The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1912-10-03
How Will You Vote :?

HOW VIII fOu NOtc
For whom are you going to vote for
president at the November election ?
Roosevelt, Taft, Wilson Debs or
Chaffin ?
Are you going to vote the Republic
can or Democratic ticket because you
have been voting it for years or because
your father or grandfather voted 1t
before you or are you going to vote a
certain ticket because you believe In
the principles of the partyP
There is great deal in habit and
custom. We are largely creatures of
our environment. We are very likely
to do the things we have been doing
for years. 1t is natural that we should
hold the same ideas and the same
views as our fathers had. But Is this
right Should we not study the prob
lems that come before us; form our
opinions in regard to these problems
and then register our own views as to
what we honestly think.
1t will not take much time for each
of us to read over the platforms of
all the parties and no man can make
an intelligent choice of the party or
candidate that he intends to support
without studying the platform Of each
party. 1t is absurd to say that we are
standing for principles, If we do not
know the principles for which the
parties stand.
The business of government is the
business of every citizen of these
United States. We are not fit to have
the right of suffrare, If we do not
study public questions, if we do not
try to exercise, that privilege intelli-
gently. For man to walk into the
voting booth on the fifth of next
November and vote the Republican or
Democratic ticket because he voted it
last year or because his father or
grandfather voted it, without any
knowledge of what the parties stand
for is to cast an ignorant vote.
1t is well and good for the old parties
to feel proud of what they have accom-
plished in the past. We are proud of
the progress this country has made.
We are proud of the great, good, pa
triotic, brave and wise men, who by
their counsel and their deeds have done
so much to bring about this wonderful
progress. We love this country with
as strong ard deep love as any citi-
zen of it. We would not knowingly
do anything that would injure In the
slightest degree this great nation.
But, we do believe, that while 1t is
good to review the great accomplish
ments of the past, that the vital ques-
tion is not what the parties have done
In the past or what they stood for In
the past, but what they stand for
today.
And we believe that the only way
we can tell this is by reading their
platforms. And the only way we can
do our part is to study all of the plat
forms and having found out what each
party stands for, vote for what we
think is right. To hold real princi-
Piles, we must study public questions.
We believe that it Is good thing
for men to argue politics, we mean
argue, not stand around and villify
and condemn those who hold different
opinions, especially when we don't
understand what these people are ad'
vocating. People can not argue ques-
tions unless they know something
about the questions and real argu-
ments always tends to increase the
knowledge of all those participating
in the argument on the questions dis
cussed. And what we need Is fuller
and better understanding of all public
questions. And those having opinions
and views should have the courage to
express their views.
We plead for an intelligent and hon
est vote, one really representing the
principles of the person casting it.