davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1890-08-20
Farmers in Legislation.

Editor Of Wdtchmdn:-The farmers and
laboring class must have more to say about
legislation or they are ruined. High sala-
ries and taxes are one thing that is doing
the injury. Every branch of business ex-
cept farming is protected. We shall have a
governor to help us this fall Every town
in the state should turn out in mass and
elect farmers to represent them, and they
should repeal or amend most of what the
legislature did two years ago. We have
come to point where man who owns
farm that will keep twenty cows can not
make both ends meet at present prices of
farm products and present rates of taxation
and other expenses. Some say the trouble
is Overproduction That is not it altogether.
The farmers are largely in the majority. L
would like to see them stand up for their
rights in the coming election and session of
the legislature. REPUBLICAN,.
Waterbury, August - 1890.
The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1890-08-20
Places for Retrenchment.

The canvass for the prospective va
cancy on the supreme court bench has
become quite lively, and the list of
candidates for Judge Powers comfort
able seat is lengthening. But the popu-
lar protest against the continuance of
the number of judges now constituting
the supreme court is recovering its
voice. Public opinion, we believe, is
very strong for retrenchment at this
point, and for good reasons. The bust
ness of the court does not now demand
seven judges, if it ever did. 1t has
practically been done by six for several
years, and the six, while doing also the
work of the seventh, have at the most
not worked harder than-if so hard
as-the average of the non-ofice-
holding class. The number of Judges
should certainly be cut down to six
and there are men of good judgment
who say five. And not only this, but
the judicial salary should be set back to
where the legislature of 1886 found it,
50 800 year. AT that time the judicial
pay was raised to $4,000 year, and,
to save the state the disgrace of pass
taking by its judges, $500 was added
for expenses while away from home on
official business. Still some-but pos
sibly not all-of the judges kept on
taking passes, till public clamor led to
the substitution of the more reputable
mileage ticket, but how much the cash
account of their honors is credited with
outgoes on this score deponent saith
not. AT all events, the number may
safely be set back to six at the most.
One full salary may be saved and a
corresponding amount in the aggregate
clipped from the salaries now paid to
the remaining six. Some other official
salaries, also, will bear pairing down,
and still leave the holders well and
lucratively paid-far better than nine
tenths of the people who are taxed to
pay such salaries.
The large expenditure for the militia
is absolutely indefensible on any ra-
tional ground. For the biennial term
ended in 1880 the state militia bill was
23,3l6; for the biennial term ended
in 1888 the expense was $4S, $3.50. For
1879 the cost of the militia was 80, 762;
for 1888, S2S, 016-nearly threefold
increase in ten years.
The WATCHMAN sharply called at
tention to these figures, among others,
The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1890-08-20
The Lesson of the Strike.

Discussing the necessity for some
definite and adequate way of adjusting
the differences between railways and
their employees other than by the rude
and barbarous method of the strike, the
Christian Union says:
"The railroad is only in a limited sense
private property. Not only does it derive
its franchise from the public, but its rea-
tons to the life of the country are so init
mate and so intricate that the time has gone
by when its arbitrary will could be exercised
even upon its own property. Neither the
owners of railroads nor their employees are
the supreme parties in interest; the supreme
parties in interest are the public. Nothing
could be more absurd or illogical than to
expect the public to stand by, under these
circumstances, and watch fight between
two organized forces, waiting patiently
until, by a test of strength, one or the other
surrenders The Christian Union has more
than once pointed out the fact that so long
as legal remedies are not provided for every
possible grievance, the individuals who are
not thus protected will take the law into
their own hands. Where proper and GER
tain punishment is not provided for crimes
against womanhood, the husband or brother
or father becomes the avenger, and a large
amount of public sympathy always goes
with him; where crimes against life and
property are not sufficiently punished by the
The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1890-08-20

