Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1911-09-30
Woodstock. VT. Sept. 3. 1911
Telling the Truth About Yer.
mont.


in population was published few
months ago, and when in the Boston
Transcript review of that study
gave an unpleasant view of YER
mont's condition. a good many of the
States newspapers were grieved and
hurt and shocked and Mortified that
any one should have thus attacked"
their beloved state.
The Age meanwhile continued to
maintain it's opinion that Rossiter's
study was made in good faith and
with good will, and that both the
facts he gave and all the sad conclu-
sions that could be drawn from them,
should be made widely known, and
should be carefully pondered-and,
that a movement away from partisan
politics and toward plain, business
like upbuilding of the state by non
ofice-seekers should be set on foot.
The Age claimed, and still claims,
that the people of. the state have too
long been fanatical worshippers at a
political shrine; that they have been
blinded by their fanaticism and led
to think that all good things came
from oficeholders, and to believe that
If they elected the same brand of
officeholdcrs each year, their state
would progress. The office-seekers,
so the Age has claimed, naturally
took advantage of this spirit of blind
alteration on the part of the voters,
and after quarreling and fussing and
tuning over matters of no import
ance every year, in their newspapers
and on the stump, quietly divided
up the jobs, from senatorships
down, according to the program of
the clique on top.
Now, whnn public positions are 80
easily got year after year, and decade
after decade, the sense of RESPONSE
bility in those who hold the jobs
must sink pretty:low it's bound to /;
it can't be helped.
What happened came quite natur-
ally. The prophets knew that their
followers were born blind in the
faith and would find fault with moth
ing more important than the odor of
the incense SO the prophets natur-
ally just went into the temple and
loafed through their jobs.
Compare. now, what the Age has
been saying, as above outlined, with
what our friend the st. Adams Mes
senger says. The Messenger has
found fault with the Age for saying
that the state has not made good in
the past 40 years, has fallen out of
the procession, has not developed its
possibilities, has not even properly
educated its children, has preferred
the rattle and tom-tom of the medi-
cine man of politics to the plain
facts and sound advice of business
This kind of talk gives the Messen-
ger chill. But the kind which fol-
lows this is what the Messenger
approves of--and prints.
Vermont has experienced an
overwhelmingly political one-sided-
ness SO long that generations of men
have grown up accustomed to the alb
normal condition of affairs it has
produced and their habits of thought
have become fixed in the idea that
the party organization is not only in
vulnerable, but that it is right that
it should be SO. This naturally
makes fora kind of political bigotry
and intolerance, <an indifference to
criticism born of a sense of numer-
ical strength and security at the polls,
that all too easily result in the repud-
latlon OF platform pledges and re-
luctance to espouse the progressing
side of the never ending search for
the best means to achieve good gov
erment."
The only politics we know
anything about here in Vermont is
the biennial internecine etrife of a
few Republican leaders to get a nom
ination for the governorship that
they are assured beforehand will
be equivalent TO an election"
What do we care about plat
forms2' said prominent Vermont
Republican not many years ago.
We can win without them Win
what? Not better government. not
the confidence of the people that the
the party in power will achieve bet
Ter government, but simply that the
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