Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1903-10-26
ON SOCI ISM
VIM. MCLEAN, THE AGlTATOR,
ExPOUNDS THE DOCTRINE.
A Strong lunssd Orator. Long on Words and
Short on Facts, lnvades Aberdeen to Con.
vert II to Socialism. lie Comes to
Wrong Locality.

William Mclean, who is quite wei
known in British Columbia as politi
clan, has undertaken the job Of lining w
the workingmen Of Grays Harbor in the
socialist political party, and, if his speech
Saturday night outlined his method, he
or those who are paying his EXPENSES
wasting time and money.
The arrests by the police Thursday
night of two socialist agitators was mis-.
take. 1t was attaching altogether toe
much Importance to them or the doctrines
they preach. Mr.. Mclean has beon in
Aberdeen for some time, but the writer
had not the opportunity to hear him un.
til Saturday night. and was then disap.
pointed, as was the large crowd that
gathered to hear the speaker.
Scientific socialism is in itself beauti.
full theory, and its advocates recognize
everything under the heaven except
human nature. There is where they fall
down. According to Mclean, all they
have to do is to join the socialist party
vote its policies into force and its leaders
into office, and the millennium will have
arrived. Presumably joining the new
party is to act as sort of baptism. con-
verting the most hungry grafter-repub.
lican or democrat-into a pure hearted
patriot, caring only for the general good,
his eyes forever closed to the main
chance. This sounds good. but will not
stand the thinking process recommended
by Mr.. Mclean. There is but one remedy
for the habit OF grating. Remove the
graft.
In attempting to raise a class feeling
between the employers and employed,
Mr. Mclean would be mischievous if the
employed were foolish enough to heed
him. But, he has struck the wrong 10.
cality for that sort OF talk to succeed
There is not a mill owner in Aberdeen
that has not been workingman himself,
and there are but few Of their employees,
who take care of their earnings, that do
not figure on becoming employers in the
future. The Aberdeen Lumber e. Single
mill, and the Western mill are owned bv
men who were workin for wages but
short time ago, and the Market and
Union mills are now being built by work
ingmen, who could give Mr.. Mclean
points about what constitutes work.
Most OF our logging camps are now oper.
ated and owned by men who within the
memory OF the writer were working for
wages here or on the Sound, and there
are many more opportunities open today
than there were when those men came to
the country. Oh, no, Mr.. Mclean, that
kind of talk may 60 in the old countries
of Europe, and in some Of the labor con.
gested centers OF the east, but YOU are
wasting your breath here.
As a sample OF the random talking of
MIR. Mclean may be noted his pathetic
appeal to the passions Of his hearers in
speaking of the mining shutd down in
Montana, in which he said United States
Senator Clark, "by one crook Of his fin.
GER" had thrown 10000 miners out Of
employment. The press dispatches in
Yesterdays papers showed that instead Of
being responsible for the shutdown,
Senator Clark had offered the Miners
Union sufficient money to buy the stock,
the ownership Of which had produced the
litigation and closed the mines. In max.
ing the offer, which was accepted by the
union, the senator agreed to take the
stock as security; charge no interest for
the money, and not to ask the union for
any deficiency that might arise from the
sale OF the stock. This is not given as
defense of Senator Clark, but simply as
an illustration Of the glazing misstate.
ments INDUCED in by Mr.. Mclean
Throughout his talk, some Of which were
and applauded by few deluded
hearers.
The lusty lunged orator says he will
organize the socialist party for the city
in December, and put ticket
in the field. This paper has always in.
sisted that the administration OF municipal
affairs was business, not political,
matter, and has deprecated all attempts
to inject politics into city elections, but,
in this instance it would welcome the at.
tempt by Mr.. Mclean, in the belief that
the result would be a revelation, and
possibly lesson, to the agitators, and
notice to their ilk that the workingmen OF
Aberdeen are not sufficiently foolish to
De led by the nose by every loud-mouthed
that chose to come here to
ell them how to do things.
To Cure Cold In One Day