The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1914-07-17
FRANK n. howe. Sditor and Pub
BENNINGTON. VT. JULY II, 1914
THE FUNNY FREE PRESS

The Banner did not intend to say
anything more about either the
direct primary or a special session.
The readers of the paper must have
gotten sick of reading about them.
The Burlington Free Press, however,
devotes some space to criticising the
attitude of The Banner and we there
fore break over to call attention to
the weakness of the Free Press posi-
ton.
The trouble is not with the Rcpub-
lican party, but with some of it's
members of which the Free Press is
a striking example. For years and
years while the contest has been GO
ing on, that has during the last two
years come to crisis, the Free
Press has seldom or never taken a
decided stand when any important
state issue hung in the balance. 1t
has varied between adulation of men
holding important place by virtue Of
the Republican party and lodging b.
hind grandmother's petticoat when
some coarse man insisted on expos
ing truth naked.
When the Republican convention
two years ago, emasculated the pri-
mary plank, we do not remember see
ing the Free Press out with a club
unfolding the cause of the people
1t sat idly by until the battle had
been fought by others and then tried
to claim a medal that it did not de-
serve.
During the past few months the
Free Press has printed scores of
columns of vague warnings OF some
impending danger from the inter
ests.' We have read these articles
carefully and not yet have We been
able to grasp one concrete fact that
would aid anybody in settling a ques-
tion o. in arriving at just conclus.
ion.
In the meantime the actual inter
ests for very real purpose arc seek
ing TO prevent the enactment OF a di-
rect primary law this year and the
Free Pess has blindly danced TO
their music while the chief fddlcrs'
have Rugged themselves in glee to
sec the Free Press 80 cheerfully aid
ing them in their little scheme to
outwit the governor.
In trying to stop a special session
the Free Press is also pulling chest
nuts out of the FIRE without even
knowing whose chestnuts they are.
In It's statement of the primary Is.
sue which The Banner reprints in
another column the Free Press is so
wide of the facts and so little grasps
the real truth that II seems useless to.
so owe: the ground again.
The most deadly injury TO the Re.
publican party in Vermont has been
done by those who like the Free
Press have failed TO stand up and
be counted when the real battle was
on, but WHO have spent oceans OF
time barking over a cold trail after
the best that threatened, had gotten
clean away.
The statements the Free Press
makes in this recent article are not
facts, its reasoning is incorrect and
its conclusions are erroneous.
At the same time we do not want
to be unfair to the Free Press No
other paper anywhere is, in its in
tent, more loyal to its town and state
No other paper in Vermont lends it.
self more fully and freely to every
movement to advance the public
good. The University of Vermont
and other Burlington and Vermont
institutions owe the Free Press
debt that they can never repay. It's
aim, we believe, TO be high and its
purpose sincere, but when it deals
with political issues the distance to
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