The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1916-11-03
SCRATCH" TICKETS
CAREFULLY

The Republican party in this
county seems to be In trouble. There
is danger of some Of its candidates
losing to their Democratic opponents.
People are justified in scratching"
their tickets this fall, but they should
be careful how they do it. They
should keep one supreme idea in
mind all the time-support the man
who has been true and rebuke the
one who has not. The way to re-
buke a candidate ia to vote for his
opponent.
Two years ago people went to the
polls determined to clean out the
Court House," and they did 1t. This
year the Republicans have been un-
fortunate in nominating ticket that
La not all wool. Neither is 1t all q
yard wide. Its personnel is not well
distributed over the county, but lives
mostly in the county seat. The party
Is not to blame for that; neither are
the candidates. II good officer
having served one term desires re-
election, and everybody else in town
decides to run for office too, he can
not help it, and people should
not vote against him on account
of his company. The way to
do with these complex questions is
to study them carefully and so far
as possible, support every worthy
candidate and be sure to vote against
each one that has not proven true.
II the voters will follow that plan,
the Judgment Of the majority will be
right, and the unworthy ones will be
weeded out. Those that have not
been faithful and true will receive
their rebuke, and that will be q
warning to all that they might just
as well stay out of politics as to play
a crooked game while they are in.
II you are Republican and feel
like voting against your whole ticket
Just because there are several UNI
worthy candidates, don't act upon
that impulse. II you wrong one faith
full man, IL you turn him out just
because he served under the same
administration with another who was
unworthy, you holds out no encour-
agement for him to be true. There
is nothing more inspiring to pubic
man than to be true and to have
people mark him for trust; nothing
more discouraging and more destruc-
tive of real character than to be con-
stantly classed with the unworthy
and treated accordingly. Whatever
you do, do not misuse your ballot
and make that mistake.
II you are Democrat and feel
that you want to scratch somebody
on your ticket, scratch him, but hrst
be sure that he is unworthy or that
there is a good man on the other
ticket for whom you can vote. There
can be no serious mistake in choos-
ing between two good men on OPP
posing tickets, but in deciding
whether you will support an UNI
worthy man on your own ticket or
vote for a better one on the opposing
ticket, there is a plain duty for you
to perform-vote for the best man
and forget that foolish loyalty to
party. Parties were created to get
the best officials and the best results
in government, and when party
gets to delivering the goods the other
way or when it gets good and bad
men mixed, it has destroyed it's own
usefulness and needs to be rebuilt
or put out as manager till there Is
thoro repentance. You have couple
of weeks left in which to sort up
your candidates, and you owe your
county that much study Of the sub
ject so vitality affecting its welfare.