Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1911-03-27
AGAINST hostilities is the rigid pre-
vention of any chance for untoWard
incident.
Politics VS.. Business.


II tho Maine LEGISLATURE had shown
disposition to run riot with expenses,
FRIDAYS discourse on extravaganza
might have seemed appropriate. If the
lawmakers had made large provisions
for other than established necessities,
the occasion to lecture them at tn
close of the session might have bee n
well taken. If the law-maklns Dolly
had not referred to it's successor SO
many questions of great Importance
except the administrat ions prom Ised
liquor observation-disclosures would have
seemed to be occasion for faNorins
them with the Royal Presence.
Coming as it did, however, "lthou'
other inspiration than for political cap
ital. and dealing entirely with cam
paign material, the Governors address
of Friday was the most ifl-t,ned, i'll
advised and spectacular play to the
galleries ever inflicted on a New Eng
land gathering of lawmakers -
If Governor Plaisted had taken coca
sion to go before the Legisla ture and
ask them in dignified way to put
through, in form acceptable to the
party leaders, the public utilities bill
which he had urged in his m .ssage, We
should have admired him more than
ever for his strength of purl Dse. If he
had said to them that he considered 1t
their duty to make provision for the
Children's hospital in a sum (which he
deemed not beyond the line of the
economical service which lhe had
promised, we should have congratulate
ed him on his manly stand for what
he believed was right. But to- devote a
thousand words to a rehash OF the ma
terial used all through the campaign,
another vicious dig at Former Cover
nor Fernald. and suggestions to DEM
ocratic representatives as to what to
give to their people as a reason Tor
having done so little at the 18th ses-
sion lowers him from the status of
Executive to that of politician
The entire aim of the administration
and Democratic leaders seems to be
TO make hue and cry sufficient over
Names financial condition to draw at
tention from the whole purpose of De-
mocracy-viz., to turn Maine over to
the liquor interests, body and soul.
Throughout the campaign. from Fort
Kent to Kittery, they shouted "Ex-
travagance." In his message Cover
nor Plaisted painted it in letters of gilt
| and his most howery phrases. The Leg
islaturc early investigated and discoV-
cred that what had been asserted in
the campaign they were not ready to
deny.
In two and one half months of legis-
lative elaboration can the Democratic
leaders point to the carrying out of a
single reduction in State expenses, not
| more than offset elsewhere, except TO
refuse to act at all and to refer it to
the next Legislature? Yet the hullaba-
loo has been kept up about the extrav-
agance of the Fernald administration
and the Governor himself tops it off at
the close of the session in a half-hour
recapitulation OF alleged conditions, re-
ferring to the large affairs of a great
! commonwealth with a population of
three-fourths of a million, as if the
State were to be overwhelmed by the
figures he quoted. Again he talked OF
the States credit" as if it were i'm
paired. The sound of ONE HUN
DRIED THOUSAND DOLLARS" roll
rous tones, sounded like the boom Of
an avalanche to those who do not wei
know the Governor, and who had no
awakened TO the fact that they wer
listening to POLITICAL STUN
SPEECH INSTEAD OF THE EX
PECTED BUSINESS-LIKE ADVICE
l OF AN EXECUTIVE TO THE LAW
l MAKING BODY.
. Governor PlaiSted rather than ad
r vising the Legislature to grapple wit
{ present problems to the best of it
: ability and courage to accept the re
9 sponsibility for the result Whatever
: may be. urges the lawmakers to &
OF home and tell their districts what h
~ says about Maines finances
! The Governor ia not tell the legis
Is iatiye body THAI his first and only veto