The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1899-08-02
District Politics.

The far away gaze of the Free Press
has at length been recalled to affairs at
its own door. The force of circum-
stances has finally compelled the
contemporary to take note of the polit-
ical commotion in the State, and par
ticularly in the first congressional dis
trict. In it's issue of Monday IL prints
list of twenty.four State papers which
it says "do not favor the denomination
of Judge Powers, and that are in ia
vor of ex.Gov. Carroll s. Page as his
successor in Congress-" The contem-
porary regards it ga significant circum-
stance that nearly half of the Republic
can papers in the State have thus early
expressed themselves, and it further
observes that almost all these papers
"are published in the second district"
II this were the fact it should hardly
be the occasion for the strain of bitter
ness that pervades the Free Press COM
ments. The second district people are
Vermonters and have common inter-
est in the welfare of the State. Dewey
is a Vermonter, not second district
Vermonter merely, and his fame is the
patrimony of the Wholesale. The whole
American people have for years taken
very active and justifable interest in
the political affairs of the district in
Maine Tom Reed has been represent
ing. Not many years ago they were
taking a similar interest in the Ohio
district in which William Mckinley
was candidate for Representative in
Congress. Second district people and
newspapers are entirely within the
rights and proprieties in the matter in
any interest they may be taking in first
district affairs.
But is it true that "almost all the
papers which have taken sides in re-
gard to the succession in the first dis
trict are published in the second dis
trict"? Are Readsboro, Fair Haven,
Poultney, Brandon, Morrisvllle, Cam
bridge, Jericho, Vergennes, Rutland,
Bristol, and last but not least, Burling-
ton, in the second district Newspa-
pers in these towns have declared their
preference in the matter of Represent
alive in Congress. Four of the five
papers in Rutland county, and two of
the three in Addison, shave taken sides
in regard to the succession in the first
district" Are not Rutland and Addison
counties in the first district? Accord
ing to the tally sheets about one half
of the papers in that district "have ex-
pressed themselves with greater or
less positiveness" on this question of
the succession. The Free Press should
correct its reckoning.
This papers business, as WATCH
MAN on the towers of this part of the
political Jerusalem, is to proclaim the
news, the facts of political controversy,
and any other proper matters of public
interest. The matters in question, it
is clear-and becoming clearer day by
day-are of lively public concern, from
Canada line to Massachusetts, from the
lake to the river boundary, and they
are proper for publication, without
prejudice to any interest, without di-
minution or enlargement. AS vera
cious chronicler of facts and events it
is proper to add that the papers in the
first district which have thus far de.
clared their preference are quite unan-
imously in favor Of Carroll s. Page of
Hyde Park, and current report is that
there are others.