The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1920-04-30
POLITICAL ADVERTISING
Randolph Herald Thinks 1t Is Not an
Unlawful Act.

| The action Of Candidate HARNESS in
refusing to do political advertising on
the ground that it is illegal practice
| has made the other three candidates
likewise "gunsky.' The result being
| that. further than the statement Of the
platform of each, no general publicity
has been given the candidates. In 9TH
| er words 90 per cent of the voters have
I only the platform and vague impress
| sion of the man on which to base their
preference.
Vermont is small and few men
within its borders may be termed as
generally known" but even at that a
voter is not always satisfied to vote for
Jake Smith because four years ago last
Decoration day Jake made rafting
good speech on Patriotism in the
School, The voter has his own ideas.
, Il is for the best interest of the state
and nation that he be allowed to vote
for the candidate who best promises to
| fulfill those ideas. That is the basis
Of our national government.
How is this voter to choose his can
didateg A very, very small per cent OF
| Vermont freemen are that fortunate
| or unfortunate that they can slap Jake
on the back and say, Hello, old man,
how's is 2"
A very small per cent have ever
| heard Jake speak or, in fact, ever saw
him. A small per cent have received
letters from him outlining his stand.
A large per cent have read their home
papers for dope" on the respective
Jakes and this year have found little.
This because of sections los to l0I,
| inclusive. statutes of Vermont Sec
ton los reads in part. "A person may
incur and pay in order to promote his
own nomination, or the nomination OF
another person, as candidate for
public office, Z" for writing, print
ing and preparing for transmission any
! letter, circular or other publication not
issued at regular intervals, whereby he
may state his position or views, or the
position or views of another person,
upon public or other questions F"
We interpret this to mean that a
candidate may issue letters, circulars
or other documents spasmodically but
not at regular intervals We do not
believe this section Is concerned with
whether or not the medium in which
these documents are published is issued
at regular intervals, so long as that
medium is not wholly consumed by
and solely intended for the publication
! of said documents. In other words,
| this section was aimed at the publica'
ton solely existing as means to sup
port a candidate.
I Certainly, if we are in the wrong IN
| this Interpretation, there are few Yer
mont papers that have not violated
this section many times since 1902,
when it was enacted. Ii would seem
highly probable that in the past Is
wears the flaw would have been dis
cerned had it existed, for it is a known
fact that political advertising is a
choice morsel for the newspaper.
To continue section LOG reads in
part mo publisher of a newspaper,
in this state, shall directly or
indirectly, receive or accept money or
other valuable thing in payment or
compensation for the support or ad
vocacy of the nomination of any
person as candidate for a public Office
in this state"
Because newspaper publishes an
advertisement of hur'emquick il is no
criterion that the publisher has person
ally taken two bottles. lost all the red
spots on his tongue, and therefore adj
vocates and supports Kur'emquick.
Likewise, if we must interpret this
section according to the letter of the
law. because a publisher receives paid
advertising he has not necessarily sup.
ported or advocated the advertised
commodity. However, again we prefer
to believe this section refers to that