The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1911-08-05
The Times Have CHANGED.

I'VE had supposed OF course the
Somination was seeking Allen NJ.
Fletcher. Barton Monitor
There may be instances where the
nomination seeks the man but they
are so rare with such a position as
governor that we do not recall any
just now. AS general thing the man
who gets nominated or elected TO a
position of great honor in public life
has TO get out and hustle for it,
Lyndonylle Union-Journal.
"'Tis true It's pity, and pity It's it's
true" But that does not necessarily
impugn the motives or the merits OF
many men that under our present-day
system of American politics offer
themselves as candidates for public
Office The criticism should run rath
er to conditions that make such a
course on the part OF candidates
apparently necessary, rather than 10
the candidates themselves.
The classic ideal was. and Is OF
course, that the Office shall seek the
man and not the man the office.
There was a time. IN the simplicity
OF a former age. when the citizens Of
Athens could gather at the urn and
each drop in the bean that recorded
a personal choice OF fellow-citizen
for some important governmental
post. And the conditions were such.
due TO the comparatively premature
state of society, that all the voters
knew OF this man and about him. and
that his personality was so prominent
in the state and his attributes such
common talk among men that what
we OF today might consider the most
commonplace necessities OF electio-
neering In his behalf were out OF the
question. But even then, simple as
those days now appear to MS to have
been. we are told that the inherent IN
stinct OF mankind for politics found
It's opportunity for the play Of inhu-
ences and practices for and against
this OF that man and there are re-
mains OF the everyday life of those
people that tell us In unmisiakable
terms that classic elections were not
always so free OF the suspicion OF
selfseeking on the part OF candidates
as some of us have perhaps been in
clined TO believe.
We sometimes talk OF the good old
times in our own United States when
this last great experiment In democ-
racy was a.borning, when good men
and true were chosen TO public Office
by the free choice and spontaneous
voice OF an approving people that ex-
perienced no other campaigning in
huence than their own deliberate
Judgment OF the merits and fitness OF
conspicuous exemplars OF the best
traits OF that democracy. But when
we come to examine the records very
carefully. we find that human nature
was pretty much the same In those
days as II is now and the candidate
and his friends found some expedi-
ent way In which to help persuade
the electorate to It's choice And
what Is more. we learn that political
methods. instead of being worse In
this day and generation, were actual
" worse In the days OF old, and that
there was. taking all things into con-
slderation, more unfairness. more
bitterness. more Misrepresentation,
more actual corruption and even VIC.
lence on the occasion of political
campaign and election than the pres
ent generation, With all It's fruits,
knows anything abost from actual
experience.
Today society has become SO com.