The morning journal-courier., 1908-09-11
THE PALMER VOTE,

That there is to be this fall what for better name may be called the Palmer vote Is evident. It will be boiled in response to the high minded appeal he has made to the citizens of Connecticut to resent machine lead ership when 1t undertakes for it's own advantage, and regardless of the best interests of the state, 10 advance to the governorship a man who Is dis credited In the body of which he Is still member. When the Palmer vote is counted and known 1t will pass Into the history of the state as the honor roll of 1908.
 One of the delegates to the recent republican state convention asked a supporter of Mir. Palmer: What does Palmer want anyway" He received this reply: Has 1t ever occurred to you that man may have a con science?" It was brief conversation but 1t illustrates clearly the meaning and philosophy of the reasons which induced George s. Palmer of New London, naturally quiet and reserv- ed man, whose life has been spent in business pursuits, to disregard the distastefulness of the lime light and take patriotic stand against the dominant political machine. It fur ther illustrates clearly the meaning -A~1-paAloaophy of the reasons which speedily ini.ced many of the largest manufacturers sud business men of Connecticut to line up with him. It still further illustrates the new spirit which has overtaken those citizens of Connecticut, who are just beginning to realize that machine government Is not good government and that good government depends upon a civic con science.
 When the committee of manufac- turers visited the ruling members of the machine at the New Haven house last Tuesday afternoon to protest as manufacturers and members of the republican party against the nomina- tion of MT. Lilley, as they had the lrht kA Ia tt head of them all, an officeholder, Mir. Tyler of Torrington, who made this insulting remark to Mir. Palmer in practically these words T have read your paper and I understand you are ready to use your private fortune to debauch the electorate of Connecticut In order to defeat MT. Lilley" It is unnecessary to record the whitening reply of Mir Palmer It is more vital and necessary to refer to the Fyler insult as striking illustration of the attitude of the dominant political machine towards respectable gentle men, who claim the right as free holders to have voice in the man. agement of the party they support with their votes and their means II Illustrates that spirit of organized power which Vanderbilt once put forth in these historic words: "The public be damned" It finally illus- trates the hidden mystery of how q machine made candidate can accu. rately estimate what his vote will he in the nominating convention months before the caucuses have been held.
 To assert that in the presence of these two striking illustrations of honest intent and selfish aggrandize. ment there will be no Palmer vote this year is to insult the electorate worse than MT. Fyler insulted Mir Palmer and his associates, and the more they realize that their common end is the restoration of popular gov. ernment in Connecticut the larger vii be the number of voters who will cry out in the market place This is no politics; this is patriotism"