The Caddo Herald, February 12, 1915
Peter W. Collins, organizer for the American Federation of Labor and International secretary of the Electrical Workers union, spoke to a S.R. O. house in this city Saturday evening on the “Menace of Socialism.” The meeting was held in the opera house; there were at least six hundred people on the inside and more than a hundred were turned away for lack of room.
The speaker was introduced by Hon. C.C. Hatchett, who sounded the keynote of what was to come in a short talk that was at once convincing and pleasing to the audience. From the few remarks made by Mr. Hatchett it is evident that he has given this dangerous dogma considerable thought and study and regards it inimitable to the public good.
Mr. Collins waded right into his subject in a way that at once demonstrated that he knew what he was talking about and had the proof to back his assertions. The speaker used socialist authority exclusively in maintaining his conclusions. He proved by socialist authorities that socialism is opposed to religion, to the owning of property, to the perpetuation of the family and to organized labor. It was shown that socialism contends that capitalism controls the religion of the country and that religion will have to be destroyed to reach capital. He gave graphic descriptions of how socialist agitators work upon working men in fomenting strikes and creating discontent in order that they might be led into the socialist camp. In this connection the speaker said that “socialism does not make converts of contented men”.
After the address the speaker proposed to answer questions, stipulating that he be the only person who would be allowed to become excited and that “everything should be conducted courteously”. Here is where the “kumrid” (sic) had his inning, but he took second money every time he monkeyed with the buzzsaw. The questions asked and the answers given kept the audience in uproars of laughter. Mr. Collins answered questions by reading from socialist authority and answers were decidedly discomforting to the socialists. Only in one instance did the speaker fail to answer by quoting from socialist authority and that was when he was asked why, if socialism is a menace is it increasing so rapidly, the questioner stating that the vote at the last election had increased approximately a million votes. Mr. Collins read from authentic statistics showing that the socialist party had never polled a million votes; that in 1912 the vote was something more than 900,000, while at the last election the vote dropped to about 750,000, a decrease of 25 per cent. One of the socialists wanted to divide time with the speaker and when he was invited to come forward and pay half the expenses of the hall he subsided, the speaker calling attention to the incident as showing that socialists always want something for nothing. The speech was the greatest expose of the dangerous doctrines taught by socialism ever heard here.- Durant Democrat
These is nothing on top side of earth rottener than the putrid doctrine of socialism. We are glad that it is being thus exposed. The Herald has been making an active campaign against the crime of socialism for some time and we are going to keep up the fight against it. It’s the greatest menace that ever threatened Christianity and good government.
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