The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1911-08-11
rhe e0vernorshIp Of Vermont

80 - ~ ~ff'f ~
Before the canvass for the repub-
liean nomination for governor begins
in earnest 1t win be we'll for the vO-
ters and taxpayers OF the state to
take into account the considerations
they will permit to govern them in
making a selection.
One trouble with Vermont has been
that it has regarded the governorship
as something of a pastime. For de-
cades the state merely drifted and
not a few of our governors, though
able men, simply drifted with it. They
attended to the routine duties of the
position, did well the work which pre-
sented itself from day to day, tackled
the problems that forced themselves
to the front, and depended mostly up
on the current OF the stream to move
the craft OF the state. There have
been exceptions but not many.
To-day the people of Vermont are
in no mood to drift. A new and no
BILE impulse of life has seized upon
all sections of our grand Green
Mountain state If you have not felt
| it, you need to rub your eyes. Start
in at Brattleboro and you see that
people are doing things as never be-
fore. Jump over into Bennington
county, and you find a new impetus
has been impaired to progress in that
section. Go over the whole state, not
forgetting to stop at Burlington on
the way, and you will discover that
the day of old things has passed, and
things are becoming new. The gov
ernorship has ceased to be a sinecure.
| Il must be made still less of an
/. easy chair"
The people of Vermont are today
running a big business concern, and
they want general manager who can
hustle But that is not all. Ray Col
Inns can hustle on the baseball dia-
mond, but nobody would think OF
making him governor on that ac-
count. We want a man who can not
only hustle but who can also accom-
plish broad results, as shown by his
management of his own and other
affairs.
Now what would great business
| uO uuuCl AutOC
ces? What did the trustees Of the
University of Vermont do when they
needed a new general manager? They
did not stop to try any experiments.
They did not merely take the man
who had demonstrated his ability to
do just what they wanted done here
in Vermont, and they selected Presi-
dent Benton, who has already impart-
ed new and marked impetus to the
state university.
II is 10 be noted in this connection
that the successful business concern
and the great educational institution
do not change general managers every
two years. Some time Vermont will
stop this foolishness and insist upon
retaining for a reasonable time the
services OF the captain who is not
content to drift, but who when nee
essary insists upon driving the craft
full speed up stream.
For the present, however, we OBJ
serve geographical precedents and
the mountain line" does not worry
us, for if there is any man on either
side OF il who ought to be governor,
his two year term will not be long
postponed.
According to precedent the COVER
norship goes 10 the second congress
slonal district next time. If you will
run over the list of men who have
demonstrated their capacity to man
age their own affairs as we would
want to have the state managed, and
who at the same time have shown TO
the world that they are big, broad
men, who could make Vermont do
things" you will soon discover that
their name Is not legion
The moment you drop below this
class you can find hundred men In
various occupations who would make
fairly good. safe governors, under
whom Vermont would jog along. They
would not pillow very deep; they
would not spend much for drainage;
they would not spray the orchard;
they would not do intensive farming;
they might not paint the barns even
They would do just as many others
have done before. They would drift,
and we would all have to drift with
them
Now let us 90 into the next COVER
norship question with our eyes open.
Let us have a governor who win help
our state TO better things and who
will be a leader in improvement and
progress. Let him be no experiment
! in general management but man
who has shown by his record both in
private and public that he will be for
the state what President Benton has
already demonstrated he will be for
the state university and the interests
OF commonwealth for which II stands
Burlington Free Press.