The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1910-01-27

and the politicians, is that the men
who are mixed up in the scandal
are still in the Legislature at AL
bany, surrounded by plenty more
whose service dates back to the time
when the Black Horse Cavalry, ac-
the saddle and it was a case of
pay, pay, pay" OF course everybody
has known this who knows anything
about Albany, as Conger also remark
ed, somewhat naively. But with this
knowledge in the possession of the
people, the old State bosses and their
weaker and less competent success
sors have been allowed to name the
same members for the Assembly or
Senate, and to promote from the low
er branch into the higher as a reward
for faithful service to the corpora
! ton. The voters have elected the
men thus nominated and the condi-
ton at Albany when Governor Hughes
, took office three years ago was not
substantially different, save for the
breaking up of the insurance lobby,
from that it had been continuously
from time out of memory.
The traction lobby, the electric and
gas lighting Hobbies, the lumbermen's
lobby, the railroad lobby and all the
rest of the corporation buyers of leg
islation were all there. The newspap-
ers that these same corporations con-
trolled in New York city and else
where were ready TO do their part
in deceiving the public as to Hughes
the man and as to the character of
his measures. Raines and McCarren
and Grady and Aldrich and Barnes
and Hendricks and Corners and
Murphy governed the action of the
Legislature, according as the golden
flood was turned into the party war
chests and the pockets of the men
who served in the capital. Politics re-
moved Odell and senility Thomas G..
Plat, but the system was the same,
and that system was what the Gov
ernor undertook to fight with the
known results.
, The writer does not do violence to
confidence at this date in telling of a
conversation which he had with Gov
ernor Hughes in his Saranac Lake
camp following the Republican Nat
ional Convention of 1908, when the
politicians of the State thought they
, had laid the Governor on the shelf
by giving him a perfunctory nomi-
nation for the presidency. The visit
to Saranac Lake was made to ask
the Governor what he was going to
: do. The answer came simply. 1t was
in substance: IF people want me to
run I'll run again. BY virtue of my
election | WAS reed in a position
where certain responsibilities of lead
ership came upon me. These ! ac-
{. cepted, and found that the leader
ship was of a great movement to di-
, vorce politics and business, and to
bring about an administration of the
State in the interest of all the peo-
| pie of the State, and not of any
part of them who may be able to
pay for legislative or administrative
favor. 1t became necessary to pro-
{ pose certain measures which struck
at the root of the evil | was opposed
just where l expected to be oppos-
ed, but the people supported me, and
+ various of these measures have been
adopted For me to refuse this lead
, 'ership-Irovided the people want me
, again-so long as | am able to pro-
vide for my family and any part OF
the responsibility assumed remains
undischarged, would be, | believe, "a
gross breach of trust on my part
, Therefore | am willing to stand a
candidate for denomination"
The Governor had said this in the
l way man would talk who was eX-
| planning to a friend his reasons for
] conducting business deal in a GER
, tain manner. When he was through
2 we both looked out over the lake for
some minutes. Finally the writer ask
ed him how be could afford to do it,
, remembering that in the first cam
: paign the Governor had said that If
: he were to die the greater part of
the support he would leave to his
: family would consist in his life in
; surance policies. The reply came
back quick and glad:
ooh, that's all right. You know,
when | settled up the affairs of my
law firm, | got about $4,000 more
than | expected, and ] can keep things
going on that for another two years. "
That is the sort of man that this
State is paying $4,000 year to run
it's business. The memory of that
summer morning at Saranac has
something to do with the spirit of
the foregoing comment upon the Con
ger-Allds bribery episode.
DTINn TIIE GnNuEDNIl