The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1910-07-07
PRESS COMMENT
What the Newspapers of Vermont
and Other States Are Saying
About Topics of Interest TO
Journal Readers.
THE STATE CONVENTION.
burlington Free Press.)

nor and l.. F. Slack of st. Johnsbury
for Lieutenant-Go after one of
the most interesting and exciting con-
tests in the history of Vermont poll |
tics, two ballots being necessary to |
decide the issue as to both the Cover
norship and the second place on the !
ticket. 1t was as pretty a contest as
one could wish to see, and while the
issues were sharply drawn, it was
good feeling contest on the whole,
at least so far as the relations of the
candidates themselves are concerned
The night before the convention is
usually the most momentous part of
struggle over nominations for
State offices, and this was no ex-
ception to the rule. The developments
of the evening brought out what has
so often been noted in Vermont pol
tiles, the sharp difference between
the voters of the west and the east
sides of the mountain. When the
trains from the west side took their
contingents to Montpelier in the even
ing, the Mead badges were largely in
evidence aand the followers of the
Rutland candidate were, Boosting that
it was all their way, which was APP
parent to the uninitiated. During the
evening unpledged and weakened
delegates were "canvassed' by rep
resentatives of the different candi-
dates, and the scene was an animat-
ing one. Back and forth between the
different headquarters of candidates
surged the delegates, with the work
ers freely interspersed, and, when
midnight arrived, representatives of
Dr. Mead claimed that he would have
anywhere from 60 to 100 delegates
more than the number necessary to
nominate
Those who had watched the can
vass, however, knew this was far wide
of the mark, and there was every in
dication of failure to nominate on the
first ballot. When the trains from the
east side arrived yesterday morning
| the white badges of the Fleetwood CO.
hOrts began to make a marked show
| ing beside the blue badges of the Mead
camp and the scarlet ribbon worn by
the Batchelder delegates. By the
time the convention was to assemble
| at $3.50 the Mead contingent realized
nj 1u ha hoI 10,
| gle on its hands, and this was fully
demonstrated later on. Moreover it
was shown that the heavy Mead coun-
| ties were on the west side, Orleans
| county and little Essex being the only
| ones in the second congressional dis
trict to give the Rutland candidate a
| majority Of the delegates.
In view of the fact that the ac-
curacy of the canvass conducted by
| the Free Press had been questioned
| we have taken particular pleasure in
| comparing the number of delegates
| credited to DR.. Mead in the final table
of the canvass printed on Saturday,
| June IS, and the number of delegates
| who actually voted for him on the
| first ballot in the convention, twelve
days later, as shown by the tables of
the first ballot printed elsewhere.
In Addison county our canvass gave
| DR.. Mead 80 and on the first ballot he
received actually 3S. In Bennington
| county we gave him and he receiv-
| ed 8. In Caledonia county we gave
him II with to hear from, and he
received also all the missing ones, his
| vote in that county being 3d. In
| Chittenden county we credited him
with 4S and he received 46 In Essex
| county we gave him with 8 to hear
from and he received H. In Franklin
county we credited him with 40 and he
received 80. In Grand Isle county we
gave him and he received 3. In Or
ange county we gave him IL and he
received Is, capturing two credited to
Batchelder. In Orleans county We
gave him "a and he received "a. In
Rutland county, his home county, we
gave him 81 out of 81 and he received
co. In Washington county we gave
him 20 with five to hear from and he
had 25. In Windham county where
our canvass was least complete We
gave him 8, with some scattering, and
he had 16. In Windsor county we
gave him II and he had 20, the total
putting him largely in the lead. For
canvass of returns made a dozen
days before the convention, We sub
NIT that this table bore internal evil
dence of fairness to both sides. More
over it is significant that our table
gave Batchelder's total vote as 50 and
he received so.
We also stated that our returns
showed Mr.. Slack to be in the lead
although we made no attempt to Sc
cure actual figures in connection
with the strength of the candidates
for second place, aand the first ballot
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