The Commonwealth. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1911-1914, 1913-12-11
ARLINGTON RECALL ELECTION HLEGAIl-WILL CONTESTE
ROME WINS IN ARLINGTON

After a week of monster mass meet
ings held in different parts of the big
conAolidated district at Arlington the
eleelson of last Saturday was one of
the imost exciting in the history of the
comRunity. Never in a presidential
election was such a vote polled. From
the time that the polls opened at p.
m. until the clock struck S the clerk
and judges did not have any waiting
spells. When the ballots were being
counted in the Lincoln school a group
of Catholic men and women waited
with tense faces the result. OF the
1914 votes cast the Socialist school di-
rectors received 479. With few ex-
ceptions these votes were those of
working men and their wives.
Opposed to the Socialist directors,
for the recall of whom the election
was called, were the Catholics, the
Protestant priest-craft. the white slave
intsr ests, and the fanatics of every
type The bitterness of the Catholics
was oy no means more intense than
that of the ministers of the gospel
whose open alliance with the most
corrupt forces, with those who profited
by the shame of fallen women. was
notorious. The lying that several of
the preachers INDUCED in was re-
markable feature of the campaign.
Only one preacher in the city had the
decency to keep out of the fight
against the working class.
OF the nearly five hundred men and
women who voted for the Socialists
very few were other than workers.
Outside the polls was a line of well
dressed women of the petty bourge-
oisie who in spite of the law cleo
tioneered continually and sneered at
their neighbors for voting the Social
ist ticket And yet they came and
voted, these people who for the first
time in their lives felt sternly i'm
PEELED to vote for the Socialists. 1t
was a new thing. They had never
D6en WIFI Tie uSSploCu DClOAO' ANNS
were now proud of it. The intellect,
the heart power, the power of reason
and right was on the side of the work
ers. They grasped new meaning
from the whirlwind struggle of life
For the first time a school election
had come to mean something stirring
and mighty.
A conspicuous feature of the day
was the circulation of a leaflet with
what purported to be patriotic
pledge to the flag and what was de-
signated as a Socialist pledge. 1t will
be remembered that this Arlington
fight was supposed to have started
because Sinclair, who had been hired
as principal of the Garfield school,
had criticised the flag salute law pro-
posed for passage by the last legisla-
ture. Sinclair's criticism of this law
was directed against the declaration
in the pledge that there was liberty
and Justice for ALL" In the patriotic"
pledge distributed by the hundred
about the polls these words were con-
spicuous by their absence. The Arl-
ington people have been convinced by
this campaign that there is not lib
erty and justice for all and the fin
anciers of the fight against the So
cisGists did not dare to repeat the lie.
Al he result of the election is highly
Ell tifying to the Arlington Socialists
az their host of sympathizers
Though defeated, they have made
school fight such as has never been
made in America. They have stirred
the hearts of hundreds who before
misunderstood them. Though they
lost control of the schools, they have
won respect and admiration for the
manly way in which they conducted
the campaign against a malicious and
insidious foe.
Threats are now being made by the
victors that they will drive Sinclair
out of town. After their cry Of law
aAd order, this bunch threatens to VIC
III le all law and all order by resorting
IS personal violence.
Lancaster, the disreputable ex-sup-
ls,~tendent, may be re-instated, but
lis extremely doubtful His use
fitness as a tool Of the interests in
the schools is at an end. He was
shown up in this campaign to be
about as weak and cringing a creature
as they make anywhere. His miser-
able lying was laughed at even by his
own political partners. Let the So
cialists Of the state be on the lookout
for one George Lancaster. He is look
ing for a job. He is a "me-too' So
cialist when with Socialists of influ-
ence.
What the Arlington patriots viii do
with their newly acquired power will
be worth watching. In the meantime
the Socialists are getting ready for
the March election. Their fighting
powers are just nicely under way.