Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1906-09-15
Woodstock, W., Sept. is, 1906
What Have They Done for Yer
mont.

The recent election had the result
one looks for in Vermont. The Fed
eral patronage, state patronage, life
long habits and political supersti-
ton are still too strong here to be
overcome by reason. Elsewhere is
progress, and as progress is impossi-
BILE without change, elsewhere there
are changes. "In Vermont we let
well enough alone" say those who
were raised on the creed of Vermont's
officeholders. The policy of well
enough never made this country in
dependent, never made pioneers,
never inaugurated reform, never
invented a machine, never estab-
lished new industry and has left
Vermont tied to the post while 9th
ers run the race.
The "well-enoughs" of Vermont
have had absolute control of the
states government for 80 years. If
their assertions are true they have
had in their ranks, all those long
years, the best men Of the state.
"The Clement voters" says local
Republican authority, "can be picked
out of any checklist; they are the
men who want free rum, and the
ignorant foreigners" Our wise and
good men, then, have had it in their
power for so long years to show their
wisdom, their goodness and their
patriotic zeal by doing something
for the state. The wicked and the
ignorant have not even been heard
in their councils. And what have
these best men done for Vermont?
Of course they have devised ways Of
exploiting our resources and inviting
newcomers? No, for in so years
Vermont has gained but 10 per cent.
in population.
They have applied themselves to
the question of education, and dur
ing nearly two generations of full
control have built up the best school
system in all the land, thus showing
that their party is the party of intel
lect? No, for Vermont schools have
no distinctions, they are just barely
up to the average of the whole coun-
try, north and south in expendi
lures; they have not kept pace with
educational progress; manual train
ing was almost unknown in the state
until introduced in Woodstock by
private enterprise this summer;
woman teachers salaries here are
small-Kentucky, Tennessee and
Arkansas pay better-and the state
school report Of 500 pages is as bar
rem of inspiration as it is full of
figures.
But why continue? The plain fact
is that the party in power in Yer
mont during these so years of well
enough" policy have joined ordinary
capacity to unusual opportunity;
have had power to do and have been
content with offices to hold; could
have been the creators of a new Yer
mont and have rested in the creation
of new offices. They have had so
years of failure to make good, and
still have the face to boast of their
greatness.
Vermont is "sot" in her ways; she
has pottered along these 50 years,
barely keeping step with her sister
states of Maine and New Hampshire,
when her great and good guides and
rulers had free hand to drive her
ahead. Each new administration
has been change from common
place to ordinary and from ordinary
back to commonplace. Has Proctor
any plans for Vermonts advance
ment? Will he and his colleagues
give one hours thought to the prob
lem of Vermont's industrial, COM
mercial, agricultural and educational
development? Not if he is to re-
main in his class of "well-enoughs"
mot for them is change and pro-
gress. His administration like his
predecessors, will be enlivened only
by the creation of new commissions
and will gain lustre only from the
gold lace on the uniforms Of his
body-guard.
GOOD ROADS QUESTION