The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1911-08-03
THE EVENING BANNER
BENNINGTON, VT, AUGUST 3, 1911
The PRIMARY BILL

THE PRIMARY BILL
"In the future do you want Yer
mont Senators that will defy the
wishes of the people as the pre-
sent Senators did? If not have the |
senators elected by the people. Pr- |
mary elections are needed" .-London- |
derry Sitter.
The Primary election bill was
defeated in the last legislature by |
the representatives from small towns !
who were misled by clever politi- !
clans into thinking that primary
election laws favor the larger towns. |
OF course it is evident TO anybody /
who has studied the matter from an
unprejudiced standpoint that this |
was only clever trick to defeat the |
bill for a primary election law can
not possibly favor due voter or one
group of voters more than another, !
as it puts them all on an equality,
but the scheme worked for the time
being. One question that the voters
should not forget to ask their candi
dates for representative and senator
next year is Are you going to let the
corporation agents and diolus in poll
teal support fool you into voting
against a primary election law?"-
Bennington Banner.
Speaker Howe worked hard to Sc
cure the passage of direct primary
law. He put up a good fight and
lost. Ii was one of the few measur-
es in which he took a deep personal
interest. He knows the cause of the
defeat of the measure as well as any
body. 1t is easy enough to cry cor
poration agents" but it is only right !
to say that few people had any idea
at the time that they were to blame |
for the defeat of the direct primary
bill or blamed them They had |
enough other fry on hand to keep !
them out of mischief in this respect !
The editor of the Banner knows we'll !
enough that the small towns got |
scared at their own shadow which |
they feared was growing less every |
day and that they timidly suspected |
this act was an entering wedge |
for future happenings. OF course il |
was only a bugaboo. The small |
towns, with, perhaps, the help Of
a few large ones. were responsible
for the defeat of the bill in the house.
No one knows what would have hap
pened to il in the senate.-Montpelier
Argus.
The incident is of course closed
for the present and The Banner re-
fers TO it with no feeling of resent \
ment, but merely in the hope that it
may have some educational value for
the future. AS the Argus says, the
men who defeated the bill were, al
most to a man, perfectly honest and
slncere-merely unduly scared by
shadows.
Just for the purposes of Illustration
consider the vote of the members OF
the House from Bennington county
on the bill Fourteen of the seven
teen Representatives from this county
are recorded as having voted on the
bill. OF these six voted for the bill
and eight against It, Those voting
for it were Wall of Dorset, Abbott OF
Landgrove. Bishop of Stamford, BIan-
chard OF Readsboro, Oryis of Man
chester and Howe Of Bennington
Those voting against the bill were
Mattison of Glastonbury, Bowles of
Woodford, Briggs of Searsburg. Webb
OF Arlington, Myers OF Pownal, Bent
ley of Sandgate, Bowen of Sunder.
land and Williams OF Peru The
three not present we're Roberts OF
Rupert. Williams of Winhall and
Hawkins OF SALISBURY.
During the forty-eight hours pre-
ceding the vote the primary bill was
the chief topic around the statehouse
as well as being thoroughly debated
on the floor of the House. The point
which We fail to understand ia this.
When a man of limited experience
who is uncertain of his own judg-
ment, as several Of the members
from this county confessed to the
writer that they were, desires advice
and counsel why is II that he goes to
a stranger of whom he knows little
instead of to a tried and trusted
friend?
The members from Bennington
county last winter had the benefit OF
the long experience, sound common
sense and unquestioned integrity of
Mr. George NJ. Wall of Dorset, one
Of the ablest men who sat in the
legislature, yet in matter OF this
Importance they would not trust Mr..
Wallis judgment but would and did
take that Of comparative strangers
about whose ability and trustworth-
ness they could have only n limited
knowledge at the best and whom
they would not select as advisers or
counsellors on other matters.
II has always appeared to The Ban.
ner, that as long as all men cannot
by any possibility inform themselves
on all subjects that come before
Legislature. II is a good plan to early
learn we'll a few men OF good iudg.
ment and understanding who can be
trusted to sink self interest in the
consideration of public matters and