The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1901-04-24
Bitterness, Indeed,

The funeral Of Aldace f. Walker at
Rutland today, reminds us that Yer
mont's noted sons and daughters are
always finally brought back home to
rest in the shadow of the old Green
Mountains And there is more than
passing touch of sentiment in the
thought. There is still tinge of Bit
terness that the old Mother state that
treasures their ashes could not have
shared in the honor of their life work,
too. 1t is not the fault of the Yer
monter. Whose is it?
Not far to seek. Col. Walker, among
other things, was the mover and stead
fast supporter of State railroad COM
mission, one with backbone land the
claws and teeth of sovereignty-nOt
for "criminal aggression" or neces-
sarily to render itself disagreeable in
the business community. He was sue
cessively thwarted and turned down,
and by the same influences which en-
ployed Josiah Grout, speaker, in the
Legislature of 1886, to hamstring, or
to provide for its emasculation-the
measure presented in that year, which,
as enacted, constitutes the statutory
fungus that to this day has chung to
the State, with emo Jurisdiction" in the
cases in which its assistance to remedy
wrong or injustice is invoked. Those
influences drove many capable son of
Vermont into obscurity or self-expatri-
alton. They are thing of the past,
but their footprints are seen here and
there over the State. 1t was, indeed,
not the fault of this particular Ver-
monter that he went outside the State
to find swing and sway for the powers
the Lord gave him.
There is little room in Vermont for
men of the stamp OF Col. Walker. The
governorship has no attractions for
them. The bench has none. Send
them to the Legislature, and let them
father any measure, like the railroad
commission bill, or any other that
transcends in importance the legal
length of fish or the time in which it
may be taken, or the line OF demarka-
ton between puphood and doghood,
which has to do with Vermont's great
and vital interests, and he is con-
fronted by the dead weight of a non
representative law-making body which
ton of dynamite could not raise, but
which becomes the easy prey of dema-
bo
proceedings of the Legislature at the
sessions of 1898 and 1900 Selfrespect-
ing men, with the ability to command a
hearing and high places of influence
elsewhere, do not long buck their heads
against the rough stone wall that
hedges Vermont's progress about. New
fields and pastures green invite them
beyond the borders of the State. They
Jump the uncongenial environ ment and
fame and fortune come to them.
Vermont has an area one thous and
square miles larger than that of Mass,
achusetts, but the State shelters popu-
lation nearly two and one-half million
less. Vermont has two Representa-
lives in Congress, Massachusetts has
thirteen. The opportunities for men
of eminent ability in the national SER
vice are thus extremely limited-at
home, but many Vermonters are serv-
ing other States at Washington with
success and distinction. The great
disparity in population and prosperity
between these two adjoining States is
not explained wholly by natural or
physical causes. In these respects
Vermont has some great advantages
over Massachusetts. She has larger
area and vastly better soil. She has
greater natural resources and abund'
ant power of the best and cheap
est kind for industrial pursuits outside
of agriculture. Vermont's stagnation
her hating advance and decrepit rank
materially, among her sister States il
in some large measure q matter of
government grotesquely unrepublical
in form, and as much of an anach
ronysm among the governments o
States of the Union which have bee
scurrying far in the lead as is the oil
one horse shay in the means of transpor
among the iron greyhounds of tn
times.
1t is, indeed, matter of bitterness
EllBAMDUDE VV'