Plentywood herald. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1908-current, 1936-10-22
GETTING DOWN 10
"BRASS TACkS''
E CAMPAIGN

Usually at about this time in a heat
ed political campaign, when candid
ates are heading down the home
stretch, rumblings are heard of last
minute dope" What new scandal will
be barred next week." Who will be
the victim. This year is no exception.
Foreboding whisperings are heard here
and there in fear of the muckrackng
scandal-mongers who seem to delight
in dragging the good names of law
abiding and se~f-respecting citizens
through the mire, smearing their char
acter with vile and cowardly attacks
in the hope of arousing unsuspecting
electorate to register their disapproval
at the polls.
But to the credit of our people, this
despicable method of campaigning has
lost much of its appeal in Sheridan
county. In a county noted a few years
back for its rotten and disgraceful
campaigns, until citizens actually felt
ashamed to designate their residence
when visiting in other parts OF the
state, politics has been restored to a
position where even the best people
may participate and register their APP
proval. One need only compare the
campaign OF this year to one of six,
eight or ten years ago. Again we say,
1t is a distinct credit to our citizenry.
They elected to office men and women
who not only stood for honesty in pub
lie office, but men and women who
would have no part in disreputable
political campaigns.
So far as the writer has been able t.
observe, there is only one instance in
this entire section of the state wher.
a candidate is accompanying his ap-
pei tor votes with ever a semblance
OF personal abuse or undertaking, and
oddly enough the campaign tactics en-
ployed by this candidate is already
showing definite signs of reacting
against him. 1t just seems that people
prefer to Judge ones character and
form their opinion Of his personal YER
acity through their own contacts and
not from opinions expressed or broad
cast to them through some self-seek-
ing politician.
Did you ever stop to think that the
so-called last minute propaganda is
of itself discredited? The very fact that
something is not made public until it
is too late for the one subject of the
attack to make due reply or defend
himself, should turn the scorn Of the
voter or the very author of such scam
dial. If n is honest in furnishing pub
hcity to the voter, he should do So
not when it is too late to make full in
vestigation-but in plenty of time fol
those interested to completely and sat-
isfactorily inquire into every angle of
the case, and then form their conclu-
sions. So the timing of publicity to
catch the voters unawares, or so that
any Comeback is made impossible on
the part of the candidate, carries much
less danger to office seekers today than
it did in olden days. Yes, politics are
on a much higher plane.
The Herald has stated before, ano
does again, that it is strictly ar indie
pendent newspaper so far as party
politics are concerned. We are firm in
III conviction that narrow partisan
ship not only limits the field of real
usefulness of any publication, but en-
courages its editor to become bigoted
and intolerant of the views of others
whose convictions may be equally sin
cere. The Herald this year is for the
reelection of Franklin D. Roosevelt
to the presidency of the United States;
not because we are Democratic, nor
that we subscribe wholly to the tenets
of the Democratic party, but simply
for the reason that Roosevelt, through
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