courts, lynch law is invoked. 1t is ONLY
when adequate remedies are provided and
adequate processes secured that the care of
property and life is contentedly placed in
the hands of the authorities. There is as
yet no adequate remedy for employees who
suffer from the wrong of either inadeauate
payment or unjust restrictions or of over
work, and so long as this state of things
continues strikes are inevitable. In many
instances they will be wholly uniustifable.
in other instances they will be entirely
right, and public support will go with them
But justi6able or unjustifiable they are
bound to continue until the community has
provided way by which this rough-handed
endeavor to secure justice is made neces-
sary. The public is the chief party in in
terest, and the public has a right to say,
both to the railroad and to its employees
" You are our servants, and we will provide
for any adjustment of differences between
you, but we do not intend to allow you to
light out your quarrels at our expense" 1t
may not be an easy matter to provide ade-
quate remedies for the present state of
things but the difficulty of the problem
only makes its solution more imperative.
1t is not impossible TO provide means by
which questions raised between railroads
and their employees shall be formally pre-
sented, candidly discussed and thoroughly
examined, and a decision reached which
shall be binding on both parties. We al
ready have a state board of arbitration.
The next step ought to make arbitration
compulsory; then let striking without
due notice be made a misdemeanor. Rail-
road employees are often unjust and unrea-
sonable, but we believe that the great body
OF working-men in all departments desire
only justice, and that il adequate means of
securing justice are supplied they will not
only work tremendously with their employ
ers, but will themselves resent any attempt
to introduce disturbing elements into the
industrial situation. Make it possible for
the railroad employee to present his griev-
ance where he is sure it will receive dis
interested consideration, and we believe he
will yield cheerfully when the decision is
against him. In any event, the community
will then have discharged its duty, secured
justice, and may put forth its whole force for
order and authority
The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1890-08-20

two years ago, during the last legislative
session. Excuses were made and ex-
plantations given to account for this
remarkable increase, accompanied by
assurances that the expense would be
lowered during the current biennial
term. How has the cost OF the militia
establishment been lowered? For the
fiscal year ended July 81, 1889, the
auditors orders show that there was
paid out for the militia S33,S25.4A /;
for the fiscal year ended July 81, 1890,
S23,992.O2, making an aggregate for
the last biennial term of $57,S17.46-
an increase over the last biennial term
of more than $4,000. In this connec.
ton we beg leave to repeat what we
said of similar showing in 1888, COM
pairing the figures then given with the
sums expended for agriculture:
" For the biennial term ended in 1880 the
cost of the militia was S23, 367 of the agri-
cultural department, S3,196. For the bi.
was S4S.666; the department of agriculture,
$5,2OS. Stick a pin there, we farmers of the
general assembly. This looks very much
like beating pruning-hooks and plow-
shares into swords in a time of profound
peace. 1t is difficult to understand what
rational explanation or warrant can be
found for this expenditure. 1t seems en-
tirely irrational, wholly unwarrantable,
menace to the financial safety of the state.
Is any good end, at all commensurate with
the cost, served by this great and growing
outlay?"
And, in all soberness, we raise these
inquiries again to-day. Pertinent two
years ago, they have an added peril
nency to-day. The military expendi-
lures should be cut back at once to the
aggregate for the biennial term of
1880, saving here nearly $50 900, or the
best of good reasons shown why the
enormous cost of this department
should be maintained at existing fig
ures. But the increase of the cost of
the militia is part and parcel of the
unwise and extravagant growth of ex-
penditures in official salaries and in
almost every department of state ex-
penditure-eXcept for the schools and
agriculture-which eliminated in the
last legislature in appropriations aggre-
eating million and a quarter for the
biennial term ended July 81, 1890. In
1883 the quartermaster's estimate for
the muster was $4,000 in 1888,
S12,050. The expense of the muster
held this week at Bradford can hardly
be less than $4,000, while every mail
brings complaints from farmers bur-
dened with growing taxation amid
diminishing receipts for their products.
Cut down expenses right here. Make
the muster, if need be, biennial
affair, and lop off its extravagances-
or, if nothing else will avail, lop off the
muster itself.
The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1890-08-20
VermOnt---Again.

