Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1897-07-02
THE "DEBS' COLONY"
AN "OLD SETTLER" EXPRESSES
HIS VIEWS ON THE PROJECT.

- Chu1tsS ANCNhCW snC OROScu u
Invasion of Our State by n So
Cialistic Element Gov. Rogers
Has Not Represented Popular
Sentiment I'm Endorsing the
Scheme.
The following protest of an "Old
Settler" of Olympia appears in the
Oregonian OF the Odd inst:
The position taken by our dreaming
visionary Governor in regard to the
Debs' colonization scheme, has created
no little feeling throughout the State.
So far as / have been able to judge,
am satisfied public opinion is almost
universally adverse to this wild and
visionary movement-outside of the
socialistic element-and that the state
ments of Governor Rogers to the New
York papers does not reflect public
sentiment in this State, and that such
a movement is generally regarded as
terrible menace to the social and
material welfare of the people of this
State. The good people of our State
would be glad to have, not 100000, but
100000 people settle in our midst
She could, with her marvellous re-
sources, readily absorb that number,
and in short time prepare for as
many more. But they must be of a
desirable class, such people as subdued
the Mississippi valley, men who would
come to work, to earn an honest living,
not with their jaws but with their
hands and brains, or give us such men
and women as built up that marvellous
civilization upon the forbidding soil of
New England. Men who believed in
and verified the cooperation of indi-
men who believed in and
practiced the doctrine that the seeds
of government are best subserved by
the protection of life and property,
and that then its function ceased :;
men who say, protect my life and
and l will take care of my
self; men who will support heart and
soul, and who believe in a government
that gives an equal chance to all, and
equality before the law for all. Such
men as these will be most acceptable
to the people of Washington. We do
not want here those whose motto is
to reap where they have not sown,
and gather where they have not
What would we do with
class of people who would join their
fortunes with such as Debs, Lucy Par
sons and Mary E. Lease, such motley
crew of "landless resolutes"7 We
have no room for them or their civili-
zation. If, like the people 1 have
mentioneds they come to work and
can bring enough with them upon
which to subsist for one year, and will
put up with hardships and privations
as were endured in conquering this
Northwest-Oregon and Washington,
or the Mississippi valley, where more
than 100000 of people now live and
are prospering, they can better their
condition and add materially to the
prosperity of this State. We do not
want calamity howlers. We do not
want Bellamy or Debs colonization
scheme. We want an individuality
that is self-reliant, and intelligent per-
sonality such as was taught and pro-
duced by the fathers of the republic,
and not the socialistic doctrine as ad-
vocated by Debs, Lucy Parsons and
Altgeld. Give us this kind of people
and we can not have too many of
them.
Such, believe, is the sentiment of
overwhelming majority of the people
all parties in this State. A hundred
thousand people who would be so fool
ish, so vicious, so un-American to con-
sent to join their fortunes with an am
bilious, scheming, visionary propa-
gandist as Debs, would break up into
a thousand fragments in less than one
year, bringing misery and wretched-
ness upon themselves and in the end
become public charge upon the peo-
pie of the State. If history teaches
anything, nothing is clearer than that
such would be the result of the Debs
scheme. They could no more live in
peace together and prosper than does
the present aggregation now in power
in this State. If it were only these
people who would suffer by this fool
ishness, it would not be so bad, but
to thrust themselves upon highly
civilized community of self-respect-
ing, self-reliant, patriotic citizens, who
have for many years been laboring to
build up such a civilization as that oi
New England and that to be found in
the Mississippi valley, would be a ca
lamity the magnitude of which cannot
be measured. What would we do