The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1917-07-18


ng column. What he says is often
yirile, striking. He has, however, an
which runs riot. He deals
n fancy, not in facts. He sometimes
argues from a wrong premise, and IN
loing so makes an ass of himself.
This is what he has done in making
Vermont the object of his venom at
time when his eyes were roaming IN q
fne frenzy.
Vermont is proud of the record OF
the fathers in the Civil war. We of
the younger generation have a right TO
boast, perhaps, of the state which LED
the Union in percentage of soldiers ana
which sent COOL deal more than % per
cent of all its men of military age to the
firing line at a time when the question
was the preservation of the Union.
But that is history, and like all
past, it is secure. We are willing to |
take up that subject and argue 1t with |
any man.
Now we are dealing with present
day facts. Also we are taking the hide
off the Commentator. We knew the
gentleman. lie was a resident Of Will
mington, Windham county, Vermont,
for brief space of time. Why he
was there is another story, as our old
friend Kipling would say. Probably
the people of the good town were as
glad to get rid of him as he was to be
| shut of them.
The draft has been ordered, and
where does Vermont stand2 She is
asked to furnish l,049 for service by
compulsion. Where is Connecticut, the
home of the Commentators She must
provide 1851 Vermont s number IS
small, not as compared with the size
of the state, but upon the per capita
basis, which the space writer tells
about If Connecticut had done as
well as Vermont in volunteering the
Wooden Nutmeg state would have been
called upon for a scant G,000, instead
of over 10000. When it comes to the
soldiers accepted as volunteers Yer
mont leads Connecticut by ratio of 10
to 6.
Now in regard to Vermont s .rot
ten record - with 81 men in 80 days
What are the facts? The 81 men are
those taken for the regular army al
recruiting stations alone. They do MOI
even include regular army enlistments
| a part of which from this state have
been made direct at the greatest arm,
. post in New England, Fort Ethan Al
T len, in Vermont, by the way.
A Briefly, here is Vermont's record
: in the world war for the overthrow o
lautocracy as against democracy: !
! complete regiment Of over 1000 officer
e and men in the National Guard
equipped and ready for the call to tn
federal service; 205 men in the regu
: lar army, 467 in the navy, over $50 9th
ers in various branches of military SCI
vice, or a total of $500 in the yer
o first days of the war.
y Perhaps Vermont is a forgotten, be
c hind-the-times reservation, from tn
! standpoint of brilliant but befuddle
!, Connecticut brain. There is other te>
timony to the contrary. The expert j
civics and economies who visited an
r carefully reviewed all of the Ne
e England states in series Of interes
: ing articlcs-he was resident {
= Iowa, by the way-declared that We
mont in the past decade was the mo!
u progressive commonwealth of New En-
= land and Connecticut the most vena
= Vermont is not Utopia, and poop
sd here as everywhere, have their faul
a scandal as malodorous as that While
~ lhas come from Connecticut within
n few DAYS, where, almost within Il
a shadows of the state capitol, mere
lowed to conduct an old people
t slaughter house, where 40 persons I've
ng Ito their doom before the authorltl
ef were aroused to the point of making
:; | investigation which resulted Ill II ucd
lal sentence for the present-day Borgia.
m But to return momentarily to stat
ne ties of the war today. Wlndhs
county-where the Commentator {
veloped his dislike to the plain peol
of while he staggered about the stree
yer of the country village with an al
: matte breath, dawdling with cane
bo. Twill not furnish men under the draft I
ess reason: SO many have enlisted h
her voluntarily that the district has
rs decided its quota, and not man
ION be drafted in forming the first Inc
is ment of the new national army.
les, exemption district had an excess Of
,he quota which was used in bringing do
al. 1.-THE number to be drafted from oil
de- districts of the state.
has Perhaps the Commentator, who