Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1898-12-09
SPIRIT OF THE PRESS
FACTS AND OPINIONS GATHERED
FROM CONTEMPORARIES.
CANDIDATE CIRCUIT ON ECONOMY IN
STATE EXPENDITURES.

CANDIDATE CIRCUIT ON ECONOMI IN
STATE EXPENDITURES.
At the annual meeting of the State
Grange in December, 1896, resolutions
were unanimously adopted relating to
retrenchment in public expenditures in
this state and reduction of official
salaries. In pursuance of instructions
from the executive committee of the
Grange. Hon. Alpha Messer, the secre-
tary of the committee, called the atten-
ton of the candidates for the governor
ship, early in the canvass of 1896, to
these resolutions and asked from each
an expression of his views on the ques-
lions involved. The reply of Josiah
Grout, then candidate for the Repub-
lican nomination to the office of gov
ernor, will have some interest at this
time as showing how the views of the
candidate and the practice of the
elected official coincide-or fail to har-
monte. Subioined is Mr.. CIRCUITS
answer to the courteous inquiry of the
Grange official:
DERBY, VT, May s. 1896
ALPHA MEssER, ESQ.
Sec'y Ex.Com. VT Grange
Rochester, VT
Nm Dear m. Messer.-Yours OF the fourth
inst, stating the desire of your committee
to know my views upon the subject matter
of state expenses, mas been considered and
for answer will say regard it the duty of
every citizen of Vermont to lend his inhu
ence and cast his vote to secure the mini
mum of expenditure in state disbursements
Every state expense should be kept upon
the most economical basis consistent with
the W. flare of the public service Economy,
ALWAYS n virtue, becomes in the eXtgencies
of the times a necessity, and should be
practiced as well in public as private AT
fairs. Our public outgoes should be mea
sured by our income, which, upon just and
equal basis, should be regulated according
to the taxpaying ability of the people and
needs of the state. Subjected to the lowest
price known in years for everything ne
produces, the farmer may well urge the
most frugal practices in administering the
affairs OF state; and being a farmer | sin
cerely sympathize with him and hope he
will, i'm common with all the people of the
state contend for simplicity and economy
which will more surely than anything else
lead us to prosperity and happiness. | am
in accord with the purpose of the resolutions
to which you refer. Thanking you for the
honor of your inquiry, am cordially,
JOSIAH CIRCUIT.
Look on this picture. then on that re-
vealed by the recent investigations.
"Everv state expense should be kept
on the most economical basis" etc; on
the reverse side, a prOngate, and the
largest, expenditure of public money, in
detail and in the aggregate, by the eX-
ecutive ever known or dreamed of in
the history of the state. ECONOMY,
always a virtue, becomes in the ext
gences of the times necessity, and
should be practiced as well in public
as private affairs" but the candidates
economy, when he became governor,
was like the necessity that knows no
law. or restraint of any kind He plan
ned expeditions right and left, far and
near. in violation of law and usage, and
approved the bills that drew the money
from the state treasury. He became a
ticket broker, and the state furnished
the capital and stood in the gap when
his speculation failed. Hotel parlors,
Pullman cars, opera house boxes, horses
and coaches, a glttering staff and the
state militia administered to his comfort
and contributed to his state at Nashville,
New York and Washington, and the
taxes drawn from the farmer, "subjected
to the lowest price known in years for
everything he produces, T." and with whom
81 sincerely sympathize," paid the bills.
Well, these farmers, 'in common with
all the people of the state" are proper
subjects for sympathy, and they have
begun, in dead earnest, to contend
for simplicity and economy which will
more surely than anything else lead us
to prosperity and happiness and this
faWnlng preacher, between whose pro-
LESSONS as a candidate and practices as
magistrate there islan abysmal depth,
is very prperly one of the first victims
of the OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES Watch
man.