Editor Of acknowledgment is about
to turn over new Page in her business
history. May that Page never be marred
or defaced by any injudicious act of her
chief magistrate. The Bible tells us there
is time for all things-a time to eat and
time to drink, time to sing and a time to
dance, time to laugh and time to weep:''
and, may | not add, time for candid seri-
GUS meditation? If this is true, it appears
to me that that time has come. The time
for the session of the Vermont legislature is
near, and demand such as has not pressed
itself home TO the heart of every republican
voter in Vermont for many a year meets us
square in the face. 1t is a fact that the
farmers of Vermont always have been, and
particularly so at the present day. the great
burden bearers of the state-the result of
unwholesome legislation. Let us take the
present tax law, for example. Every man
must admit that double taxation is serious
wrong. The great question at issue is,
who shall pay the taxes? Should it be the
man that does not own the property or the
man that does? Reason would be dethroned
that would admit for a single moment that
man should be taxed for what he does not
own. Therefore any person holding notes
against another, which are safely secured
by mortgage, should be the person who
should pay the taxes on the amount thus
secured, and the person thus indebted
should be exempt from taxation on the same
amount. And let me further ask! Should
not such tax be paid to the town where the
property taxed is situated? When this can
be done, no town will suffer loss on mort
cages held by capitalists from other towns.
Double taxation is a curse to any state
and more especially in these trying times,
when the honest tiller of the soil is thor
oughy unable to meet the demands that
are pressing so heavily upon him Farmers
of Vermont, do you need urging, in this
most trying time of Vermont's history, to
awake out of sleep? Or will you, as valiant
soldiers, arm and equip yourselves like men
for the great struggle for liberty in the de-
fence OF right? The cause is yours, and you
are in the majority. Blame yourselves if you
do not do your duty and if you do not have
Legislature that will remedy the above
named evils, together with several others
that might be mentioned. If you do not,
surely there must be something rotten in
Denmark. Let our Page be also clean and
our record good. e. f. ANDREWS.
Berlin, Vt.
The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1890-08-20

the state. Another popularity is the
provision for government control of
the telegraphic service of the country.
The experiment will be closely watched
in the United States. The president
can be impeached by the senate or the
supreme court. No cabinet minister
can be elected either president or vice.
president. The general principle of
the relation between the state and
federal governments is the same as that
of our own country. One noticeable
point about the constitution is that the
suffrage is based on educational quail
fications. 1t is evidently a very care
fully drawn instrument.
The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1890-08-20

Mr.. BLAINE has made valuable
convert to his reciprocity idea in Sena-
tor Edmunds. The latter introduced
on Monday the following amendment
to the tariff bill, which was referred
to the committee on finance "That
whenever the president of the United
States shall be satisfied that a sugar
producing country whence sugar is ex-
ported into the United States has abol-
ished its duties or taxes on importation
of the principal agricultural products
of the United States, he may, by proc
lamation, diminish or wholly remit the
duties imposed by law on sugar, or any
grades of sugar, produced and exported
directly from any such country into the
United States" This means a trade
between this country and a sugar
producing country. We are to give
free market for sugar in return for a
free market for agricultural products.
AS it is to be assumed that the price of
sugar will be lowered by such a trade,
it would seem that the gain would all
be with us. The southern sugar.
raisers might suffer, but every one
else would be better off.
The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1890-08-20

