St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1914-09-30

prove ii before your auditors will ac-
cept the statement; hint at the pos
sibility of infdelity or misalliance
and the people declare it the truth
even if there is no proof it is true.
The use of these dishonorabIe
methods is very general in the pres
emit campaign. Even a man of the
ability of Charles A. Prouty makes
statements concerning Sen. w. p.
Dillingham; that have led to the cir
culation of reports by the curb and
gutter politician that Sen. Dilling-
ham is the tool of the interests until
certain classes of the voters believe
the senator has sacrificed the rights
of the people to the unjust demands
of the interests.
Sen. Dillingham; has long been in
public service and during all that
time his record has been an open
book to his constituents. He began
his public career as states attorney
for his county, has represented his
town in the legislature, been a mem
Der of the state senate, was governor
of the state and has been in the
United States senate nearly sixteen
years and we challenge Mr.. Prouty
or any other man to show where he
has been instrumental in promoting
any scheme of the interests to wrong
or Cypress the people. The facts, as
we understand them, are that while
Sen. Dillingham; has not been swayed
by every noise or frightened by tenn
porary but active factions, he has al
ways stood and voted for that which
he believed would be the most just
and beneficial to the public as
whole. If this be true how con
temptible are the attempts to slaugh-
ter him by innuendo.
The Burlington Free Press says:
Representative of Standard Oil
interests and allied powers are at
work in Vermont today trying to do
exactly what the whole world knows
Mr.. Wilson was advised to do, "see
Ryan" ''place yourselves under OBJ
legation to u.s.
Representatives of these combina-
lions had seats in the State republi-
can and the State progressive con-
Ventions just as other Representatives
are included in the representatives
of the coming State democratic con-
vention.
Their game is to promote contests,
seek to block free expression of the
popular will, and, by holding the
balance of power, try to put the can
didates chosen under obligation to
fhnn1 on6 fhnT uroi m f1yrfhnr hold
by helping to finance campaigns.
If Mr.. Gates were standing wholly
alone in this campaign he would be
elected overwhelmingly without a
campaign fund. An attempt is be-
ing made, however, to make it ap-
pear that the use of a big campaign
fund will be necessary to help elect
him, and that it will come from a
mysterious somewhere.
Without making a direct state
ment the Free Press creates the i'm
preston there are members on the
state republican ticket trying to aid
the interests in the conquest of Mr..
Gates. Very definite knowledge
should back any such suggestion
Therefore we would ask that the
Free Press state whether it knows of
any member or members of the re-
publican state ticket who is serving |
the Standard Oil or any other cor
poration in this way? Please name |
the representatives of Standard Oil |
interests who are at work in Yer |
mont today that the people may |
know whom to guard against. Other /
charges that the interests framed |
the republican platform and prevent |
been made. Who were the men who
did the influencing and whom of the |
committee selected to draft the
platform did they influence to sup
press or rewrite a single word in
that platform?
Unless the Free Press is willing to
state definitely who it intends to dis
credit in these charges it should not
make them. If it does know
it speaks it is its plain duty
to inform the public just who the
dangerous members of society are
because the rank and file of no po-
Iitical party in Vermont approves of
such attempts to unduly influence
public officials or candidates.
The tendency of all is to greatly
the faults of political
rivals. No one party can be entirely
and always right. Nor can the in
Of any party in power rem
edy all the evils to which humanity
is heir. Nor does any one party
contain all the bad there is in exist
ence. But the attempts to make
these things appear otherwise
through innuendo and baseless
charges constitute the most dishon-
orable and reprehensible form of po-
itical activity known. 1t would be
much better for this state if such ac-
.ivity could be firmly suppressed.