Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1890-04-04
The Monitors Imagination.

dried at iLr icrislaf,lre in 1855. 4 Now
as the Monitor is doubtless laboring under an
shape, we make tho statement that neither
the Monitor nor any member of the Icgisla-
lure OF Io9S ever heard COZ. Nood9ury allude
to the matter during the session. This state
mcnt cannot he truthfully disputed. Further
than this there are not three men in Vermont
who can say that until this year Of our Lord
1870, Mr. Woodbury. has spoken or written
them about the goVernOrshp unless first APP
reached upon the subject, ana since th?n Pnt
Monitor with the Ignorance it processes. The
republicans in all pRrts of the state know who
has written them upon the governor question
and has implorcd their support for n year or
more The Monitor should get posted. st.
Adams Messenger.
Tho Messenger keeps well within the
truth. There was an aspirant for the gov
ernorship, who if he is not atrociously be
lied, was interesting his friends, obtaining
commitments in his favor, and engaging or
trying TO engage agents to push his candi-
dacy, as long ago rs the last session of the
Legislature. This "too previous aspirant
was not the lieutenant governor. Ono can
didate for the nomination, since the public
canvass opened in his behalf by the issue of
the Watchman's circular, more than six
months ago. has been flooding the mails with
letters of personal solicitation, inquiry and
remonstrance to an extent entirely without
precedent in Vermont politics. lie has
probably written more letters of this sort in
the last three months than were written by
all the previous candidates for governor,
since our State was founded, put together.
His name is not Woodbury.. Letter writing
is no misdemeanor, and perhaps this kind of
a personal canvass is all right. Perhaps
tl1f III
like it. Perhaps the old principle,
once high in favor in our Green
Mountain commonwealth that the Office
should seek the man, has become obsolete.
Certainly, in this free country, candidates
are entitled to their choice of methods
long as they transgress no law of the land.
But when Mr.. Pages friends mlsrepresent
and criticize the way in which Col. Wood
bury's canvass has been conducted, they
cannot complain if attention is called to
some of the peculiar methods employed on
their side OF the question. Col. Wood
bury's course has been square and manly
throughout. and he and his friends have not
the slightest reason TO fear a comparison
either of records or methods.
Points for our Free Trade Friends.
The attention of our free-trade friends
who are arguing that the decadence of New
England agricultural interests is due to
the operation of the Morrill, tariff is called
to the following statement which will APP
pear in Commissioner of immigration Val
entine's forthcoming official report to the
State Legislature;
The spring Of 1881 first saw in any noticea-
bic degree the desertion of farms in this state.
The year $50 found the tide from the state
fairly in motion. This was cO-incident with
and following the great panic of 1887. Our
manufactures OF iron and textile fabrics, then
in their infancy, We're closed business came
to "A standstill and the home m arket for farm
produce was greatly curtailed.
Mr.. Valentine adds by way of illustration
that his father, a manufacturer, was al
most ruined financially by the practical
repeal of the high tariff enactment of 1871
| 2S, and that the iron furnace in Bcnning
ton, employing hundreds of men, failed in
1888, as a direct result Of the tariff legisla-
ton, spreading disaster abroad.
But our purpose at this time is to call at
tention more particularly to the facts that
will be brought out in Mr.. Valentines re
port relating 10 the time when the poorer
ests of this State, and presumably of
the other New England States also, be
gan first to feel the effects of emigration.
| our commissioners report viii show that
the commencement OF the exodus from
Vermont of its farming population was at
the beginning of the free trade period after
the prosperity Of our country under a pro-
! tective tariff. More than one-half of the
! lands abandoned for farming purposes were
! abandoned between the years of 1886 and
| 1860 or during the period when free trade
was the policy Of the party in power. 1t
does not follow, neither is it claimed that
| the farms of Vermont We're deserted be
cause of the democratic policy of free trade
which prevailed from 1886 to 1860; but it
does follow, and it is asserted withou,
fear of successful contradiction, that such
desertion was not because OF high tariff
! legislation, as more than one-half of the
! present unoccupied farms We're vacated be
fore the enactment of the so-called Morril
tariff bill. and it is fair deduction that
the exodus from Vermont of its farming
population was, at first at least, accelerated
by the free trade enactment referred to,
and the consequent destruction of our man
ufacturng industries, and loss of home
market
But whatever was the first cause, certain
ly there are reasons enough why the exodus
continued to a very recent period. Among
these reasons most prominently stands the
fact that the free homesteads on the fertile
western praries attracted our young farm
ers, and their parents We're left on the farms
without help in some instances to conduct
them successfully, and, years passe d
many of these parents died, and no one was
at hand to take their places. Hence the
unoccupied dwellings, and lands unculti
waited.
We understand that some Of the demo
cratic members of Congress have procureC
copies of Commissioner Valentines 'red
map to be utilized in free-trade speeches "a
object less ons of the terrible results follow
ing the enactment of the Morrill, tariff bill
II ic ia ba bopaI that thpsa SnnarI "a lar