Windham County reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1901-1906, 1902-04-11
Mr.. Clements Candidacy.

ringing and clatter,' but the noun
tans tremble not, as Percy W. Glenn
ent of Rutland leaps into the field
with procurement of his purpose to
take the Republican nomination for
governor, on gh-license local OPP
ton platform. Indeed the occasion be-
comes one of hilarity in the eagerness
of long time advocates of local option,
like the Burlington News, to get to
cover, yelling that they "obiect to a
local option candidate at this time. "
Clements "only object, y the News de-
clares is to "beat Fletcher Proctor. !"
1t is not at all unlikely that this will be
the result, for there is hatred between
the Proctor and Clement clans, and
the virulence of it has been evident in
the Rutland Herald's lampooning of
Proctor which though exceedingly
bright, has been grossly unjust But
on question of principle rather than
personalities which for the first time in
30 years has been projected into our
state politics, what proper place is
there for considering the loves or hates
of individuals? There never has been
since representative institutions began
an issue or idea or a question that
could not have been smothered by such
considerations or single step of ad-
vancemert that would not have been
arrested if they had been given para
mGuntcy. 1t is the very essence of free
government that measures, not men,
shall be our rallying points and the
only question about any man or candi-
date should be whether he worthily or
adequately represents the ideas for
which we wish to vote. Any other test
is belittling to citizenship and there
could be no completer evidence of the
degeneracy of present day politics that
it is any and every other test that pre-
walls.
What is there about Gen. McCul-
Tough, Fletcher Proctor or Percy
Clement, estimable and able gentle
men as all are, that is worth mo-
ment's consideration by the side of
such great fundamental question as
this, whether the prohi1itory poll
cy shall be continued? What, besides
this, is there in the whole contest be- /
yond the desire of each for the Office or
fulfilment of the bargains of the poll
ticians?
Mr.. Clements letter, which appears
in another column, contains lot of
frozen truth. 1t is to be said also in
justice to him that the doctrine he
promulgates now is only what he has
openly and avowedly stood by for
years with pluck that is admirable
and would be more so If it were sutfi-
cient to carry him beyond party lines.
1t is possible for him to make lively
fight inside his own party and he is
willing to match both his competitors
in expenditure to come within sight
of success Probably the Republican
voters of the state are not far from
equally divided between those who sin
cerely believe in the prohibitory law
and those who believe local option to
be better way of dealing with the
subject, and it is the fact of this equal {
division that causes the party as a
party to dodge the question, keeping y,
it out of its platform, but yielding to t
the prohibitionists in carrying the law
to steadily absurder lengths and at the !
same time using the lawless saloon t
power most effectively for the personal t
ends of its politicians and in places as
an adjunct of the party organization .
itself. But Clement is sure of defeat !
in his attempt to turn the party in a h
If politics will be against him: be :
.ause the vast opportunities of plum
Ter which the law contains for the
party and the politicians, the lawyers,
heritfs and individual blackmailers,
Who are potent in party management, I
will not be surrendered because a
arge proportion of the rumsellers a
and those of the worst and Il
most pestilential kind, prefer the pres Il
mt system to one that would bring 0
hem under severe taxation and rigid y
upervision: and because all the forces {,
f political and moral cowardice, will ii
enforce these influences. 1t could
My be from a big majority of rank y y
nd file voters that enough could be h
OF out to the caucuses to prevail IL
gainst such combination of infu- III
noes led and guided by the paid 81
-orkers, caucus fixers, hill travellers o,
nd sample copy distributors pl
Clement, therefore, has put himself m
] position where he can do no real "
God except by stirring up things. He "
i'll not invoke political excommunica- bi
on by attempting to carry the fight
eyond the convention. Indeed he pfs
ould not without deserving it, be- W,
iuse there is sense to the general m
merican idea that when man sub u
tits his cause or his candidacy to the Vi
'bitrament of convention, he cannot r,
onorably do it on the "heads | win. Sc
lie won 1oca,- hoS;c opl ,,,,,c+ As