Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1914-08-19
DUNNETT'S PLATFORM.

in the following letter:
To the voters of the second congress
sionaI district of Vermont:
have advanced my position as
United States attorney for the district
of Vermont to become candidate for
Congress on the Republican ticket in
this district. Having been out Of
politics for about eight years think I
should say that l believe the great
parties in the United States. is the |
tariff. l am not ''stand patter." l
have always believed in a revision of !
the tariff to meet present day condi-
lions. but such revision should al
ways be upon the lines of the protec-
ton of our industries. I am not of
that class of protectionists who have
advocated in the past lowering of the
tariff. It is my firm conviction that
the people of this country can we'll
afford to pay for articles that can
proftably be produced here what it
costs to produce them in our own
country, and the only proper occasion
for a general lowering of the tariff is
to provide greater revenue? for the
government. AS practical PROPOSE
ton this government has never been
able to grow richer while the klabor was
performed abroad and the money sent
abroad from this country to pay for the
products of labor. Such a system always
involves the sending of money out of
this country and throwing our own
laborers out of employment. In the
opinion of experts this country is
capable of producing food stuffs suffi-
cient for five hundred millions of
people; and while foodstuffs sufficient
for our own people can be produced at
home our agricultural interests should
have the benefit of the market.
In it's successful national campaign
the Republican party stood upon the
strongest protective plank that was
ever written into its platform, but by
the vacillating attitude of our leader
upon the tariff question, his attempted
reciprocity with Canada and his advo-
cacy of general cutting down of the
tariff, the temporary downfall of our
party resulted.
This country in 1914 is in the humili-
ating position of living under a tariff
framed by the people who declared in
their platform that protection was I'M
constitutional. They have directly
appropriated the principles originated
and most brilliantly advocated by John
G. Calhoun more than eighty years ago
when under a spell Of his reasoning
South Carolina passed the notification
act. These principles were so rank
that Andrew Jackson threatened to
repudiated by the people of this
government for more than half a cen.
fury.
The principle that this government
has right to protect itself, its people
and it's industries is so firmly estab-
lished that in the last presidential
election more than two million major
ity of votes were cast in its favor
the Taft and Roosevelt vote combined.
All believers in this doctrine should
stand together, no community is more
vitality interested in it than the people
of Vermont. I believe not only that
this country has the right to protect
but that it's duty and interest are to
protect its labor and it's industries as
much as it is its duty to protect it's
shores from foreign invasions. While
am not without views on pending and
prospective measures in Congress, |
prefer in this limited space to speak of
a measure not pending, to my knoWl-
| edge, in relation to our army. [
believe that military schools should be
established for boys who have COM
|
which agricultural and other useful
learning should be impaired. These
schools should be entirely free, but
attendance should be upon condition
that the student should for certain
number of years after graduation
serve in the army when called upon.
1 believe such schools will accomplish
the purposes:
Fist. They will do away with the
, necessity for a large standing army.
Second. They will provide a very
large and efficient army in time OF
need.
Third, Every part of the body polite
7 will be strengthened by the constant
addition of this body of well-trainet
and weil-educated young men.
And finally. l think this can all bt
accomplished as cheaply as we support
. our present standing army and tn,
militia of the several states. I'd no
be formulated and written into law a
: once. but feel that there is an oppor
: tunity for an endeavor toward progress
: along these lines. This district i
rather off on the side respecting tn
: great commercial and industrial inter
o ests of the country, but it has interest
j.. as dear and important to its people a
any. and if nominated and elected to thi
" high Office it will be not only my dut
but my pleasure to do that l can TO
o you and my state and my country.
ALEXANDEk DUNNETT.
Mr. Dunnett is native of Peacham
where he was born in 1852. He wa
educated at the public schools and wa
graduated from the Randolph norma
school. He completed his law studio
at the Boston university and wa
0 admitted to the bar of Orange count
S in 1877. Six years later he removed t
n st. Johnsbury where he has since re
= sided and built up large law prac
tice. He has since been states attor
: ney for Caledonia county and represent
i ed this county in the senate in tn
4 Legislature of 1900. He has served a
United States attorney for the distric
of Vermont for the last eight years
: resigning this position to become
| IL -, e..