Why He Was Elected

1895

A member of the Ohio legislature of some years ago had been elected from a district which had always sent a representative of a different political complexion, and it happened that he was given to bibulosity. He did well for a week or so, but then the temptations of a great city like Columbus were too much for him, and he began to drink. He kept it up for a whole week, and for that long he never appeared about the capitol. Then his friends looked him up.

"By George, old man," said one of them, "you'll have to quit this and get down to business."

"Oh, I guess not," he replied carelessly.

"You're bound to, or your constituents won't stand it. They sent you here to do something for them, and they expect you to do it."

"No; they didn't," he insisted.

This was a poser.

"They didn't?" exclaimed the spokesman. "What did they send you for, then?"

"Why," he laughed, "they had to send me to keep the other fellow from coming."

— Detroit Free Press.

A Test of Eligibility

1895

A story is told by a Scotch contemporary of a new arrival at the Border Counties' Lunatic asylum, near Melrose, who was sent out along with some others to work in the grounds. After he had been working for some time an old inmate, who had been watching him, came up and said, "Unless ye delve wi' the rake and rake wi' the spade, ma man, ye'll be no' lang here. " — London Globe.


A Certain Remedy

"I wish," said Mrs. Corntossel, "that they wus some way ter keep people from talkin about ye behind yer back."
"They is," replied her husband.
"What?"
"Run for office. Then they'll talk about ye ter yer face." — Washington Star.


During 1846, the first year of the Irish famine, wheat sold in Amsterdam for £20 6s.; in London for £14 14s.; in New York for $40; in St. Petersburg for £10 8s. a ton.


Over 1,000 yards of linen cloth have been unrolled from one mummy. The cloth in texture resembles the cheesecloth of the present somewhat. It is finer in quality.


Wheat was cultivated in China B. C. 2700 and at that date was deemed the direct gift of the gods.


With some people a roll of honor is made up of bank bills.

Queer Political Information

1895

Here is an actual leaf from the experience of a teacher of civil government in the Boston public schools. In a written examination, to the question, "How are senators elected?" the answer was, "They are elected from bathhouses."

On inquiry as to what suggested such an answer the teacher found that in the precinct where the pupil lived caucuses were held in a bathhouse. — Lowell Courier.

Tale of a Painting by Schenck

1895

A wealthy American bought for $8,000 a picture the history of which is impressive. This picture, signed Schenck, represents asses deliberating gravely around a cloth covered table. It was exhibited at the Salon, at the close of the empire. The Figaro gave to it an appreciative article, in which it was insinuated that the painter doubtless had the intention of representing the privy council of the emperor. This information caused a scandal and prevented Princess Mathilde from buying the picture, as was her intention.

A few years later the canvas was exhibited at Munich. The empress of Austria wished to buy it. Her guide, Baron Ranberg, who was a friend of Schenck, told her the peculiar circumstance that had prevented the purchase of the work by Princess Mathilde. The empress said, "I cannot buy a picture which contains a political allusion." — Echo de Paris.

What Congress Has Done

1916

Congress came to a halt yesterday. In this interval between the achievement of one Administration and the choice of another we can look out, as from an opening in the trees, over the slopes up which we have climbed.

Steep was this journey, often perilous, and to climb it required of the Administration both ability and courage.

First came the tariff. The Republicans had been put into office to revise the tariff downward. They coolly revised it in the opposite direction. Their retribution came in 1912. The Democrats were put in power to revise the tariff downward. They did so. The Underwood-Simmons bill of October 1913, was the first tariff in the history of this country which was ever made in the open, where it was difficult to slip in "jokers" and such clauses as the famous "Schedule K."

To that Congress has now added a Tariff Commission for the scientific, nonpartisan study of the problem. This body is fortified by a clause against the danger of European Nations seeking to recoup their war losses by "dumping" goods in our markets to destroy our industries. In respect to tariff, therefore our commercial ship is in storm trim to meet the heavy weather which is anticipated at the end of the war.

It had been complained, prior to 1912, that the control of financial credit was in the clutch of a few financiers who used that power selfishly and unjustly. The administration proceeded with its Federal reserve banking and currency act which, though bitterly resisted in certain financial quarters, is now admitted by bankers themselves to be an excellent measure.

