The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1911-09-18
William Rankin Total Abane Through Newspapers Every Da
SIGNS OF THE TIMES
Mason L. Knapp writes on Political
Issues

Editor of The Banner:-Our coun-
try is on the eve of great political
change. The Republican party which
has served our country so long and
so we'll seems to have fallen into a
rut from which we cannot get out, and
unless radical measures are taken at
once the Republican party will meet
with a crushing defeat one year from
this fall.
There are hundreds of thousands of
young men just coming of age who
will cast their first vote for president
one year from this fall.
These young men come mostly from
Republican parents and were brought
up with Republican ideas but what
they have been told and what they
see today is so different they do not
know what to do, therefore he goes
to the old voter, the veteran OF forty
ew of the Republican party and says
to him, what shall we do?" The old
man is all at sea himself. He says:
81 cannot tell you. am in need of
advice myself" The old man has al
ways been taught the Republican par
ty stands first of all for the interest
and welfare of the laboring man. He
sees giant trusts increasing the
cost of living until the wages of the
laborer will hardly pay his grocery
bill and no corresponding increase in
wages.
Next the party stands for careful
and prudent handling OF public mon
ey. He sees great CRAFTS sapping the
! public funds on every hand and stran-
| gest of all strange things, a Republi-
can president advocating free trade
The old mans mind turns back on
the past, goes back to the time Of
Cleveland's last administration. Free
trade was tried at that time, the re-
suit was that hundreds of banks sus-
pended payment, thousands OF knit
goods companies throughout the coun-
try either failed or shut down their
works, thus throwing hundreds Of
thousands of people OUT of employ
ment
Farm produce went down in price
in the markets OF the country until
the farmer could not make enough to
pay the interest on the mortgage on
his farm. The result was That hun
dreds of farms were sold on execution
and the farmer and his family were
turned into the road with the idle fac
tory operative.
The picture is not at all pleasant for
the old voter to dwell on, but he does
not know what to do, therefore he
says to the young man, Il cannot tell
you | am in need of advice myself
The old voter, the veteran OF forty
years, can read the signs of the times
The Republican party will stump the
country as usual, but IL will do nc
good in all the doubtful states. The
Socialists vote will double and Dem
ocratic majorities will be the order o.
the day in our coming fall elections.
There is one remedy for this con
dition of things. let us try IT, Let th'
coming national convention drop al
party leaders and nominate an entire
ly new man, a man who has neve
taken any part in national politics
but still a man with a big reputation
in his own state. There are plenty o
. such men in every state We hav,
such a man in the state OF Vermont
one of the people, a man who begal
at the bottom and worked his way W
a man who has twice refused the gov
ernorship Of his native state, maj
who has never entered politics at all
who holds an important position be
fore the American people today,
man who has the brain of Stephel
A. Douglas and the executive abilit,
of the old ironsided secretary Of wal
Edwin NJ. Stanton.
Let the coming national convention
! nominate such man and the entr
Republican party will unite on hin
and defeat Will be turned into victor.
and the country will enter into a pei
Tod OF unexampled prosperity
Mason l.. Knapp.