The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1908-07-14
Fits and His Champions.

The Banner says that the office of
attorney general costs the state $500
to $4,000 per year and that the EN-
Iployment of counsel to assist the
states attorneys would cost a great
deal more. AS the Herald has al
ready pointed out neither Mr. Fits
nor any one else is ubiquitous, he
cannot be in more than one court at
time so that, in the event of more
than one important cause, counsel
would have to be employed In any
event
1t also says that men like ]. X.
Batchelder and o. M. Barber would
not accept the Office of states attor-
ney unless it paid more than $25O0 a
year 1t is a fact however, that Mr.,
Barber in the Mahan case accepted
the 'pauper's retainer" being ap-
pointed by the court to defend, and
gave his time through that long and
desperately fought trial for the mere
ly nominal fees allowed by the state
without any serious damage to his
practice.
Does any one believe It would have
injured Mr.. Barber any more to have
taken the other side rs states at
toreny and prosecuted as ardently as
he defended?
Pending the officials figures on
what the Office of attorney genela! is
actually costing Vermont, the Herald
will withhold further comment on
this phase of the question.
1t is regTettable that the Banner
should have devoted so much space
to talking about the Herald, its editor
and the editors spectacles. Those
things are of no interest to the pub
lie and the public might well be in
terested in what the Banner has TO
say about Fits and his office.
The Brattleboro Reformer loses its
temper with characteristic Brattle-
boro precipitation as soon as Brat
tleboro ofIice-holder Is assaiied. 1t
SAYS the Herald's article Is dirty,
foul and offensive word that the
exact language Of this paper does not
4 justify for a moment
Since when has II become dirty
for a newspaper to publish the plain
i truth about a public man? Does the
A Reformer pretend to deny that what
4 the Herald said was true? If true,
4 then where does the dirt come in
4 telling the unpleasant facts about
Fits or any one else? Assuredly,
an editor who loses his self-control
4 and makes a nasty charge OF filth
\ against a contemporary declares his
z position weak before an argument is
4 produced.
1t is true that Mr. Fits is a man
4 of ability and with some skill in the
law He has done some service In
4 the courts since his election and has
3 assisted weak brethren of the law in
4 their work as states attorneys. But
4 the Herald believes him to be an alb
solutely unfit and unsafe public Of
d iicer because he seems to lack en-
y tircly anything approaching public
4 morality.
4 OF his private life We know moth
Ing. It may be exemplary. Hut the
Il public record of Mr.. Clarke c. Fits
N is enough TO condemn him before any
81 jury of special unfitness for public
4 office
In 1906, this paper, with several
4 others, published facts about the
i shameful traffic in diseased beef, en-
4 couraged and participated in, as II
Il afterwards came out, by officials OF
q the state of Vermont The facts were
Il supported by sworn aflidavits and
q were indisputable and yet this man
Il Fits came brazenly forward with q
"a statement in which he practically
s. whitewashed the whole rotten mess
declaring that there was no evidence
that showed that the states officials
were involved, although one of his
"a first official acts after the Legislature
ad jOurned was TO prosecute the gull
& ty parties.
N And these same newspapers that
h now seek to stick the label of filthy
on the Herald applaudcd Fits ant
talked about his official energy ant
brilliant record
DO the champions of Fits consider
a that man who puts his ofIfcia
y signature to n deliberate falsehood II
y tit for public oflice?-Rulland Herald