Our foreign trade was stimulated by permitting National banks to establish foreign branches, thus releasing merchants from being obliged to pay tribute to London for financial transactions outside the United States.

The effect of financial legislation has been especially beneficial to the farmers. It has already enabled them, in many instances, to borrow money at 6 percent, which had formerly cost them 10, 12 and even 15 percent.

The Federal Rural Credits act has been pronounced one of the greatest pieces of constructive legislation in the last half-century.

Farm and town alike will profit by the law granting Federal aid to the States for the building of good roads.

A European war, unprecedented in world history, was "sprung" on the Administration, as it was on the rest of the world. In response to a very clamorous demand the Administration has enacted measures for defense involving an outlay of $662,476,512, the largest appropriation in peace times in the Nation's history, and of a magnitude which has mollified the complaints even of the rabid militarist.

Labor legislation which other Administrations have promised this Administration has performed. The Federal law prohibiting child labor is one of the most sweeping humanitarian measures of recent history. We now have a Workmen's Compensation act for Federal employes; an eight-hour day for Government employes in Alaska; an eight-hour day for women and children workers in the District of Columbia; a law requiring better treatment and better living conditions for American seamen; and the establishment of a Federal employment bureau, which, in its first year, obtained jobs for 75,156 people.

By the Clayton Antitrust act human labor ceased to be classed as a "commodity." An income tax and an inheritance tax have shifted a part of the burden of public expense to shoulders which are better able to bear it. The Government has undertaken to build and own a railroad in Alaska and to invest $50,000,000 in a merchant marine, under certain specified conditions protecting private initiative.

Nor is this by any means the whole record of the Administration's achievements. These are but the high lights. They are enough, however, to show that campaign promises have at last been removed from the category of a cynical joke about broken pledges.

What a Progressive party promised to do if elected, this Democratic Administration has largely done. And of its total achievement this record of progressive legislation is only a part, and perhaps not even the most distinguished part.

A great philosopher once passed what he called "a quiet hint to conservatives." It was that the only kind of conservatism that is possible is progressivism. You cannot, he said, make man walk backwards, crab-fashion.

The present Administration has been conservative in the best, in fact, the only sense. It has conserved by going steadily forward. — The Boston Globe.

—The Fryeburg Post, Fryeburg, Maine, Sept. 12, 1916, p. 8.

Tuesday, September 12, 1916 — Editorial Comments

Maine/New Hampshire, 1916

Alice B. Glines, editor

All who ran were elected.

The spellbinders are gone; peace to them.

What is so rare as a day in June? A September day, not infrequently.

We common people get the little end; and deserve it, by voting against ourselves.

The plan to annex South Portland to Portland and raise the Portland tax rate another jog is now on foot again.

Sometimes you can tell what a thing is by taking notice of what something else isn't. The Boston Transcript says there has been "no pussyfooting" by Judge Hughes on the Adamson bill, and declares this to be "the supreme sensation of the campaign."

A woman in Portland who has married the same man three times and been divorced from him twice now wants to be divorced again. Next time she better get someone who does not get drunk to marry her, unless there is some incongruity in that program.

Our present governor's repeated disregard of the nicer things of life, the non-essentials perhaps, had much to do with calling out the huge "stay-at-home vote" which can not he reached by appeals based on the real problems of government. Governor-elect Milliken is his exact opposite in these regards.

Belknap County Pomona last week argued the question whether summer boarders and bungalow residents are more conducive to the prosperity of a town, or good roads and good markets. One trouble with this question is that it is mixed; if a town can get good roads they will not lead to markets or trains, but be laid out to suit that same summer travel. As for good markets, we in northern New England must first decide whether commerce is a good or a bad thing. Markets mean trade.

It was unhandsome of Mr. Samuel Untermeyer to put it in print, but he had no less an authority than the late Thomas Brackett Reed to back up his statement of the abilities of Maine people (Query: Are we different from, the people where he comes from?) to untangle mixed political conditions. Mr. Reed always said that it was foolish to try to discuss public questions on their merits before a mixed audience; and all he ever tried to do in his campaign speeches was to appeal to our sympathies, or prejudices, and make us laugh at his funny stories and witty hits.

