St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1912-10-09

| ANY pupil IN our PUBIC ScnOOlS
| knows that it takes more than half
of a number to make a majority of
it, and in this instance that 80, SIT
is the smallest possible majority of
Vermont's total vote in the recent
election.
| Mr.. White, however, says in large
type that the progressive party pol
led within 5000 votes of majority
the truth is they lacked 1917 of a
majority.
] Mr. White says that the progress
sive party outran the votes of the
democratic party, the truth is that
the progressives had $500 less votes
than the democratic party.
The quotation from Mr.. White
articles above given, is his text for a
column article, and the article is pre-
cisely what one would anticipate
from such a text.
Mr.. White grasses the republican
party from the national blackboard.
and makes the democratic party the
tail to high flying progressive kite.
l do not recollect that l have ever
seen so much untruth pressed into so
narrow quarters as is found in the
above quotation from Mr.. Whites
article. Nor, have l ever seen a state
err so well calculated to deceive, be-
cause nowhere in the article does he
mention the number of votes received
by any candidate or party in the YER
mont election.
l was not a little surprised that
my home town gave Mr.. MetZger,
the progressive candidate, 116 votes.
But if my fellow townspeople have
depended on the Boston Journal and
kindred papers, for political infor-
ton, and have relied on William
Allen White and kindred writer's for
political succor, and the informa-
tion and succor was cut from the
same leaf as the slice above quoted,
a much larger vote for Mr.. Metzger
would have been less surprising.
The 116 voters for Mr.. MetZger in
my home town we're made up from
democrats and republicans, with
great emphasis on the latter.
At any rate 1 know the men who
compose this progressive party of
116, they are my townspeople and
the most of them former associates
in the republican party, and whether
republicans or democrats, are as true
and loyal citizens as we who are
standing by the old parties.
The rule established for my good
old home town of Newbury applies
with equal force to 245 other Yer
mont towns.
Vermonters are not inventors of
gross deception, or hucksters in po-
litical fabrics whose warp, wool and
filling are tissue of finely designed
lies. Vermont newspapers are not
dispensers of rotten politics, nor are
Vermont newspaper men political
grafters. If perchance there should
be an exception to this general rule, |
it would be rare enough to attract
uncomfortable attention.
1t is observed that Mr.. Whites
article was not written for the Jour
nal readers the morning following |
election, when returns are incomplete
and rumors are rife, but eighteen |
days after election when the returns |
are all in.
1t is little wonder that a news |
paper with an old time record for |
honesty and political probity, if it |
chooses to become a vehicle of clean |
cut lies, should deceive it's readers,
and lead them astray.
Honesty, loyalty, and true patriot
ism may not be an estoppel against |
the inroad of an arch deceiver.
So far as the progressive party |
in Vermont is concerned, the prin-
cipal beneficiary of this kind of |
campaigning is Mr.. Metzger, it's |
candidate for governor. Does he |
stand for it? I do not believe SO, if |
not he should step on IT.
In the National progressive party /
the chief beneficiary of this sort of /
political deceit must be Mr.. Roose-
welt, the self-appointed candidate
for its presidency? Does he approve /
of this kind of campaigning? If not
he should stop it and tell who pays
the freight.
Fellow Vermonters, do you need
slate and pencil and the secIusion of
your closet to figure out a problem
of this sort, and to determine where
you ought to stand in campaign of
this kind?
HORACE w. BAILEY,
Newbury, VT, Sept. 8, 1912.
bandfuI of Wool Cen rsI,.~. |