The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1912-04-10
LETTERS TO
THE EDITOR
]. E. Burke Writes About Vermont
Democracy.
Editor Barre Times

peared in your paper OF meeting held
in the large hall of the hotel Sherwood
on April 4, said meeting being held after
the Democratic state committee had a
meeting for the purpose of selecting II
date for the holding of the state con
yention. With reference to the said re-
port of the meeting at which the charges
made by me against T. II. Browne and
Il. II. Harris were considered, will say
that said report was the most onesided
and distorted representation of what ac-
tually did take place that ever read,
and especially so as the important facts
as disclosed by me in support of my
charges were not even mentioned. The
following are some of the most impor-
tant ones: First, the report did not
state that in order to account for the
\ proper use of the thousand dollars in
| question, Mr.. Browne stated that he
gave f. II. Harris two hundred dollars,
and that in the local contest for repre-
sentative with 7. w. Moloney as one of
the candidates during the contest when
three ballots had to be taken before any
person was elected, Peter McManus came
| to him and said he was broke, and Mr.
! Browne told him that he had two hun
bred dollars left and to 90 on and he
would pay the bills, which when pre-
! scented amounted to one hundred and
sixty dollars, Having information to the
effect that Mr.. Browne would again make
| this statement, called up 7. w. Molon-
! ey in the forenoon and asked him over
| the telephone if Browne had financed
| his campaign of four years ago to the
| extent of about two hundred dollars.
: His reply was that he financed his own
campaign with the exception OF not
very large sum contributed in small
amounts in the customary way. Now
the only evidence Mr.. Browne had for
the use of this money provided he spent
it as stated was simply a check book
stub. backed up with Peters word, in
stead of a cancelled check, which if gen
uine would be conclusive evidence and
not subject to question, and with refer
enee to the other expenditures of this
nature no. cancelled checks were pro-
duced although Mr.. Browne stated that
each member of the state committee re-
ceived portion of the fund, and he
had their endorsement on the checks and
the checks themselves can be found IN
the files of the Clement National bank
of Rutland. a statement which sounds
little queer, as cancelled checks are
returned to the original sender and are
generally supposed to be in his posses
sion if not destroyed The report did
not state that in Rutland, Bennington
st. Adams and Fair Haven, where Mr..
Browne stated he sent five hundred and
ten dollars. / showed that there was
slump in the vote as compared with
Porter's vote four years previous of II
votes in st. Adams. l4l votes in Ben
nington, % votes in Rutland and SO
votes in Fair Haven, making total
slump of 307 votes.
The report did not state that in four
other places Of equal size and practically
the same distance from Burlington, and
where no claim was or could be made
that a single dollar was furnished by
Browne, very radical and different re-
suits were obtained. and were as fol-
lows: Bellows Falls gave me a net gain |
over Porter Of 95 votes, and this was IN
Porter's own county, and he also had |
provided it was properly used the as
sistance OF a ive-thousand dollar fund !
from the national committee; St. Johns. /
bury gave me net gain over Porter /
of l59 votes; Fairfield gave me a net /
gain of l22 votes; representing a total /
net gain over Porter of 5ll votes. The !
report did not state that these figures /
were taken from Waltons Register and /
the files of The Free Press, and that T
emphasized the Importance Of the re-
suits as shown in showing that / had /
a right to assume and do now claim
that Browne and Harris have very |
difficult problem to solve in satisfying /
the party that they should not be super
seeded by more competent leaders. In
addition to the above. the report did not |
say that in Burlington, Colchester,
Springfield, Chelsea, Waterbury, and a
number of places, l also received large
net gains over Porter's vote of four
years ago The report did not state
that, notwithstanding the slump in the
places mentioned, I showed that / re-
duced the majority of the opposite party
as compared with the vote of 1904. Just
2 ,726 votes with no FIVE thousand dollar
fund or any part of it in sight. The
report did not state that | showed of
the seventeen rallies held | was a lone
speaker at seven of them and that nv
principal speakers at other places were
Alexander Troup of Connecticut, George
Fred Williams and Whitefeld Tuck OF
Massachusetts, and not one dollar of
their expense was furnished by Browne
and Harris. The report did not state
that | had information Of reliable
character which plainly Indicated that
there should be a reorganization of the
Vermont Democracy, as the national
were getting tired of trying
TO assist Vermont without getting salts
factory results. The report did not
state that before the vote was taken,
owing to the Importance of the charges.
| insisted that they should be referred
to committee to investigate and re-
port but the meeting was staged for
different program, but with the result as
reported, and it was strictly in keeping
with the whole report.
As to my attitude in this matter, I
simply want to say that as an active
of my party always trying to
uphold its honor as well as my own in
position | had the honor to
fill, prompted from a sense of duty,
make this appeal to the fifteen or more
thousand loyal Democrats of Vermont
to come to the relief of movement in
selecting for its leaders persons having
the necessary qualifications which re-
quire ability and also the respect and
confidence of the people wherever known.
In closing viii say that while my state
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