President Gompers of the Labor Unions was not fair in his Portland statement of the attitude of the train men, which he said was not at all a threat. He said they merely said to the roads that if they wanted men to work on the present terms of employment they must get other men to do it. But this was in truth not in the least the attitude or the intentions of the trainmen. On the contrary, if an average of one in a hundred per week of the trainmen should really throw up their jobs for some other employment, the railroad agents would voluntarily shorten the hours, or raise the pay, whichever the men seemed to prefer.

Judge Hughes at Rockland on Saturday said, speaking of the Eight-Hour law enacted by Congress under threat of a strike by the train crews:

"This issue transcends every other issue before the American people, because it is the fundamental issue, whether or not we have a Government; and an Administration that yields to force is not an administration at all. It is being driven. It is not government in accordance with the principles of American institutions."

From which the thoughtful reader cannot escape the inference that if the railroad men had not threatened to strike, in that case there would not been any issue of the highest degree of importance for the Republican party to base its canvass on.

—The Fryeburg Post, Fryeburg, Maine, Sept. 12, 1916, p. 6.

Suffragettes Disowned

1916

Atlantic City, N. J., Sept. 6. — The National American Woman Suffrage Association today decided to continue its policy of favoring both National and State legislation to bring about equal rights for women.

Virtually all the speakers declared for strict neutrality in the Presidential campaign and to continue the non-partisan efforts of the association to bring about equal suffrage throughout the United States.

—The Fryeburg Post, Fryeburg, Maine, Sept. 12, 1916, p. 6.

New Hampshire Neighbors — Hiram

New Hampshire/Maine, 1916

On Tuesday Mr. Albert F. Berry was sworn as Assistant Postmaster at Hiram Postoffice. This is a very good selection. Mr. George C. Bray, who has given excellent service as postmaster, has resigned and will soon leave the State to engage in other business.

Lieut. John W. Hubbard of Fryeburg visited his daughter, Mrs. Arthur W. Sadler, and his sister, Mrs. Mary E. Young, Tuesday.

We have not seen but about half a dozen fruit trees this year that have been stripped of foliage by brown-tailed moths.

Mr. Eli C. Wadsworth, whose buildings were burned July 29, has bought of Mr. Calvin F. Clemons, the farm formerly owned by Hon. John H. Spring, of 160 acres with ample buildings and he removed to it September 4th. Mr. Wadsworth was born upon the Spring farm, which adjoins his homestead. Llewellyn A. Wadsworth, who was severely burned at the fire on his back, right arm and shoulders, went to East Brownfield Tuesday to be treated by Dr. Marston. He is improving.

Mr. Cyrus H. Goodwin went to Brownfield Tuesday.

We note with pleasure that our old friend, Col. Abram W. Smith, of Topeka, Kansas, a native of South Hiram, has recently been selected at the primaries as a Republican candidate for Presidential elector. As he received 1889 votes more than any other Republican and 44293 votes more than any Democrat, it looks as if he would get there. He is a typical son of Maine. He went to Pennsylvania at the age of 17 and enlisted in the Union army, serving four years. He was in a rebel prison 18 months. He went to Kansas after the war. He was chairman of the Board of Managers of the Kansas Department in the Columbian Exhibition in Chicago in 1892. He has also served as state senator, speaker of the House of Representatives, candidate for Governor and U. S. Pension Agent. His lecture on the "Romance of the War," has won for him a reputation as one of the finest orators in the West, and his many friends have watched with pleasure and pride his long, useful and successful career.

James Evans, Esq., a prominent citizen of East Hiram, died Sept. 5, of Bright's disease, aged 77 years. A more extended tribute to this excellent man will be given later.

Master Charles Rounds of Malden, Mass., a grandson of Hon. Charles E. Hubbard of Kezar Falls, is visiting his aunt, Mrs. Mary E. Young. On Sunday morning he attended the Universalist church, and sang "The Holy City" as a solo. His wonderful voice and singing were a rich treat to all who heard him.

—The Fryeburg Post, Fryeburg, Maine, Sept. 12, 1916, p. 3.

The Federal Farm Loan Measure

Maine, 1916

After many years of effort on the part of those who were interested in the proper capitalization of the farms of the Country, Congress has passed what seems to be an adequate law that will give the farmer and land owner the same privileges in our banking system that have been enjoyed by other branches of industry for many years.

