The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1909-02-27
The aPronressIstg Prooram.'

endums and our legislatures viii de- /
/ generate mo mere assemblies of er-
rand boys without the courage to take |
/ the responsibility for their own acts \
and eager 10 shift the burden of res |
possibility back onto tAe people again. /
/ And then the beginning of the wane 1
of the power and authority of the leg
/ islature of Vermont will be at hand
NO truer words were ever spoken. |
Nevertheless, it is your modern phil |
Osophy of government 1t is the |
prime doctrine and lifework of your
| blessed progressist' to strain aud
wrench the constitution, TO invade the
prerogatives OF legislative bodies, to
remove all the time-honored markers
and bounds, TO level everything into
one vast dustheap.
You express a fear that our legis-
latures will degenerate into mere as
semblies of eTrand boys without cour-
age to take the responsibility for their
own acts And almost in the same
breath have you not belabored the leg
islature for its refusal to be irrevoc
ably bound by a sO-called party plat
form representing the wishes of the
people which same platform was very
likely written by yourself week be-
fore the convention met? And yet
you wish for a Legislature with cour-
age to take the responsibility!
And you are in favor of primary
law. are you not which will choose
United States senators in absolute
defiance and disregard of the consti-
tuition of the United States2 Do you
want the senators to be chosen by a
primary of the people, when the con
stitution says the legislature shall do
it? Are you in favor of the Oregon
law. which thus violates the cOnsti-
tuition, and which is to bring about
the election OF a Democratic senator
by an overwhelmingly Republican leg
islaure?
why should one strain at the ref
erendum and swallow the camel of
bounding, frothing 'progressism. It's
entire pestiferous brood is the egal-
IS ite' of the French Revolution. Hard
wick Gazette.
Our friend sets up very huge man
of straw here and then proceeds hero
q, ically to demoish it, meanwhile using
language fervid and tense and always
picturesque, if not always strictly ap
= plcable.
SO far from the Messengers pro
gressist" notions aiming 10 "strair
and wrench the constitution" the rea
a fact is that this paper is sincerel,
n. anxious not only to see Nermonts gov
e eminent in the meantime more frml!
W true to the language and spirit OF thu
en- present constitution, but is no less sol
DO citous that the constitution itseI
bv shall be so amended as to preserve
u that delicate system OF checks ant
OF balances among the three co-ordinat
J branches of the government that L
~ the very essence Of the American idei
~ of popular rule under a constitution
es Are you not trifie careless, es
nd teemed contemporary in putting fort
the insinuation that the editor OF thu
paper probably wrote the Republican
0 state platform, when you must know
al that such an idea is wholly tigmen
nd of your Imagination, and when 20
must know that in other editorial
YOU comment upon the informatio
- that il was written by Clarke c. Fit.
- OF Brattleboro, and here again insinl
: late that II was probably inspired b
Horton NJ. Barber of Bennington?
you must misrepresent the purpose
and motives of men that attempt sue
Va public service occasionally, why d
you not take pains to make your II
nuendoes agree with one another?
No. the Messenger is not in fave
of a primary law that will choos
United States senators in absolui
defiance and disregard OF the cons'
tuition of the United States and ne
Their you nor anybody else ever sa
an editorial line or word in the Me
senger that supported the idea.
Elsewhere in this issue of the Me
senger are to be found more of yo'
characteristic comments upon IN
subject that you do not appear TO u
derstand at all today, no matter he
~ conversant you may heye been wi
\ the details of Vermont affairs on
y upon a time. In the course OF the
you say:
Is 1T has simply shown and PROV
by the confession of accessories BIO
before and after the fact that {
platform was not the work of the &C
yention or the committee on reso
s..
sideration than the opinions OF a
other half dozen very self console
private citizens. The entire syst'
by which legislatures are sought
be bound by a gang of self-constitut
oracles has been for years a hamb'
ant fraud and swindle on the peopl
-Hardwick Gazette.
You are not only wholly mistak
In regard TO this, but your last woi
are needlessly offensive. The pl
form was first drafted by Mr.. Fits
ter due notice had been publish
from one end of the state to the OIL
that he had been selected by the ST.
r committee for the task, Just as
whole country knows, for instan
! who is to draft the Republican
tional platform once in four yea
!. And Mr. Fits doubtless had
manner of suggestions as to what
should put in the platform sent
him or communicated to him
various ways. Just as the press ri
with advice to the drafter of the
tional platform when his name
made known. And probably Mr., f
uu being moral and human, read one
more of his planks to some OF
friends and asked their counsel "a
them. Just as we know the draitel
the national platform does. And &
r. Mr.. Fits laid the draft he had
posed before the committee on r.
vel lutions in their private session
Il they did what they pleased with
=" draft he had prepared. When they
through with It the text that was