The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1922-12-19
ADVICE TO LEGISLATORS
"A Common Citizen" Urges Them Be Wary of Wolf
Who Stimulates Sheep-Dont Change
Statutes Bindly. S

Advice to new members of the legisla-
ture.
Don't get all fused up and have nerv-
Gus prostration thinking over the big re-
forms you expect to inaugurate when you
arrive at the capitol. When you get there
you'll find you amount to about as much
as a flea on the well populated carcass
of a hound dog. You may agitate the
euss so he'll take an extra jump, but
neither of you nor anybody else can tell
where he'll finally land.
II you've got a well deserved local rep
utation as a slick "hoss" trader you'll
probably get along first rate with some
Of the politicians, for "swoppin' bosses
Is their big stunt. If you can swop with
them so as to gain in the long run almost
as much as you lose, You IL soon be
hailed as a real political wise guy.
'.Horse-shedding" is one of the funda-
mentals of q political career, but now
that the automobile has changed the
horse shed TO garage you need to watch
out or you'll get political asphyxiation
trying 10 run the old machine with the
doors closed. Times have changed a bit,
you'll find.
The trouble with the state as with
some humans, is that it has a champagne
appetite and only a beer income. Either
the appetite must be carefully restrained
or the income will have to be increased,
which means reducing, by taxation, the
wage of the labOrers, the great mass of
the people who support the state. and a
careful study of recent strikes will soon
convince you how kindly the laborer
takes to reduction in his wage,
especially when 1t has already been re-
duced about to the limit. Don't crowd
the government-supporting population too
far or another big strike may result. Tax
alton, like death, is one of the things we
all expect to experience, but too much
Is too much by a sight as the minis
ter told his Pensioners after the benefit
pound party TO which each of 497 kind
friends had contributed a pound of rice.
The closer you stand to thing the
more Of your view of distant scenery Is
obscured. Because a big appropriation
of the states money Will benefit your
own town of Skeedunk is no sign for the
state as a whole 4 grain of sand in your
the neighbnrhood as q whole Will be much
more animated by and interested In the
birth of triplets at John Smiths or the
poster on the town hall announcing the
coming of a town show. Get the compre-
hensive statewide view of things.
Because you are farmer or a manu-
facturer or merchant don't blindly sup
port every measure alleged to be bene-
fetal to your particular class and turn
down without intelligent consideration all
times a wolf assumes the general appear-
ance of a sheep when he gets hungry
enough. Likewise special interests have
been known to howl loudly in favor of
measures that they say would hasten the
millennium for farmers. or merchants, or
whatever class thev wish to capture d.
liticallv. After "the deed is did thev
then crawl around with the saliva OF
greed dripning from their hungry iavr~
and soy: KINDLY scratch my poor back
Remember that I scratched Yours tn"
other dav when it itchad - And when
you stoop TO the disgusting task You are
allo0nricallv speaking. devoured bv tho
harrfd beasts It is true that the farmer
feeds the world. but that SINGLE feet does
not entitle him TO anv snpcial consider"
ton He doesn't do it because he -
philart hronist He does ii because that9
the way he. from choice gets a living for
h;rnanIf and family. The merchant. -
banker. the manufacturer and innnmer-
able other classes of people contribut"