The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1906-07-20
STOKES BECOMES SOCIALIST
New Nork Politician Leaves Hearsts
League
SENDS OPEN LETTER TO COMMITTEE
SAYS HE FEELS HE CAN DO
MUCH FOR PEOPLE OF
COUNTRY.
SENDS OPEN LETTER TO COMMITTEE

NEW YORK, July 20.-J. G. Phelps
Stokes has left Mr.. Hearsts 1ndepend-
i ence league and become an out-and-
out socialist. He has long had strong
drift in that direction and now he be-
comes a socialist because he feels that
| thus he can do the greatest good to
the greatest number of his fellow cltl-
zens. These things are set forth at
length in an open letter Mr.. Stokes
sent to the executive committee Of the
Independence league.
Mr.. Stokes was the leagues candi-
date last fall for president Of the board
of aldermen The courts refused to
order a recount of the votes cast in
the election, and the Independent
leagues petition to Attorney General
Mayer asking him to bring quo war;
ranto proceedings to GUST the present
municipal officers is still pending at
Albany.
Takes Up Settlement Work.
Although a millionaire several times
over and president of the Nevada Gen.
trail railroad, the Woodbridge company,
the Haynes company and the Austin
Mining company, Mr.. Stokes left his
fathers home in November, 1902, to
| live in the Settlement house at 1874
Eldridge street.
| In the course of social work in this
city Mr.. Stokes met Rose Harriet Pas
tor, girl with a mind sharpened by
years of stuly while toiling as a cigar
maker. She was reporter for a Jew
| ish paper and she was assigned to in
terview Mr. Stokes 1t was a case of
| love at first sight. They were married
in the spring Of 1905. Their city home
| is a flat on the seventh floor of the
When a World reporter looked for Mr..
Stokes it was announced that he was
| in Noroton. Conn.,, where he has a fine
summer home.
| Extracts from Mr.. Stokes open let
ter to the executive committee of the
Independence league are as follows:
Why He Is Socialist.
81 have long been a believer in the
philosophy of socialism. Hitherto
have refrained from cooperating with
the socialist party owing to the in
tense bitterness and ill-will manifested
| by many socialists toward nearly all
persons who approve and support the
capitalist system and owing to what
economic and otherwise, of very many
socialists.
| 1T has required a vast amount of
accumulated evidence to convince me
that it is and for long time has been
impossible for the average worker to
secure such material things as are
necessary for his welfare and advance
ment, and this in consequence of ex-
ploitation of his labor by privileged
persons. who take for their own en-
joyment large portion Of the product
of his toll.
Il have learned but gradually the in
justice of the situation which confronts
the average worker Honest and ear
nest men and women by hundreds of
thousands suffer privation and want
although surrounded by prosperity and
plenty, and owe their sufferings chiefly
to the monopolization of the land and
of the machinery of production by the
few exclusively for the purpose of pri-
vate gain; access to the land and ma
chinery being denied, unless the work.
ers will produce enough not merely for
! their own support, but for the MAIN
tenance of the idle and luxurious as
well. This is to my mind a great in
justice and one that demands early
remedy.
Il intend Offering my services to the
socialist party. Either with them or as
a wholly independent citizen 1 shall
strive to promote recognition of the
fact, in which 1 believe, that the So
called capitalist system, as such, is
indefensible officially, and disastrous
industriously through the unacceptable
wage slavery to which it leads, and
! that it must be supplanted by a more
righteous system of cooperation and
| mutual aid"
Plan Some Future Missionary Work.