Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1908-08-08
DO the Voters OF Vermont

% tue OtciH Oh GIlnOnt
We are again face to face with the
citizens duty OF personal interest and
personal action in self government
as dictated by the arbitrament of the
ballot, recutrent biennially in the
state and quadrennially in the nation.
The Vermont election comes first Of
all in the states and the voice OF
Vermont, rendered two months be-
fore the general election as indicat-
ing the temper Of the people, has
ever been held as of much conse-
qurnce; and, further, while the
issues OF the present presidential
contest will find decision in states
other than our own, the size of the
majority gwen the Republican ticket
in Vermont, this year, will be no
less meaningful than in former years.
Therefore, the Republican State
Committee bespeaks the full meas
ure OF activity on the part OF all
Republicans of past party affiliation
and of all other citizens, who
through independence of view or out
of recognition Of rational balance
of merit between the two great par
ties, may ally themselves with Re-
publicanism, that the influence Of
the Vermont election may be the
equal of the best standards of the
past.
In Vermont, the recent campaign
for the nominations to the state
offices, has established beyond need
of further presentation, the superior
qualifications Of all the gentlemen
named upon the Republican state
ticket, and what can be said in this
respect is true of the acts of the
Republican congressional and county
conventions. Indeed, the Republi-
can state ticket, from the two lead
ing names of Prouty and Mead down
through the list of pominees for
minor offices, is one commanding
the fullest party support and one
whose merit invites the attention Of
other voters not subservient to a
radical opposing partizanship. The
national ticket as presenting Taft
and Sherman, admittedly from the
viewpoint of all parties, gives the
country the very strongest combina-
ton of standard bearers available in
national election of the present.
AS representative of progressive
Americanism of the hour, as
embodying the highest types of men
whose records appeal to the national
electorate, the names of William
howard Taft and James Schoolcraft
Sherman make national ticket
well nigh ideal.
During the past two yeats the
record of accomplishment by the
Republican party in Vermont is
worthy of all encomium. AS the
result Of wise legislation and praise
worthy effectiveness in adminstra-
ton, the state has taken forward
steps of most, congratulatory signif-
CdllSC' 1lllOuSh oShNSA "N' - -
way improvement, business methods
in the administration OF penal insti-
tutions, the strengthening of the
power of the railroad com
mission, in economy in state ex-
penses, and in numerous other
ways, the party is enabled to
render to the people an account OF
its stewardship wholly beneficial and
safe from attack. So far as prelimi-
naries have gone in their relation to
the policy OF the immediate future,
in the same regard they all point to
an insistence on the part of the
people of Vermont that the aggres-
siveness and progressiveness of the
Republicanism of the immediate
past shall be continued. In fact, the
only question yet unanswered con-
corning Vermont politics is how near
the state may come to making new