Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1916-03-21

UOTAI STANDARDS OF a pOut1caI u0W8p6.
per that would ever admit weakness
or fault in its own party. He seems
to think the Journal should have
claimed that all the booze handled and
drank in the recent election was by
Democrats. We do not know that it
was not. We know very little about 1t.
We saw none Of It, but Democrats have
talked much and we presume they
KNOW that booze and money were
used in the campaign just ended. We
are convinced that they KNOW very
nearly the amount and how 1t was
used. We have good reason to believe
that some Of the Democrats who are
bowling loudest furnished the most
booze and also had hand in securing
the money from booze sources for fund
ing the Democratic campaign.
We did not dip into this matter dur
ing the campaign; we had not intended
to do SO now that election is all over.
A distinguished candidate has told
some Of our friends that he was going
to call and say to US that tho election
is over. But he has not discovered that
the Democratic mouthpieces and gas
bags are still operative. using both the
New Age and Waterville Sentinel to
spread false reports and to carry cheap
In tha< al al "a
apparently thinks we have no right to
retort, or to give the facts. But we
are not ''muzzled" so effectively as was
boosted by distinguished Democrats
during the campaign.
We were informed on good authority
ten days or two weeks before Angus
ta's election day. that Democratic lead
ers had abundance Of their usual cam
paign equipment and were using it and
promising freely. One Democratic
leader at gathering of ward workers
assured them that they should have all
the rum and all the money they needed
to carry that ward. That wasAthe only
ward the Democrats saved. This in
formation came straight to US several
days before election. We were also in
formed that the Democratic agreement
was to quietly circulate the charge that
it was the Republicans who were put
ting out the money and booze. They
circulated the story and then they
shouted it in their rallies. They de-
ceived no one as the election results
show. But. in their chagrin they are
continuing the false stories. aided and
abetted by the political sheet Of Post
master Plaisted and the Waterville
Sentinel.
The Waterville Sentinel gives ut
terance to deliberate falsehood
when it tells its readers that the Ken
nebec Journal admits that the Repub-
licans" made use of rum and money in
the Augusta election.
The facts are that the Kennebec
Journal does not deny that the party
has been often handicapped by the
efforts" Of certain misguided individ-
uals who claim the Republican faith
and who think they are working for
the welfare Of the party when they
stoop to the use Of the same weapons
with which Democracy always fights
rum and vote buying.
These men are not 1.-The Republicans"
We do not know that they did not op-
crate in the recent campaign. We do
not propose to claim anything we can
not stand behind. Naturally partisan
as we are, we would not be guilty Of
making such a false inference as a
State official, under salary of all the
taxpayers, made to young men for the
manifest purpose Of misleading them;
or as false as the fiat statement Of the
Waterville Sentinel: &c the Bur-
leigh newspaper sets up the claim that
rum and money were used on both
Sides"
Our position is today, as it has been
for years. that any party which allows
its workers to swap the vote Of it's law
abiding and most respectable citizenry
for that Of boozers and vote sellers de-
serves defeat.
If party caters to the illiterate. the
irresponsible and the characterless, it
should have that element while the
better elements Of society naturally
turn to more wholesome political
forces. That has been true of the two
great parties in the past and is today
Democracy has appealed to the de-
PRAYED elements of society, the bum,
the thug, the moral outcast, the per
sonal libertyite." the men who have no
respect for themselves or for the fran
chise: while the Republican party has
attracted the educated, the intelligent,
the moral forces.
This is true as q whole and as a gen.
eral tendency. There are marked ex-
ceptions on both sides, but the state
ment in the abstract is correct. We
claim nothing further than that. We
do not care to hide or defend the