The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1896-02-05
Some Returns.

ence recently made some rather peril
nent inquiries in these columns re-
speeding the public services of Major
Josiah Grout, candidate for governor.
He seemed somewhat incredulous on
the subject and asked the majors
friends for specifications. His brief
interrogations related entirely TO pub
lie matters and were couched in re-
spectful language. The Barton Moni
tor, which, next TO the Rutland Herald,
may be considered the candidates
newspaper factotum, is the first to an
swer, and furnishes the subjoined spec
iticalions:
GAS the almanacs say, about this time
look out for letters and correspondence
in the Vermont Watchnean casting filings and
digs at Major Grout. Neighbor Ropes pa.
per has a remarkable faculty of obtaining
letters derogatory to the standing OF such
persons as he opposes. Why not come out
squarely and oppose man il there is any
thing against him, either as a candidate or
a man?"
The st. Johnsbury Caledonian gives
the Monitors bill of particulars this
endorsements:
I" Press comments of serious character
concerning the candidates for governor
have thus far been creditable, and 1t is to be
hoped they will so continue. If any of the
candidates are bad, expose them openly and
not by insinuations, innuendoes, face.mak.
lag and all manner OF indirections known
as mares nests. Incog. correspondents
better unmask and show their troubled
cOuntenanCes."
This seems to be conclusive. Nothing
further is needed. On the speciica.
tions submitted, and their Enforcement,
the case might be referred TO the public
judgment without further Calculation.
But here is another of those letters
which the WATCHMAN has re-
markable faculty for obtaining" that
goes somewhat into details:
81 am surprised to know that there can
be any one in the whole length and breadth
of this state, and especially that there can
be man who has been A Soldier and an
Elk Member who is asking Major CIRCUITS
friends to specify his public services To
go no further back than 1884, did he not
then secure the defeat of the town system
member remember that the bill had been
worked along past its third reading and
there was great danger Of its passing, when
Major Grout, then representing Derby, pro-
posed the referendum substitute that
knocked the bottom out of the original
measure? True, he had been pretending to be
the friend of the bill, and so was able to fool
many into the belief that his su bs titute was
really the town system; but the end JUS.
tilted the means. The obnoxious reform
was put off for a number of years.
again, doesn't "A Soldier and an ex-Mem-
Der remember what hubub there was in
1886 over a railroad commission? Doesn't
he know that the senate had always been
the misplaced switch that had wrecked that
measure, and that al majority of the
county conventions in 1886 that switch had
been spiked down and the commission bill
given the right of way2 Well, Major Grout
was elected speaker of the house. That
ended all danger of passing law that
would give lot OF busy, bodies a chance to
bother the roads by nosing over their books,
asking troublesome questions about their
affairs, freight and passenger-rates, and
obliging the companies to do things they
didn't want to do. He fixed the railroad
committee so that no such bill could be re.
ported, aud the thing was done. A DILL was
reported toward the last OF the session that
made the commission only sort of coro
ner's jury and gave several ex-governors
and others nice job at good salary-and
peace reigned in Warsaw again. Some dis
appointed cranks who had some raw ideas
about the peoples rights, especially the
farmers right to cheap and reasonable rates
on their produce TO market, were mad, and
accused the speaker of treachery; but great
emergencies call for and excuse such harm.
less expedients as packing legislative COM
| mittees.
90 Soldier and Ex- Member isn't as igno-
rant as he appears to be. If he has kept his
| ha ha fnr
specifications. The highways as we'll as
the rail ways and the schools, and almost
every other interest in the state, has had
the advantage of Major CIRCUITS brand OF
craftsmanship, and it would be base ingrati-
tude in those who have had the benefit OF
his public services not to make him Cover.
nor, or TO try. In closing, / might remind
Soldier and Ex-Member that Major Grout
who was in the senate in 1892, had the credit
OF pocketing and preventing the passage OF
the free textbook bill on the last night OF
the session, thus deferring for two years
that piece OF paternal legislation, His
methods might have been little irregular
but here again the end justified the means
This correspondent also has been in
the legislature. His specifications may
not be quite 80 specific as the Monitors
and they may not meet the approval OF
lho CuttuOHtuH, D6Chuso luS WIlIeT
an 'incog. correspondent" Neverthe
less, he seems to be accurately stating
some of the truths of Vermont's recen
legislative history, and it is this fact
not the personality of the writer, tina
most concerns the WATCHMAN's con
temporary critics. Pseudonyms have
always been the refuge of politica
writers. "Junius" and Publius
are honored names in the history o
political controversy and warfare agsins
abuses in government. In the words
of Soldier and Elk. Member" tn,
Monitor should specify" not whine
about "casting filings and digs" l
seems to be the contemporary that i
dealing in "innuendo and insinuation.
To the Monitor its Caledonia coadju
tOr's a6mOnitiOn ahOuld he a6droasad