Windham County reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1901-1906, 1906-08-17
BRATTLEBoRo, FRIDAY, AUG. IT, 1900
A Chance to Smash the Machine.


that exist in New England today give
ground for the belief that Vermont
will get its long. looked.for cleansing as
result of the election which takes
place two weeks from Tuesday. This
state is not alone in its feeling of I'M
rest and dissatisfaction. In Maine the
popular revolt against the prohibitory
law, which has been growing in inten
sity for the past several years, is likely
TO reach its climax this fall. The
strenuous campaign which Winston
Churchill is making against railroad
control is finding a large response from
the thinking voters of New Hampshire
Rhode Island revolt against bossism
shows itself in the Independent sena
torial candidacy of Col. Goddard, who
has been Endorsed by the democrats oil
a-platform against the stand-pat policy
In Connecticut there promises to be
fight against lobby r-iie in the legisla
ture with the likelihood that Mayor
Thayer of r,orwich will be the demo
cratic candidate for governor. Massa
chusetts political upheavals in the last
few years have caused no end of com
ment and there is prospect of an
other stiff contest in that state.
The awakening that has come to Yer
mont as result of an organized move
ment against republican machine rule
will be a source of good to the politics
of the state whatever the result. Pre-
vious to 1902 the responsibilities of this
state were few. Once in four years
it was necessary for it to come forward
and set the ball rolling by a big ma.
jority for the grand old party so that
national leaders could have an oppor'
tunity to make use of the time-honored
proverb, As Goes Vermont So Goes the
Nation. In "off year" elections there
was nothing to do but see that the I'M
written law about mountain rule was
obeyed. This peaceful state of affairs
was radically changed four years ago
when Mr.. Clement, as an Independent
candidate for governor, polled nearly
10000 votes on the local.option issue
and threw the election into the legis-
lature. As result of the scare re-
ceived in that campaign the regular
republican leaders awoke to the fact
that the state had issues of its own at
stake and that the whip of partizan-
ship was beginning to lose its power.
The need of investigation of state in
situations could no longer be overlook
ed, and there were other things which
the ring leaders were forced to admit
needed attention. The reforms that
have come to the state during the past
four years are the direct result of Mr..
Clement s independent candidacy, and
it is a fair conclusion that none of them
would have come about had the regular
republican machine been allowed to
pursue it's course unmolested. The re-
publican state platform of 1906 would
not have had so many planks pertain
ing to state issues if the leaders of the
party had not felt it imperative to the
,,,oooee of THAR oousn
In Vermont today there are many
voters, heretofore strict republican
partizans, who put no trust in the
promises of the republican party. These
voters realize that the promises were
made as matter of expediency and
come too late to inspire confidence in
those who were forced to make them.
No fair observer can say that affairs
in Vermont are as they should be. Elk
penses have shown an increase wholly
out of proportion with the progress of
the state along other lines The man
agement of the various departments is
woefully out-of-date. Conditions in
the state institutions, particularly the
state prison, have been found to be I'M
speakably bad. And these things have
been allowed to exist under republican
ring rule; that s the point that sticks
in the crop of the voter who is asked
to swallow the Proctor pill
The masses of figures that the state
committee have spread broadcast in an
effort to prove everything all right can
not convince the people. The personal
attacks on the career of Mr. Clement
carry little weight when it is consid-
cred that they come from republican
machine leaders who are doing every
thing possible to "hold down their
Jobs" Mr.. Clement may not be an
ideal candidate but his candidacy Of
fers to the people of Vermont an op-
portunity that may not come to them
again in this decade. 1t is an oppor-
tunity to smash the political machine
which has ruled Vermont so long and
SO carelessly. That's the issue, and
the people should not lose sight of it.