Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1906-08-30
Charlotte, August 81. 1906.
WHY CLEMENT HAS FAILED MTSER-
ABLY IN HIS ATTEMPTS TO
FOOL THE PEOPLE.

WHY CLEMENT HAS FAILED MTSER-
ABLY IN HIS ATTEMPTS TO
FOOL THE PEOPLE.
OFrom the Deerneld Valley Times.)
Had Percival W. Clement, backed by
q consistent record or lacking any political
record at all. come before the voters with
n programme calculated to remedy such
errors as tho Republican party had fallen
into; had he fairly and candIdly presented
MS case ana shown his remedies to be
good ones; had Ire impressed the electorate
with his sincerity and the roctitude of
his intentions, then Vermont might have
so far entered into the spirit of the times
as to give him serious consideration and
possibly a chance to show what an in
dependent administration could do for the
benefit of the State.
But not one of these conditions has
Clement fulfilled. His excursions into and
out of the Republican party show him,
IN the first place. to be n time server and
eXpedientist and are calculated to create
distrust of his motives. His record rs n
legislator, too, is fatty in contradiction to
ms pretentions rs n popular champion.
TOR while he was In the Senate he voted
and acted as all corporationists vote and
act-and that is never for the public
good.
But 1t needs neither Clements political
history nor his senate record to condemn
him in the esteem of the thinking citizen.
ne whole conduct of his present cam
paign spells him untrustworthy. He has
made general charges of corruption in
Office; they have been disproved. He has
made specific charges Of gra #; they have
been disproved. He has attacked the
characters Of State officials; their char
acters have been indicated. He has
raised the cry of ma hire rule: mean
while using every effort to create n per-
sonal machine intended to onver the
State into a Clement senatorial borough:
he has cried out against the use of money
by the republicans mis- own expendi-
lures. extending "a the paying of cx-
penses of delegates to his convention,
being the greatest ever made by a cam
didate In Vermont. He has persistsrtly
condemned the increase of State expenses.
while en~deavorins to blind the eyes Of
the people to tho enlarged State functions
TO which the Increase Is due. He has
condemned the state highway and school
tax; thereby pnndering to the few cities
and large towns as against the interest
Of the thinly settled districts. He has
declared himself to he still a republican,
and has bitterly opposed the -chiefest
policy of the Roosevelt ADMINISTRATION.
railroad rate regulation. and has been
shown to be himself a beneficiary of un-
fair rate discrimination. He has advo-
Gated systematic road building. but pur-
poses 70 do away with the road fund
which the Nnrpnr1fippS nav and prDyilpS
no substitute therefor. He has endeavor-
cd to control the saloon through the NOM
~inatlon OF side Judges. He has repeated
misstatements again and again after they
have been completely disprovcd. He has
appealed to class prejudice by describing
his opponent as n silk stocking" while
himself n known aristocrat and snob. He
has brought the methods OF the stock
manipulation and the morals and ethics
OF Wall street into Vermont politics. He
has conducted n campaign OF misrepre-
sentation, has made false allegations and
has so exaggerated and overstated every
real fact in his favor that it has required
only the unvarnished evidence OF the truth
to demolish the whole himsy structure.
1t would he charitable to suppose that
Clement had been deluded and i'll advised
~ III nav Nv fNhilN
believed at the outset that Vermont had
fallen into the hands Of Philistines and
that it was his Samaritan duty to rescue
her: and that afterward his enthusia SIN
blinded him to the true conditions dis.
closed by investigation. But II would he
n mistaken charity. Clement IL no pop,
eyed idealist. no innocent victim of a fine
frenzy for reform. He IL. on the con
4 rlr ~ nsI-,t,,1- cnI1 l1N4Inl q,
lating Individual with a mind single &c
his own personal benefit. He has proven
this beyond all question in his stock man.
ipulations. by the unmcrciful trimminl
he gave his partner. DR.. Webb. In the
Rutland railroad deal.
So that II was with his eyes open thai
the fusion candidate organized his cam
paign OF vituperation, of Islander, Of defa,
nation of the character of the State o.
Vermont. He planned to climb into tn,
drivers seat in this state by making thu
people believe h they were being rob
bed when he knew they were not beinl
robbed: by pleading extravaganza where
extravaganza did not exist: by impugn'
ing the common honesty Of officials whom
he knew TO he honest. But Clement II
his calculations. made ono mistake. II
HSHTed tnat the great national reform
wave would make his game an easy one
that II would be a slight task to convince
the public tina the magic word graft
had become an essential to the oficia
dictionary Of Vermont; in a word he cal
culated to carry the people of their fee
with the reflected glare Of exposures II
other States. But he reckoned withou
his host. The people had to be shown
them. Meanwhile they have taken a goo'
long look at Clement himself and hav'
seen him as he is,
That is why Clements campaign haI
failed-failed, definitely, completely AM
for all time.
NOT MERELY FULL Y OVER