The Washington herald., 1913-03-30
w. B. Wilson, Now in Cabinet, Evicted
from Scottish Home, Becomes, in
Turn, Miner, Lumberman,
Printer, Fireman.

Spring is described with considerable
beauty and grace, and
.'septembsr's sun with autumn glow.
Behind the hills Is setting low
tells of the close of a day with an art
that is at least respectable and with a
really fine appreciation of the charms of
nature.
The greatest of all American problems,
Secretary Wilson thinks, is "a proper
distribution of the wealth that is Gre
ated." Socialism offers no settlement Of
the question. No man as yet, no party
as yet, has hit upon a plan that is prac-
ticable. Yet every step that is taken,
either in the economic field or by legis-
lative action which gives the workers
on the farm. in the mine. and in the
shop an opportunity of securing a larger
share of the things their labor has pro-
6uced, Is a step in the direction of the
solution of the problem of distribution >.
The personal story of Secretary Wilson
interested me more. however. than did
his opinions. He was born in Scotland.
/ asked If he had any memory of that
country.
"oh, certainly" he answered. 81
recollect the people. the houses and the
scenery. l went back last summer after
an absence of more than forty years.
The south side of the Clyde was I'M
changed. The north bank. however, has
been built up clear to the limits or
Glasgow. But i remember our eviction
more distinctly than anything else.
Naturally, that would be so. 1t was a
tragic event in our lives. My father
was coal miner. We lived in a row of
one-story houses. There was a strike
and officers of the law came and moved
our furniture into the road. The houses,
you see. belonged to the company that
owned the mines We found refuge.
along with some of our neighbors, in a
stable underneath an old dollhouse
That act, away of in Scotland, gave
the United States an energetic and
powerful chieftain Of labor and caused
capital in another part of the world some
trouble. Besides, 1t gave this country a
Representative and a Cabinet minister.
His Landing at Castle Garden.
THE strike and the results TO us per-
sonally." Secretary Wilson continued,
"caused my father to emigrate to
America He came here in the spring
mines at Arnot, Pa. My mother and her
four children followed him in the fall
/ was eight years old. We were landed
at Castle Garden with many other i'm
migrants. 1t had been arranged that my
father should meet us. but he was no
where TO be seen. We were without
money. and the disappointment was so
great that my mother sat down in a
large room, gathered US children around
her, and wept. Soon. of course, all of
US were in tears. Thus we sat for sew
eral hours. Finally man came along
calling for Mrs Helen n. WILSON, That
was my mothers name. He had funds,
he said, with which to send Us to Corn
ing, n. Y. We We're taken TO Jersey
City and put or board an immigrant
train. In place of tears, there We're
smiles on our faces and in our hearts.
I'VE arrived at Corning at o'clock in
the evening. My father was on the sta
ton platform. Blossburg was forty
miles away on another line. We rode
in a coach at the end of a long train of
empty coal cars. II was midnight when
we climbed into the wagon that was to
carry usS-to the mines of Arnot. We
reached the clearinghouse of my father
at o'clock on Sunday morning. Sep
tember 10, 1870.
81 was up again at daylight to see our
new home in America. Tomatoes on a
window sill Were ripening in the SUM-
/ thought they were apples There were
no tomatoes in our part of Scotland
then, though they are now grown under
glass for the Glasgow market. Such
We're my first experiences in the United
States / forgot to say that when l bit
into one of the tomatoes I feared had
been poisoned. Arnot was a new town
and We had to wait until our house was
built. l went to school until March. the
following spring, when circumstances
me to begin work in the mine.
How He Learned TO Read.
My first teacher In Scotland was called
the 'Fingerless Joke He had lost all his