St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1910-07-20
Principle Above Party.

So firm have Vermonters been in
their adherence to party that any ex-
hibition of independence on the part
of the individual voter has been con
sidered poor form. No matter how
bitter the contest between individuals
in the party a representative of the
defeated candidate IN the convention
is expected to rise and make the
nomination of the victor unanimous
and at once begin advocating his cleo
ton. The practice is a good one
when the only issue between the can
didates is personal qualification for
office. In the present campaign THE
CALIFORNIAN would not continue it's
objections to Mr.. Mead on account of
his age, his ability of his lack of eff
cient public service now that the
republican convention has declared
for him. 1t considers these questions
settled by majority of those authoriz-
ed to settle them and if they were the
only questions involved we should
take our medicine with a smile like
the rest of them. We will not
criticize Mead but a d&-Igerous prac-
tice
But there is a more serious matter
involved at the present time. It is
generally believed and quite as gener-
ally conceded that DR.. Mead secured
the nomination by the liberal Use of
money. This charge is not confired to
DR.. Mead alone. For years one has
heard rumors of immense sums it cost
So and So to win the governorship, and
the republican party has been erdors-
ing and advocating the man who had
spent the money. Party loyalty, party
pride, and party victories outside of
the state have been appealed to in the
effort to support the man who got the
nomination, and a general "Sh-h-h"
heard whenever the question of how
he got it was asked The result is
that Vermont is looked upon by other
states as a pocket borough" to be
bought up whenever any rich man de-
sires to be governor.
The program has been get the
nomination somehow and then we will
all turn in and support you. 1t has
become SO we'll established that a
really ambitious man has little regard
as to how he gets the nomination. No
one will advocate that these methods
tend to good government. On the
contrary even the Mead supporters at
the present time admit they are
wrong. The paper that claims the
distinction of first naming DIR. Mead
for the governOrship publicly express
es the wish that the use of money in
politics could be restricted.
How shall we do it? THE GALE
DOMAIN believes the time has come
for the people to refuse to ratify the
choice of the majority without regard
to how the majority is obtained.
Adhere to the practice of subordinat-
ing personal judgment to the decision
of the majority when only the choice
of individuals is concerned, but when
a man stOOps to dishonorable methods,
methods that no matter what pre-
ponderance of support they may re-
ceiVe can never be considered right,
stand up as a citizen and declare that
he cannot have your support. Expert
ence has demonstrated that we can
not hope for effective reform under
the old method. Let US try one that all
offenders of pure politics are afraid
of. When Vermonters demonstrate
that man cannot win by a resort to
old methods no man will try to ride
into office on them.