919   On the World Situation
  8. Appendix
  9. Kingsley’s Speeches
  10. Index

On Washington State’s Primary Law 1900

Letter by Kingsley to The Socialist newspaper (Seattle), discussing the proposed adoption of the Minnesota electoral primary law in Washington State, December 1900.

Republican Tyranny

The Primary Election Law Criticized from the Standpoint of the Weaker Parties—P. I. Makes a Trivial and Ignorant Defense.

The following letter by a Socialist E. T. Kingsley appeared in the P. I. [Seattle Post-Intelligencer] Dec 12. It reiterates the three points made by this paper last week and utters indignant protest against this capitalist attack upon the sacredness of the ballot.

Seattle, Wash. Dec 10 1900

To the Editor: Expression of opinion having been invited in your columns as to the merits or otherwise of the Minnesota primary law, which it is proposed by some to adopt in this state, I have the following to offer:

This law imposes an intolerable hardship upon numerically weak political movements in three distinct ways:

  • First—By requiring each candidate to pay into the public treasury the sum of $10.
  • Second—By requiring ten per cent of either vote or signatures to obtain official standing.
  • Third—By providing a means whereby a numerically strong political movement could, by capturing the nominations of a weaker, thwart its purpose and smother its expression at the polls.

The essence of the law is to restrict the franchise. It is strictly in line with the disfranchising of the negro in certain Southern states: the introduction of property qualifications in various state constitutions and city charters, and the efforts being made in some states to lengthen the period between elections for legislative offices. The object of all this is to accomplish covertly and by stealth that which those responsible for it dare not attempt in the open, i. e., the disenfranchising of the working class. As our republic is cornerstoned upon the right of the citizen to freely and frequently express himself at the ballot box, any attempt to thwart such expression is a blow aimed at our liberties, and must be frowned down by every decent citizen. If these encroachments are to lie unchallenged, all liberty will be lost.

The arguments offered in favor of this precious law are worse than weak. It will not tend to do away with the corruption in politics, as some would claim, but on the contrary its passage would be but additional evidence (if that were needed) of that very corruption. The members of the legislature were not elected upon any such issue. If they proceed to enact such an infamous measure, it will be proof positive that they are being used by some unseen influence. This would savor of corruption, to say the least, if there be corruption in politics, and who can doubt it when so many aver the fault is in political parties, and that from which they spring. It is no fault of the election laws of the state of Washington. The election laws of this state in so far as they pertain to the nomination of candidates for public office are the best that obtain in any state in the Union of which the writer has any knowledge. They could scarcely be improved upon.

For the state to interfere with the nomination of candidates for public office is an unwarranted assumption of authority that should not be tolerated. It comes distinctly within the province of free citizens through their various political parties. A political party capable of formulating lines of party policy and incapable of nominating candidates for office without calling upon the state for assistance, must be a queer conglomeration of strength and weakness.

Those who are responsible for this primary law, and other schemes of its kind, ought to know that the standard of intelligence of today and the means of still further extending it are altogether too ample to admit of popular liberty being successfully smothered by petty schemes of still more petty legislatures.

Well for them and those who stand behind them and whose tools they are, if they refrain from attempting to stifle the free expression of the popular will in the settlement of the mighty economic problems which are forcing themselves upon us and demanding a solution.

E. T. Kingsley

—E. T. Kingsley, “Republican Tyranny: The Primary Election Law Criticized from the Standpoint of the Weaker Parties,” The Socialist (Seattle), 16 Dec. 1900, 1.

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