The Portland daily press., 1897-05-28

anything--except for the various post
offices and customs houses which how
ever are national affairs. To refer to Mr..
Hill or Speaker Larrabee or Col Dow as
candidates is misleading and improper.
They may all become candidates at the
proper time,'' but until the advent of
that time they are not candidates in the
proper sense of the word. 1t may be the
proper time will never arrive and then
they will never be candidates. What is
the proper time'' in this connection?
That is q delicate question to answer,
involving great many diverse consider
ations. AS far as the seasons of the year
are concerned the spring is the most prop
er time. A boom planted in the spring
in the nature of things is more likely to
grow than if planted in heat of summer
or in the cold of winter We should I'M
hesitatingly recommend the springtime
| for boom planting But the settlement of
the season of the year is a comparatively
unimportant and easy matter. The chief
difficulty arises when one undertakes to
settle the time in relation to the existing
incumbency of the Office for which the
| boom is to be started. Take the office1 of
Governor, for illustration. A Governor is
elected for two years, but party usage has
decreed that good and faithful servant
shall be rewarded by another term of two
| years more, or at least nomination for an
other term. Now then the question arises
when is the proper time relative to the
| term of tho incumbent for an aspirant to
announce his candidacy. This is the diff
cult problem to solve. There are sound
reasons why the aspirant should not an
nounce his candidacy during the firstterm
of the incumbent. Of course there is no
improperly even in that preriod in pre-
empting the incumbent's shoes SO far as
may beIby an announcement of an intend
ed announcement of candidacy at the
proper time. An aspirant who should
neglect to take this precaution would be
reckoned "slow' but until the incumbent
has reached his zenith and has begun to
sink toward the western horizon posi-
tive announcement of candidacy is i'm
proper and in bad taste. Two years is
| e'ihPAO o1ilC III tilcoS ustyS "a idoo lHdlio
and telegraphs and abundance of news
papers to propel an aspirant's virtues in
to every nook and corner of the state.
The formal announcement of candidacy
should certainly not be made sooner than
two years before the election Within
that limit there may be room for honest
difference of opinion as to what is the
precise proper time' If the ideal
method of letting the Office seek the
man had not become obsolete we should
say it would be well for an aspirant not
to say much until he was asked, and that
| the proper time to declare his candidacy
was when a considerable number of his
fellow citizens asked him to, but very
few men could afford to wait for that
time. Our next election is in September
of next year. We should say that on the
whole the most proper time to an
nounce a candidacy for Governor
was in the month of April of
the following year. The incumbent could
not possibly be offended by an announce
ment then, the public would look
upon the aspirant as a man of heroic self
restraint for delaying it SO long and
nature would smile upon it along with
the other things she smiles on that time
of year. Let us have peace until April,
1899. Then let the formal announce
ments be made and the circus begin.