Business or personal considerations
should not deter republican voters from
going to the polls, or the fact that this is
the off year render any one Indifferent.
The state committee is entirely right
the republican state ticket must " COM
mand the respect and confidence of
every fair-minded voter in the state.n
AS journal in neighboring state
characterized it, "t the ticket is one of
the cleanest and strongest that the
Green Mountain boys have ever been
called upon to support" 1t deserves
majority " of which we shall be proud"
and we add our earnest exhortation to
the voters to come out and contribute
to booming majority for Page and
Fletcher. But the size of the majority
is, after all, chiefly a matter of party
or personal pride. One thousand ma.
jority, for all practical ends, is as good
as ten thousand or twenty-five thou
sand. 1t is the off year, and it is vain
to expect that the tension of national
issues, or national party pride, will be
applied and will pile up the majority of
presidential years. Of far greater inn
portance this year than the size of the
state majority is the election for rep
resentatives of men having, in the SUI
perlative degree, the constitutional
qualification of wisdom and virtue"
Never since the earlier years of the
state was there louder call that this
mandate of the constitution be con-
strued and obeyed in its letter and
spirit 1t is needless to recite at this
time the circumstances of the hour or
the con ditions that confront the state.
They were part and parcel of the late
canvass for governor, or have since
been the subject of discussion. The
developments of the census enforce the
necessity for enlisting all the practical
wisdom that is available in the work of
devising and putting into effective op-
Grafton such means as may be employed
to arrest the backward drift in the farm
ing towns of Vermont. The questions
that should employ the first and most
serious attention of the next legisla-
ture are for the most part of an in
tensely practical kind-and practical
men, successful men of affairs, whose
approved wisdom stands also the test
of superlative virtue, should be sent to
the house of representatives We care
less whether they are farmers, lawyers,
doctors or business men, provided they
have clear heads, sound judgment,
ample experience, broad and compre-
hensive views, supplemented by virtue
of a sterling type and the historic
patriotism of Vermonters. We adiure
every town to cast about among its citi-
zens for man of this stamp, and, put
ting under foot every other considera-
ton, bring him to the front and elect
him to the next general assembly. An
election of this sort, constituting rep
resentative body of the constitutional
kind, has in it more of real glory for
Vermont, more of hope and encour-
agement, than the heaviest major
ity by which the state has afore time
foretold the triumph of the national
republican cause.
The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1890-08-20
The Coming Election.

September 2, the date of the next BIZ
ennial election, is near at hand. The
state committee has issued an address
I" to the color-bearers of the republican
party in Vermont '-and incidentally.
we assume, to the rank and file of the
party-reminding the voters that " i'm
portant issues are before the people -:
that 4" it is of the greatest Importance
this year that men of ability and char
acter be elected to both branches of the
legislature" and that call legislation
should be in the line of economv,"
while eschewing "niggardliness and
stinginess." In view of /" the quiet but
persistent efforts of the democratic
leaders in Vermont to create the impress
sion that there is opposition to the pro-
hibitory law of our state" the COM
mittee warns the friends of morality and
temperance that they can not afford
to be absent from the polls on the first
Tuesday of September. The pride of
Vermont in her republican maiorities
is recited, and "the color-bearers " are
adjured not to lower the standard now.
The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1890-08-20

The correspondence between this
government and France regarding the
duty imposed by the latter on American
pork reveals the fact that this duty is
levied on economic rather than sanitary
grounds. The French are not willing
to compete with us in raising pork. No
fault could be found with them for
taking that position if they made the
rule of exclusion general. AS it is,
however, they seek only to prohibit the
importation of American pork. The
government at Washington is trying to
make them see that this is not fair
play. Retaliation by excluding French
wines is talked of.
The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1890-08-20

SOME of the provisions of the new
constitution of Brazil are peculiar-as,
for instance, that declaring clergymen
ineligible to become members of con-
gress. This and other provisions con-
corning religious matters show the pur-
pose of the government to completely
secularize the state. Civil marriages
are compulsory, no religious instruction
is to be given in the public schools,
Jesuits are to be excluded, and no
church is to receive any support from
The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1890-08-20

THE NeW York Tribune reports that
John d. Rockefeller will give $780,
100000 to found a national Baptist
university at New York. Such an
amount of money in good hands would
thoroughly equip great university,
and in poor hands it might be entirely
wasted. New York is not so good a
location for such an institution as Chi
cago would be. Perhaps the greatest
need of Chicago is a well-appointed
university of the highest order.
The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1890-08-20

