The Republican journal., 1913-01-23
Bull Moose Uplift in Maine.
Boston Sunday Herald.


Some of the Progressive members of the
Maine Legislature. acting meeky under orders
from Montana and Oyster Bay, have been max
ing an exhibition Of themselves of late that
must make the angels weep, whatever its eff
feet at Armageddon. 1t was not merely that
they broke party pledges and repudiated the
popular primary in which they had taken part
but they capped the climax of high-mnded
disnterested craftsmanship when they Joined
the Democratic members in movement to ex-
expel four Republican members from the Leg-
isIature on the ground that they were post
masters ard therefore ineligible to rnemter-
ship
Since Maine became State nobody had be-
fore discovered that the constitution raised
bar to the election of q postmaster to the Leg
islature. Postmasters had served in every ses-
sion without challenge. But the exigencies of
the senatorial campaign made new discovery
of some sort necessary on the part of the
Democrats and those of the Progressives who
became their camp followers. So they found
a provision in the constitution which said that
no person holding any office under tie United
States government, post officers excepted"
should have seat in the Legislature
They argued that "post officer meant the
officer of an army post and not an officer of the
postal service, and that in consequence post
master was not excepted from the provision
forbdding federal office-holders from the
Legislature. 1t was most absurd contention
and they could not keep their faces straight as
they argued it, but it served their purpose.
They railroaded through the House the expul-
sion of Republican member who was a
postma ster and the other three were so scared
since the Democratic Progressive combina-
tion had the votes to attain their end-that
their designations were wired to Washington
and accepted there. Even then they would
have been expelled. but the required hour ar
rived for the senatorial vote, and saved them.
This many sound like the plot of comic
opera. but it actually happened at Augusta
last week. Moreover, though there were five
postmasters in the membership of the House
only four were slated for summary expulsion
on the day of the senatorial vote, two weeks
after the session opened. The fifth member
who held a commission postmaster was a
Progressive himself, and SO it was felt that he
was not violating the constitution in holding
his seat. Thus was Progressivism raised to
the nth power of practical partisanship! 1t
was kind of uplift and square deal which
M aine had never seen before.
AS for the constitutional provision in ques-
ton, it was adapted from that in the constitu-
tion of Massachusetts at the time Maine be-
came a State. Later the old fashioned term
"post- officer" was changed to postmaster in
the Massachusetts constitution, but HIS re-
mained unchanged in the Maine constitution
The amendment in Massachusetts shows con-
clusively that the two terms were synony-
nous. The dictionaries back up this view
Constitutio nal lawyers and judges in Maine
were prompt to declare their opinion that the
Democratic Progressive contention, as to the
officers of military posts being meant, was too
thin to hold water. The plot failed, to be
sure. but when disciple of the colonel begins
to talk in Maine about political righteousness
and reform and the golden rule in politics and
the Onward Christian Soldier" business. his
auditors are likely to snicker audibly.