The Populist Party's Contentious Bid for Power
A critical look at the new labor-focused political ticket emerging in Grays Harbor, amidst fears of social chaos and questions of candidate competency.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Whatever you say, for God's sake don't call us fools and anarchists, said A. C. Little upon his return from the Populist county convention the other day. Give us credit for putting up a consistent laboring man's ticket. The convention itself was evidently imbued with the same idea when it felt called upon to defend itself by adopting the resolution denouncing anarchy. The convention did turn down some of the old war-horses and nominate striplings, to catch the unwary, but at the same time enough of the old fire-eaters are retained on the ticket to counteract all the good effect of the others and of the resolution. With a few exceptions, Mr. Little's claim that they are all laboring men can probably be verified, but are they competent to fill the offices? Was their competency or incompetency taken into consideration at all, or were the nominations a reward for persistent mouth service? The party cannot hope to undo the work of its howling anarchistic newspapers and leaders by putting up the semblance of a working-man's ticket. In fact, it is an insult to working-men to offer them a working-man's ticket carrying some of the names that this ticket does.
“Was their competency or incompetency taken into consideration at all, or were the nominations a reward for persistent mouth service?”
The tension between the 'laboring man's ticket' and established political interests reflects the perennial struggle to define who is 'qualified' to hold office in Aberdeen. Today's debates over grassroots movements versus party machinery echo these 1894 anxieties about radicalism and professional legitimacy.
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