THE great military demonstration by
the Grand Army of the Republic dur
ing all of last week gave Boston an adj
ditional population mounting up to
hundreds of thousands. Passing over
the immediate purposes of the gather
ing and the interests of its military par
Elephants, it was specially important as
a great object-lesson to our younger
voters, to growing boys and girls and
to those adopted citizens who have i'm
migrated since 1865, the closing year of
the great civil war. Since that date
twenty-five years have elapsed. No
person under thirty-five can have any
definite recollections of the fearful
struggle, and much less than one-half
our population have passed thirty-fve
years. The recollection of even the
most eventful occurrences passes away
quickly, and many of the junior major
ity have hitherto read or heard little of
the events which happened before they
were born or in their early childhood.
We hope that the Grand Army's meet
ing will stimulate the interest of thou
sands in the civil war, for study of its
incidents will draw their attention to
the great principles which und erie our
government
The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1890-08-20

THE fourth annual meeting of the East
ern Vermont Association of Road and
Trotting Horse breeders began at ST. Johns
bury on last week Wednesday. Three
races occurred on that day Alton, owned
by f. j. Snider of Beebe Plain, won the
two-year-old stake; best time, 2;574.
Katisha, owned by Burbank x Williams of
Coventry won the four-year-old race best
time, 2:39l Tom Hamilton, owned by II.
Il. Brewster of PassumpSic, won the two
forty race best time, 2:40 On the second
day there was large attendance In the
yearling race, half-mile, Warwick, owned
by Mr.. Bean of Barton, won; best time,
1:47 The three-year-old race was won by
Harry H., owned by S. Harris of Nor
risville; best time, 2;56. The two-forty race,
stallion class, was won by Fred Wilkes of
Bates farm best time, 2:40. In the free
for-al race Factory Boy trotted the first
half-mile in 1;1lA, the fastest time ever made
at ST. Johnsbury. Factory Boy won the
race, his best time being 2;Oa.
The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1890-08-20

SENATOR EDMUNDs has drawn up
few rules to regulate debate on the
tariff bill, and he is now trying to have
them adopted by the senate. Their
chief provision is to limit speeches to
five minutes, and to allow but one
speech per senator on each item. The
purpose is of course to restrict debate
sufficiently to permit the passage of the
bill within a reasonable time. At the
same time an opportunity is given to
every senator to speak to the point on
any item. This is far better way
than that of fixing a time for voting, as
is done in the house. While it is i'm
perative that the tariff bill be passed,
it is equally imperative that careful
consideration be given each item. If
the house had not rushed the bill
through so precipitately less discussion
would be needed in the senate. Sena-
tor Edmunds' rules are as fair to demo-
Gratis as to republicans. They are
based on the principles of economy in
time, not on that of prohibition of
debate.
The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1890-08-20

IT is reported that an effort will be
made to arrange discussions on the
tariff reform issue at county fairs
throughout New York state this fall.
The national republican congressional
committee is said to favor the plan.
OF course the discussion would be of
value in giving information to men
who have few opportunities for hear
ing speeches by able debaters, but if
politics and agriculture were mixed on
these occasions the latter would be
likely to suffer. Agricultural fairs
should not attempt too much
The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1890-08-20

PROCTOR KNOTT of Kentucky, who
ridiculed Duluth in speech at Wash
ington, some years ago, as the zenith
city of the unsalted SEAS" has been at
that city recently and received a most
cordial welcome. Perhaps he is not
sorry he spoke" but he has learned
a good deal of the possibilities of west
ern cities since he made that speech.
The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1890-08-20

WILLIAM TELL is myth. Scholars
are sure about it, and the government
of Switzerland has ordered the story of
his sturdy opposition to tyranny to be
taken from the school histories. I'm
welcome as such news is, it is better
that the facts should be we'll under
stood. The truth is even more impor-
tant than a story of patriotism and
yalOr.