Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1882-02-01
yyafrhnar Dc NonruaI.
The State Government.

safety of the ship, its cargo, its passengers,
the reputation of the vessel which shall win
1t public confidence and attract public pat
ronage, are very largely in the keeping of
the commanding officer. For the headship
of great manufacturing or railway corpora
tions or commercial companies, men are de-
manded with capacity for the management
of complex affairs, with clear heads and I'M
erring judgment, fertility in resources,
quickness to perceive and seize points of ad-
vantage, faculty for the development Of
resources, for building up and for marshal
ing all the elements of policy which shall
bring broad and enduring prosperity. In
large measure all these, together with other
higher and more distinctively moral quail
ties, are demanded in the successful admin
istration of the affairs of state. Skill,
energy, integrity, forecast, courage and res
olution in the adoption Of administrative
reforms, in the utilization of the means of
moral as well as material advancement, on
the part of the chief executive, all init
mately affect the greatness and prosperity of
a state, and the pursuance of an enlightened
and liberal policy under the best executive
skill and capacity state can command, may
be made largely recompense for great nat
ural disadvantages.
Vermont is conceded to be state of rich
and varied resources, but, like gold locked
up in vein of quartz, nature has seriously
compromised her material advantages by
placing many obstacles in the way of their
easy utilization. The removal Of these OBJ
stacles, or rather the lessening of the disad-
vantsges which they create, as compared with
other states to whom nature has been more
kind, is the task which should engage the
attention of this state and call to her execu-
tive offices--and retain them there-the
men best qualified for its accomplishment.
A crushing machine-not political affair
in the shape Of strong and efficient state
government, devoting the same vigilant at
tention to the affairs of the state that the
management of great corporation gives to
its business, is imperatively demanded to
lead off in the work of setting free and coin.
ing into the gold of commerce the wealth
which is locked up, in rich and varied
forms but in forbidding aspects within the
boundaries Of the state. Agriculture needs
the impetus of some sort of promotion /"
which shall in a systematic, persistent and
vigorous manner go to the bottom of the
special advantages in that department which
the state possesses in pre-eminent degree.
Other great material interests, education,
temperance,-a need the vigilant eye, the
fertile brain and the practical judgment of
an executive of extended grasp and compre-
hensive powers. All interests and especially
the agricultural feel the fatal influence of
the loss Of native population. The drain Of
men from the state has been SO long contin-
ued and so extensive that when an unusu-
ally successful business man, member of
congress, senator, governor or president
comes to the surface outside the state, we in
stinctively look up his record to see if he did
not originally hail from Vermont, and it is
oftener found that he did than that he did
not. 1t is pleasant to read of the reunions
of the Sons of Vermont in Worcester, in
Chicago, in San Francisco, and to know
that they are still atfectionately loyal to
their mother state, proud, every "son " of
them, to be known as Vermonters, but
equally grateful, no doubt, for the impulse
which moved them to emigrate and which
has led them in other lands to fortunes which
they would have wooed in vain around the
native hearthstones. These associations of
Vermonters are unpleasantly suggestive OF
the destructive and long continued depopu-
lation of the state. This drain of its best
blood to build up other states has had its
baneful influence upon the progress of Yer
mont. The state may not be able to attract
immigration, but line of policy calculated
to staunch the exhausting flow from her
veins of the life blood of state, its natural
increase of population, can be undertaken.
The state in respect to its constant depletion
in population has been in condition anal
agous to that of many farmers in the state,
all the increase of whose hard labors, which
is needed for improvements, goes to pay the
interest on the farm mortgage. So long as
this condition of things continues the state
will, at the best, be but marking time while
her sister states are marching on to empire.
A business corporation thus moribund,
its best attaches coaxed away by pushing
rivals, its trade circumscribed by successful
competition, would either settle its affairs or
infuse new force and vigor into its manage
ment Vermont cannot go into liquidation
she can infuse new power into the admins
tration of state affairs and this may go far
to stay the tide which has been setting
strongly against her. We believe the
best interests of the state demand that our
ablest men be placed at the head of state at.
fairs and identified more directly and act
lively with their management that the gov
ernor be more the business head of the state
corporation that he be required to devote
his time to studying the needs of the state
and to devising the means of supplying them
His efforts should be supplemented by the
service of an efficient general commission
of which the lieutenant-governor should be
the active head. All matters of general in
terest to the state, such as taxation
schools, agriculture, ETC., should receive tn,
attention of this commission, and their la
bors should pave the way for legislation
Under an executive thus constituted an,
strengthened, the state must in the course o
time feel the impulse of a new prosperity
The first and second executive officer
shouldbe positions of active influence as wei
as of dignity and honor. They should no
be mere baubles to crafty the ambition o
men fortunate enough to win them as prize
in the lottery of political management
These offices are important enough to allur
the ambition and command the services @
the ablest citizens Of the state. The peopl
should be satisfied TO fill them with onl
the very best. If the idea of state 20,
eminent which should contemplate the 8,
lection of the best business and executiy
talent of the state, and should demand /
the fuller discharge of executive duties
larger share of the officials time, seems ais
to imply an increase of compensation an
an extension by reelection of the gubern
torial tenure of Office, we know of no goo
reaaon why these deductions from the n, a;