75 years ago
October 19, 1944
The large Simpson logging company plant in McCleary, which is engaged in filling war orders for plywood and doors, remained idle today after a meeting between the union and management with war labor board conciliators yesterday failed to end a walkout of 450 employees.
The plant has been down since last Friday. Officials estimate a week’s closure would mean a loss of 1,170,000 feet of plywood and 18,000 doors to the war effort.
October 20, 1944
“I have returned,” General Douglas MacArthur told the Filipino people in a broadcast today calling upon them to “rise and strike” the Japanese.
“People of the Philippines: I have returned. By the grace of almighty God our forces stand again on Philippine soil — soil consecrated in the blood of our two peoples,” MacArthur said. “We have come, dedicated and committed to the task of destroying every vestige of enemy control over your daily lives, and of restoring, upon a foundation of indestructible strength, the liberties of your people.”
50 years ago
October 19, 1969
Fifty years ago last night a group of Spanish American and World War I veterans met in the old red brick Aberdeen Elks Temple and founded the James J. Sexton Post of the Veterans of Foreign Wars.
Only recently returned from service at sea or on the battlefields of France, they elected Sam Watkins, an artillery officer who later became a longtime Aberdeen water superintendent and city engineer, as the first post commander.
They also put in office two Aberdeen medical officers, Dr. John B. Kinne and Dr. Oliver R Austin, both veterans of the Spanish American and the First World War. Dr. Austin was named post chaplain and Dr. Kinne, post surgeon.
Today the Aberdeen VFW post and auxiliary are marking the 50th birthday of the post. Last night members attended the Golden Anniversary Ball in the hall.
October 20, 1969
Thirty-one years ago when Harry Bridges presided over his first International Longshoremen’s and Warehousemen’s Union convention in Aberdeen, the three big names in Pacific Coast Labor were those of Harry Lundeberg of the Sailors Union of the Pacific, Dave Beck of the Teamsters and Bridges.
Today, Bridges alone remains as active head of the ILWU.
Today, back on the Harbor again to attend a Puget Sound District workshop in the Morck Hotel, Bridges was reminiscent of that initial convention which set the course the union was to follow through the passing years.
The convention was held in trying times. County Welfare Administrator Bryan Hankins had just announced that fully 34 per cent of the people on Grays Harbor were on relief. The county had been hit by crippling strikes in 1935, 1936 and again in 1937.
When convention sessions opened, Aberdeen Mayor Herbert Horrocks gave an address of welcome, giving the keys to the city to the delegates and telling them that “the lights in Aberdeen may not burn as bright, but they burn longer.”
25 years ago
October 19, 1994
The Grays Harbor Paper Co. in Hoquiam has secured a financing package that “gives us the insurance to stay in business a long time,” company president Bill Quigg said Tuesday.
The financing includes a government HUD loan, additional investments from the limited partnership that owns the paper mill and a refinanced loan package from U.S. Bank that enlarges an earlier loan and extends the terms.
The mill now has about 240 employees. It makes uncoated printing and business paper that is marketed and distributed exclusively by the Weyerhaeuser Co.
October 20, 1994
The bodies of two crewmen were found when the 57-foot tuna boat Breneva was refloated at the Westport Marina.
Grays Harbor County Coroner John Bebich said both men drowned and had no other injuries. Toxixology reports have been ordered on both bodies.
A task force led by Westport Police Chief Bill Gibson and including detectives from the Ocean Shores and Motesano police departments is still investigating why the boat sank so quickly in 22 feet of water Friday night.
Compiled from the archives of The Daily World by Karen Barkstrom
