WA: 1936 Initiative General Election Result (Production for use)

[bgwah]

New Election: 1936 Washington Initiative General Election Results
    
    

[bgwah]

"An act creating Production for Use Districts to manufacture, grow, buy and otherwise acquire goods, wares, commodities and products, to furnish services of every nature except electricity and water, and establishing a State Production for use Commission to purchase or otherwise acquire such products and services; authorizing a tax levy, exercise of eminent domain, issuance of certificates of exchange, general obligation and revenue bonds, creating a revolving fund and appropriating ten million dollars therefor; amending section 1 of chapter 95 of the Laws of 1933, relating to nomination of district commissioners, and repealing acts or parts thereof inconsistent therewith."

I was surprised we actually voted on this, so I just had to upload it.

[bgwah]

Nobody else thought this was interesting?

[Dallasfan65]

I did!

[Meeker]

How did it get on the ballot?

[bgwah]

How did it get on the ballot?

The Washington Commonwealth Federation sponsored it. They also tried taking down DINO Governor Martin that year, but Martin won a divided primary with 41%---an interesting factoid you might not realize if you're just looking at the general election in which Martin easily win.

This is just speculation on my part, but the WCF is probably what inspired that infamous "Soviet of Washington" quote.

[Fuzzybigfoot]

I did!

[Joe Republic]

Sorry, I'm struggling to translate the legalese.  What exactly was this initiative trying to do?

[Vasall des Midas]

Introduce a Communist form of economic government.

[realisticidealist]

Anyone want to speculate on what would have happened had this passed somehow?

[CultureKing]

so, at the time around 20% of Washintonians were socialists or communists? Not bad Washington, not bad.

And yes, I found it very interesting.

[bgwah]

"Yes" only cracked 30% in one county, Kitsap.

I'm not terribly certain what kind of place it was in the 1930s. Today, it has a very large military presence and an island full of latte liberals, many of whom commute to Seattle via ferry. Obviously this would not have been the case before WW2.

Kitsap voted for the Farmer-Labor candidate for Governor in 1920, and was usually their best county during the period where they were the state's 2nd largest party. It was usually one of the top Socialist counties, though Mr. Leip ignores my requests to renew my membership, so I can't be more specific than that...

[Sibboleth]

For comparison and all that:

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b276/CSoc45/bob.png
http://img488.imageshack.us/img488/9383/debscb4.png
http://img230.imageshack.us/img230/5185/debsagainft5.png
http://img247.imageshack.us/img247/8323/flsp4.png

Did them ages ago.

Anways, wrt Kitsap... er... shipbuilding? logging? Something like that?

[bgwah]

Shipbuilding, I think. The Navy Shipyard has been in Bremerton for a long time. And I'm sure some logging, too---it's Western Washington, after all.

[Meeker]

The Longshoremen in Washington are pretty much communists even today.

[bgwah]

The Longshoremen in Washington are pretty much communists even today.

hehehe

[Seattle]

The Longshoremen in Washington are pretty much communists even today.

hehehe

lol, especially after the Longview incident....

[Meeker]

I told ya...

[shua]

I guess that socialism would be gaining strength due to the Great Depression.

How well developed was this idea?  Were there any plans for how many production use districts there would be?