Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1924-02-27

hullClpai
We have received this week two
letters on the political situation in
Ellsworth. which we are pleased to
publish We welcome this discus
sion Of local affairs, to which the
columns OF The American are al
ways open, no matter from which
party or creed.
One Of these letters is from Full
ton J. Redman, democratic candi-
date for nomination for United States
senator, and the other is from DR..
Lewis Hodgkins, democratic candi-
date for mayor of Ellsworth. Both
take exceptions to our statement last
week that the non-partisan move
ment in Ellsworth this year was
blocked by the democratic organi-
cation, yet neither denies, in sub
stance, that such is the fact Mr..
Redman denies any personal respon-
sibility or any "bossism," but says
1t was the rank and file of the party
that insisted in placing a ticket in
the field. Poor, old, overworked
frank and file" gets praised and
blamed for lot of things it knows
nothing about. DR. Hodgkins adj
mits, in purely professional phrase
ology, that I'VE upset the medicine"
but places the responsibility upon
non-partisan ringsters who talked
too much,
We see nothing in the letters of
either of these gentlemen to quarrel
about; neither do we find in them
any reason for changing our atti-
tude. Our editorial last week was
not criticism of persons or of par
ties not a discussion of men, but
of methods We decried the in
lection of politics into our intimate
town affairs, and placed the blame
where we believe it rightfully be-
longs on the democrats-yes, we
will he more specific and say still,
on the democratic organization. We
would have placed it on the republi-
can organization with equal readi-
ness if it had been the party to
blame.
We aid not for one moment ques-
ton the ability or the loyalty to
Ellsworth of either of our CORES
pondents, or of any candidate on
either ticket. On the contrary, we
think that Ellsworth is peculiarly
fortunate this year in its nominees.
Whichever side wins in the election
next Monday, Ellsworth's affairs will
be in safe hands for the coming mum
icipal year.
But why should we have family
quarrel this year, or any year, to
choose our public servants? The
editor is not within the secret coun-
ellis OF any political or non-partisan
ring, and has no desire to be. In
fact. we can agree with DR.. Hodg-
kins that the manner in which the
non-partisan ticket has been named
the past few years is not altogether
to be desired-it has smacked rather
of factionalism than non-partisan-
ship; and it has been bipartisan,
not non-partisan. A few men of
Submitted it to the city committee
of the two regular parties, and OBJ
tanned their consent to endorse it.
We believe a better way would be
the holding of joint caucus of re-
publicans and democrats, and making
up a ticket without regard to poll
tics. Why should we care whether
a man whom we ask to conduct our
city affairs is a democrat or a re-
publican, more than we would if
employing him in our private bus
mess?
We see no reason to change the
summing up of our editorial Of last
week, The challenge to a party
fight has been made by the demo-
Gratis. The issue is fall politics
There is but one way for republi-
cans to meet such a challenge, and
that is to line up in party formation
CATARRHAL DEAFNESS