Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1913-09-17
A Change of Heart .

One would hardly believe that a
change OF heart could be so sudden
if there has really been a change;
yet, in less than week after election
we find the Lewiston Journal devot-
ing almost a page of space to Con-
gresham elect Peters.
For months past, and especially
during the past eight weeks, have the
columns OF the Journal teemed with
Characterization of the candidate it
was lighting that must sound as queer
to itself now as it did to right think
ing men when they were printed.
AS none of its ante election pre-
dictions came true, and as now the
fight is over and its dearest foe is
elected, the flop may not be so very
hard to make. After charging Mr..
Peters with having committed about
all the possible crimes in the political
calendar; after declaring him to be
opposed TO all the things that he isn't;
after saying that he stands for whole
lot of things that he doesn't, it sends
its most delectable staff correspondent
to Ellsworth, to interview the Con-
gresham elect
And here is part of that inter-
view:
Among the things which can be said of the
new Congressman by both friends and enc
mics, political and otherwise, is that he en-
deavors to pass judgment fairly. II will be
recalled that during the week of impeach-
ment proceedings which marked the close
of the session of 1918, he was constantly
called upon TO rule upon points of conse-
quence. These rulings were clear and fair.
Throughout the campaign he declared that
he stood for progressive measures; that he
fully understood the day had come when the
republican party must move forward He
does not, in discussing the future of the party
or the attitude which he will assume when
seated in the national house OF representa-
tives, refer to progressive republicans He
uses a different term Liberal republicans he
calls them. This, he says, to his mind de-
scribes them best.
In his speaking tour and In bis platform
Mr.. Peters declared II to be his intent to work
for the following measures:
Workmaus compensation.
Abolition Of child labor.
A national eight-hour law Tor women.
minimum wage for women.
A tariff commission.
Conservation Of national resources.
Direct presidential primaries.
All other sensible reforms.
To-day be makes the same assertion He
> h,f ID a..
demanding those laws. That being the case,
he feels laws should be SO made as to give
them what they want.
+Workman's compensation. abolition Of
of child labor, eight-hour law for women,
minimum wage for women" he says, "are
statutory law, not constitutional. They can
be tried and il found failures be repealed"
OF course everybody outside the
Journal Office, who knows Mr.. Peters,
knew long before the campaign
opened that he was one of the most
progressive of public men; his
speeches throughout the campaign
reflected it, and yet he was charac-
terized by the Journal as a mediocre
leader Of moribund minority, and by
other equally misshtting epithets.
Whether the Journal believes of Mr.. /
Peters things that 1t claimed it didn't
believe before election, we don't
know, but it is to its credit that it per-
mits in its columns Mr.. Peters own
statement of his attitude towards
great public questions.