The grange, both State and National, has been a factor in creating a sentiment that has made the passage of this measure possible, and is seems a matter of great concern that at the hearing on the measure at Augusta, recently, those who had official connection with the grange, or who had commissioned themselves to speak for that body, felt called upon to discourage the Commissioners from trying to locate one of the branch banks in Maine.

Had the farmers, who realize their needs, and who are trying to meet present day conditions on limited capital, been allowed to speak for themselves the result of the hearing would have been different. But they were on their farms, working against great odds, and others spoke for them from knowledge obtained in the class room, in business circles, on the lecture platform and in City counting rooms.

How this hearing emphasizes the necessity of leaders who really realize their responsibilities, and who are able to look at the problems of the farmer from the proper view point.

Is it possible that these men let partisan prejudice warp their judgment? Did they think it improper to judge favorably an act of the present Congress? If such is the case, which God forbid, let me quote a little from the last President of the United States, of the opposite political party:

"The 12,000,000 farmers of the United States add, each year, to the national wealth $8,400,000,000. They are doing this on a borrowed capital of $6,040,000,000. On this sum they pay annually interest charges of $510,000,000. Counting commissions and renewal charges, the interest rates paid by the farmers of this country is averaged at 8 1/2 per cent, as compared to a rate of 4 2/3 to 3 1/2 per cent paid by the farmers, for instance of France and Germany.

"Again, the interest rate paid by the American farmer is considerably higher than that paid by industrial corporations, railroads or municipalities. Yet, I think it will be admitted that the security offered by the farmer, in his farm lands, is quite as good as that offered by industrial corporations. Why then will not the investor furnish the farmer with money at as advantageous rates as he is willing to supply it to the industrial corporations? Obviously, the advantage enjoyed by the industrial corporation is in the financial machinery at its command, which permits it to place its offer before the investor in a more attractive and more readily negotiable form. The farmer lacks this, and lacking it he suffers."

This, from so good an authority as Mr. Taft, ought to be convincing to all who are fair minded and intelligent. It ought to silence for all time the cry of the partisan that this bill has no value except as a political weapon.

The recent happenings in relation to increased freight rates, the arbitrary fixing of prices of his products by the distributors, and the high price of labor have set the farmer to thinking. He now knows that while farm products are higher to the consumer than ever before, his profits are not increasing, in fact, that they are actually decreasing in many instances, and that one great reason for this is the lack of ready capital to take advantage of conditions, and to finance him through the season and enable him to act with his fellows in any co-operative plan that shall tend to lift a portion of his burdens.

Then again, the college of Agriculture which was represented at the hearing, is all the while turning out graduates who ought to be well fitted to take up the business of farming and carry it to a successful standing.

But to do this they have got to have capital and ready means of credit, but very few of them are fortunate enough to have a farm awaiting them on graduation. This higher agricultural education calls for more expensive methods, better animals, more farm machinery, all of which call for money.

And because of the lack of ready capital, many of these young men will drift into other occupations, their services will be lost to the farm, and the college will suffer because more of its graduates are not found on farms.

It would naturally have been supposed that these college representatives would have hastened to put themselves on record as favoring the establishing of one of these land banks where it would have been available for their graduates, instead of remaining silent or actually repelling it.

But the time is coming when the farmers will speak for themselves, when they will no longer be bound by the time-serving policies of their leaders, and self-appointed spokesmen. When that time does come, as it surely will, the farmer shall get his full due, the business will again be prosperous, every man's hand shall not then be against him, and there shall come a lasting prosperity to State and Nation that shall arise from a happy, a contented, a prosperous agriculture. Let us all try to hasten the glad time coming.

B. Walker McKeen.
Fryeburg, September 1, 1916.

—The Fryeburg Post, Fryeburg, Maine, Sept. 12, 1916, p. 2.

Fish Street

Maine, 1916

Miss Staples from South Portland is boarding at Maple Rock farm for a short time.

Ross Day, who was the recent guest of Mr. Farrington and family, returned to Massachusetts Monday morning.

Mrs. Abbie Farrington is the guest of Mrs. M. M. Smart.

