St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1878-08-09
The County Nominations, and Rotation
in Office.

The County Nominations, and Rotation
in Office.
Editor CGledOnidn will you per-
NIT still another to use your columns
to present some reasons why in his view
an experienced and competent board of
county officers should not at the ensu-
ing election be succeeded entirely by
new and untried men.
First, the principle of frequent rota-
ton in some of the offices in question,
defeats the end for which these offices
exist. There is no business, work, or
duty in which experience does not give
efficiency. The more complex the bust
ness or perplexing the duty, the more
valuable the experience, the less can
men afford to dismiss skilled help and
employ tyros. What should we say of
the lady who should hire a green, I'M
tutOred girl, teach her how to cook,
sew, wash and iron, and then, at the
end of six months or year, just when
the servant was beginning to do efficient
work, should dismiss her, and employ
another? Or what of the railroad that
should have new Superintendent each
year? Are the best schools in the
county, state, or nation, those that have
new corps of teachers every two or
four years? Have the Messrs. Fair
banks been less successful in the manu-
facture of scales because they have re-
tanned men in their more responsible
positions, for ten, twenty, thirty, and
even forty years But when it comes
to making and executing laws, forsooth,
a man who has had two or four years.
experience is just good for nothing
Turn him out, and put in a greenhorn.
A Representative in Congress should
never serve over two terms, else he
might become too influential, and no
state assembly man should be re-elected
else he would become too well acguaint-
ed with the methods of transacting
public business. A man in the Maine
Republican convention the other day,
rose and said that he thought the ad-
ministration of President Hayes ought
to be recognized by the convention in
some way, but he didn't know quite
how it should be done. He was the
new and honest delegate from Booth
bay. Did not Messrs. Blaine and Hale,
and Frye know how it should be done
or not done2 Are rOgues nowadays
less crafty, or shrewd, or intelligent
than formerly, so that anybody can
catch and convict them? Why is it
that when bank is robbed, or a muir
der committed in the country, the SER
vices of a city detective are secured
Because Boston and New York keep
efficient men on their police force as
long as they possibly can; but in New
Hampshire and Vermont sheriff is re-
manded to his private business as soon
as he has found out the law-breakers of
his writ-realm, learned the highways
and byways of notorious criminals, and
how TO obtain proof that shall result in
conviction.
Two years ago some of the best men
in the state united in asking our Legis-
lature to create the office of Attorney
General for the reason that the criminal
prosecutions of the state had been poor
ly conducted, guilty criminals had es-
capped conviction, crime had been on
the increase, and there was demanded
more vigorous and intelligent execution
of the laws. 1t had become the custom
in many counties of the state, as in this,
to rotate the states attorneyship among
the younger lawyers for single term
each, and thus the office, instead of
strong arm of justice, grew to be the
stepping-stOne of legal striplings to
official station and instead of the in
strument of the commonwealth and
common veal, merely the tool of in
dividual ambition. Why, under not
few states attorneys, there have been
more criminals who have gone unpun-
ished through faulty indictments than
have been successfully prosecuted. In
some counties, nearly half the expense
incurred for criminal prosecutions has
proved sheer waste of money simply
because the indictments were not prop
erly drawn.
The chiefquestiOn before the freemen
of Caledonia county is: Shall we retain
for the important offices of states at
torney and sheriff, men who are tried,
experienced, fearless, competent, and
have shown themselves unusually sue
cessful in the discharge of their duties
Will the cause of temperance and good
order profit by the change? Thus much
for now. We have further thoughts for
future issue. II.
How Farmer Solves It.
By an Old Farmer.l
Farmer B.-GOod morning, Judge r.
| have often asked vOur advice and