The independent-reporter., 1910-12-22
ATTITUDE Of MINORITY
TOWARD RESUbM|SS|OM
Discussed by Almon :. Bisbee, Promi-
nent Temperance Advocate.

The question as to whether a Rep
resentative to the Legislature should
vote for resubmission is discussed in
terestingly in the accompanying artl-
Gle by Almon S. Bisbee, a prominent
Temperance Advocate:
The question of the minority party.
in the Legislature this winter, and
It's attitude toward resubmission, is
question that | do not feel competent
to discuss, at any length, at this
juncture. 1t seems to me that the
pledges of any party, as set forth in
ts platform, lose none of their force
when that party changes from ma
jority to minority party.
During the past ten years | have
attended very many conventions, and
nave heard a great deal of discussion
over the adoption of platforms;
have never yet attended a Republi-
can convention where there was
great demonstration in favor of re-
submission, in fact. the great major
ity of the Republican voters in Maine
lave been opposed to resubmission.
The argument has been advanced
that failure to resubmit this question
vas responsible for the defeat of the
Republican party last September;
personally | do not take this view o.
the situation; there have been sew
eral bitter campaigns waged in this
State, when resubmission was the
text of almost every speech made by
the orators of both parties; in these
campaigns the Republicans won by
substantial majorities this last year;
while resubmission was one of the
planks of the Democratic party al
most nothing was said about it. By
what appeared to be an agreement
among some of the Democratic lead
ers, the question was kept in the
background, in fact, only one of the
Democratic candidates. in this part OF
the State at least, discussed it on the
platform; his associates on the ticket
were elected by substantial majorities
both in this county and in York coun-
ty, while he was buried almost be-
yond hope of political resurrection.
If | were to seek the cause of the
political oyerturn, | should look in an
entirely different direction, as a mat
ter of fact, many of the Republican
county conventions of the past, have
adopted platforms that were entirely
at variance with the views of the can
didates nominated Platforms have
been adopted, pledging the nominees
of those conventions. to the thorough
enforcement OF the prohibitory law.
when there was nothing in the char
acter or record of the men so nomi-
mated, to give one the slightest hope
that they would carry out those
pledges
Experiences of this kind have led
many of our people to believe that the
political platform is like MIR. Dooley's
definition. like a platform of an cleo
trio car, something that you get in
on The Republican party in Maine
has just cause to be proud of the
splendid men that it has brought for
ward to serve the people, but 1t seems
to me that it has been Woefully lax in
the selection of candidates to fill
minor offices, and to my mind. the
cause of it's recent defeat is to be at
tributed to that, rather than to the
failure to resubmit the 5th amendment.
BY its platform pledges, the Demo-
cratic party, to keep faith with the
people must resubmit; minority
members of the Legislature are equal
ly bound by their platform pledg-
IS to vote against resubmssion
| hope to live to see the time when
platforms of all parties will be TAX
en- seriously so that we will not have
to wait until six months after election
to find out whether we have won or
lost. In my judgment, the minority
party in the coming Legislature
ought to be true to the pledges of its
platform.