Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1898-09-15
THE LATE ELECTION IN VERMONT.


U'rom the Rutland Hcrald)
Men and newspapers are prone to find
what they want to find. and largely nc
cause of this fact sundry commentators
find sundry meanings in the Vermont
election figures which are hardly warrant
cd by the facts. Tho republican vote was
smaller than that OF 1896 or 1924 and the
air is fun OF high license talk: hence many
Observers incline to think that the repub-
lican party is losing and the democratic
one gaining because of the prohibition is
sue. We even see 1t suggested thnt demo-
Gratis may yet capture the State on the To-
cal option issue.
The Brattlcboro Rcformer finds that the
change came partly because people arc
Disguised with republican extravaganza
in State affairs. This extravaganza Is the
Reformer's specially" We con see moth
ing to indicate that tho result was affect
ed n particle by the cause mentioned. The
Springfield Republican naturally finds it
all due to what 1t calls the imperialism"
of the administration and "Algersm."
Nermonters are undcniably disguised with
Alger and ii is possible that a very few
republicans neglected to vote in conse-
quence, but there is not the slightest wor-
ny about imperialism" up here and we
do rot believe that all the causes named
affected the general vote enough TO be APP
preciable in the figures. We believe the
vote fell below that of the oshcr years
mcntioncd-althouSh not very low--be-
cause of relatively less interest and that
apart from apathy, the change signifies
nothing whatever.
And the mere fact of an increase in the
number of democrats sent to the Leg sla-
turc docs not necessarily have any gem
eral meaning. Republican Vermont towns
often send democrats to Montpelier be-
cause of personal popularity, and then the
action of course has nothing beyond a
purely personal significance. We had even
NOR, democratic representatives in 1880
than we have now. but their election had
no special Significance and no results,
1t seems to us that the significant and
important thing about the election Is the
fact that in some cases where democratic
representatives were elected the result
came upon the prohibition issue-the DEM
ocrats were elected because they were To-
cal option men. Republicans voted for
high license democrats rather than for
prohibitionists of their own party. How
many such cases there were we do not
know; the prominent Instances reported
are those in Burlington, Bennington,
! Rockingham and Bethel And the most
significant OF these came In the smallest
town-Bethel. This town Is in the heart
of the prohibition district" and is n typi-
cal rock-ribbed republican town of the
cast side. The prohibition question had
been actively convassed in Bethel for
months and the fight upon 1t election day
was sharp and heavy from start to finish.
There were fve ballots before a choice
was reached. Prohibition and high license
republicans divided the vote with the
democrat at the start but finally pract!c-
ally all opposition to prohibition united
/ upon the democrat and elected him.
We do not believe that Vermont will
become democratic because OF the rum
question. We Believe that the republican
politicians will see the handwriting on the
wall and themselves help to do away with
| prohibition.