Windham County reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1901-1906, 1904-07-15
PLAIN TALK FOR PLAIN PEOPLE.
Crisp and Breezy Comment on Mat.
tiers In the Public Eye.
written for the ReformerI

political promises so for naught2 To
wit:
Here's my roseate and ornamental
colleague of the Bradford opinion.
Harry II. Parker, good republican,
Icapable man, n man possessed of
Legitimate and honorable ambitions
like other folks. For quarter GEN.
uury or so he has Loyalty fought the
fights of the party, doomed the local
! favorite sons and given several thou
sand dollars worth of publicity to
men and things republican. The 9TH
er day he conceived the notion OF be-
ing county senator, Why, | don't
know. In the light OF resulting facts
/ Heaven only knows. But Harry got
the bee aud very properly called on
Those old line republicans, whose bat-
ties he had been fighting for IS years
for support Did he get Il? Yes
where tennis players get sunhurnt
He didn't even get honorable men
ton. and those sweet-voiCed political
sirens whose honeyed words had prom
ised Harry everything from the pres
idencv down to fence viewer If he only
Kept in line inserted long and steely
knife into Harry's back and kept right
on working their own little games.
Moral?
Simply this. Newspaper men are the
softest things in the whole glimmering
landscape of political graft When
these great men are candidates we get
the finger crushing handshake, the
glad and glowing eye, the overwhelm-
ing come-on After we help to elect
them. what then2 Why. | once heard
lawyer, and lawyers are chronic Of
fice-seekers, say, with n supercHious /
droop OF the eye and an aristocratic (
curl of the lip: ooh, yes newspapers I
are all rlght-we all have to use them /
sometimes but no young man who T
wants to rise should ever go into jour-
nalism." And the worst of II all is. I
that he was absolutely right, political T
ly.
If Vermont newspapers know their (
business they will put an early end to 1
this political puff game simply because I
some tiresome verbalist wants an Of T
flee They will speak a good word for I
men only who deserve IL. They will
quit being organs and become newspa-
pers. The idea of party loyalty. that
n newspaper to support GER
tain state ticket, even though that
ticket reeks with corruption, incompe-
tency and graft, is played out What
does any party do for any newspaper K
that its editor should suppress his Z
sent opinions and boom its
regardless of fitness. de-
cency or public purity?
There's nothing personal about this
little roar. | never was candidate
for office and never expect TO be. II
there's anything that interferes with a .
mans best work in n business or a
profession II Is getting tied up with
measly nasty, earaway comtit polit- /
cal scrap. The newspaper man ought +,
o be an observer and trained. accu- ,
ate reviewer of all events, political 4
ma otherwise, but the closer he sticks !
o the plain. unvarnished news value i
hereof. the better for himself and his /
,aper III
John T. Harris on the eve OF desert {
ng his strenuous government job in
for the lingering sweet I
Tess of amateur husbandry in Danville, q
aid that the editorial utterances of q
in Vermont were "A cease q
ess, trickling stream OF sad and dreary 4
riyel" This is a particularly ungra- h
ious remark from John. as 1t is an
pen secret that his knowledge of pub
ic mems foibles and republican party
neanness, boldly and trenchautly set
orth in the public prints, We're the =
hings that secured for him his eX =
remedy cosy position in the senate =
ostoffice. The powers that be could :,
't stop his driyel in Vermont. so they I
transferred him to Uncle Sans friend :
! care in Washington. So John, If Il
on want our dreary drivel stopped, =
lst get us all a comfortable Job AT \
he capitol, where we can draw huge, !,
oluptuous salary and crack away 4
bout the dreary driveling of the poor !:
lcompetent hacks we have left behind. j
1t surely looks like serious tropble in
ne marble business this summer. The
sue is piece work against daily
age, and the unions insist that the :,
)rmer must go The Proctors, who Il
ontro the marble business in effect, u
afuse the demand and the strike is on. y
here seems to be a renewal of the ~
white slave" business of two years ago, :.
5 President Fitzgerald of the Marble
forkers says: Think of his going I,
own to Cuba and submitting a re- -
ort on conditions that brought on a -,
ar. while back in Vermont he knew itss'
2 had a plantation of white slaves ol
lat We're in even in a worse condition -
ian the Cubans" And presidential =
Ear, too. %
al
As a matter of fact, Mr.. Fitzgerald is tn
liking rubbish and he knows it. An sii
terance like the above stamps him pc
the cheapest kind of demagogue. OF
here are abuses in the piece work
stem and they ought to be remedied,
1t the importation of such a loose
outhed ranter as this Fitzgerald--if
IS quoted right-will do more TO hurt ~
e legitimate union idea than years of ~ ~
ucation and conservative, public ~,
inning constructiveness in the cause -,
united labor can do. to help it. s,i
III;
The principal crouch l have against in
e union idea is the cheap skates and We
bby buffers that get into control on
hat self-respecting manager could do pr
siness with such man as this Fitz- be
raid without wanting to boot him Gle
t of the office, and why are honest IS
,rble workers in Vermont compelled OUT
carry him as a handicap? SIN
90
My sole experience in unionism dates the
elk to the telegraphers' organization acc
the Central Vermont. There were for
out 80 telegraphers in every 100 or
nized and the boys meant business.
ey had the support of the train-men.
ginemen and public, didn't ask for
ything unreasonable and stood a l
Cd chance of getting it. Enter a the
g-haired westerner with a wide ING
mined hat a staggering gait and sen
, title of president. He rolled into $40
general managers office. said. siii
here's Fitzhugh?". put up at good De
-els. rode on C. V. pass and drew vas
salary. He talked. bluffed and told sta