Mrs. Kate Eastman and daughter Arline are visiting in Berlin, N. H.

Mrs. Hubert Quincy, daughter Helen and son William went to Boston Monday.

Florence, Joseph and Margaret Quincy are with their grandparents during their mother's absence.

M. M. Smart, Thomas Dresser and Mr. and Mrs. D. A. Bradley motored to Lewiston on Friday to hear Chas. E. Hughes, Republican candidate for President. George Anderson took them in his car.

On Saturday D. A. Bradley and wife, Miss Elizabeth Hall and Rev. A. W. Barnland took a trip through the mountains as far as Fabyans, visiting Diana's Baths and Echo Lake on their return trip. The day was ideal. The hours passed rapidly as new phases of natural beauty were continually presented and the slowly descending sun warned us all too soon of the distance which must be covered ere home was reached. The beauty and grandeur which this trip affords must be seen to get any idea of it. Words cannot paint it. Neither can canvas portray it.

Mr. and Mrs. W. C. Beedy, Mrs. M. M. Smart and Mrs. Abbie Farrington were the dinner guests of Mrs. D. A. Bradley Monday.

Gertrude Howard is on the sick list.

Mrs. Clarence Kimball and daughter were at church Sunday.

We were glad to see Mrs. Kimball out to church Sunday.

Rev. A. W. Barnland leaves for the West today to continue his evangelistic work.

—The Fryeburg Post, Fryeburg, Maine, Sept. 12, 1916, p. 2.

Noted Around Home

Maine, 1916

George B. Newman, who has been the guest of his parents, Mr. and Mrs. B. L. Newman left on Monday to resume his position at the Pennsylvania State college.

F. R. Fife spent the week-end in Augusta.

Mrs. W. R. Tarbox was chosen National Inspector of the Ladies' G. A. R. at the National encampment recently held at Kansas City.

Mrs. Viola Kenerson spent Monday with her son at North Conway.

Harold Eastman was the week-end guest of Clayton Osgood.

Clifford Eastman and Earle Osgood spent a few days in camp at Lovell's pond last week.

Miss Edna Chase is to be the new assistant clerk in the post office, Miss Vera Howe leaving at the opening of Fryeburg Academy, where she is a member of the senior class.

Mrs. George Dunn joined Mr. Dunn in Boston for the week-end.

The ladies' circle will hold a baked bean supper at the vestry on Thursday evening under the direction of Mrs. S. H. Harriman. In the evening Mrs. Charles Simpson of North Chatham, N. H., will give readings, as a part of the entertainment.

The first meeting after the summer recess of the ladies' missionary society of the First Congregational church will be held with Miss Anna Barrows this afternoon.

Miss Alice B. Glines was the guest of Mr. and Mrs. A. A. Perry Sunday on an auto trip to Bridgton.

Mrs. E. G. Fife and Miss Maude Irish, Fryeburg's local milliners are in Boston this week, attending the Millinery openings.

Mrs. M. R. Wilber, Master Philip W. Wilber of Bolster's Mills and Mrs. William Delano of Norway were guests last week of Mrs. Virginia Hagar.

Benjamin O. Warren of Boston was the week-end guest of his parents, Mr. and Mrs. G. O. Warren, leaving Monday after exercising the right of franchise.

Mrs. Elizabeth Chadbourne is the guest of her daughter, Mrs. F. H. Jacobs at Hio Ridge, Bridgton.

Among those who attended the State fair at Lewiston last week were Mr. and Mrs. A. C. Pendexter, Mr. and Mrs. H. I. Perkins, Mrs. Leon Jack, Miss Edna Chase and Mr. and Mrs. C. E. Fox, Mr. and Mrs. Fox attended on Thursday and came home through Portland, remaining in that city to witness the demonstration accorded Charles E. Hughes.

Mr. Arthur Ward of Boston is the guest for two weeks of his mother, Mrs. Mary Ward.

Mrs. B. T. Newman and Mr. George B. Newman returned from their summer home at Long Island, Casco Bay, on Wednesday.

Mr. Arthur Hurlin left on Friday night to resume his position at the Mason College of Music, Charleston, West Virginia.

Mrs. M. W. Sautelle has gone to Lafayette, Ind., to spend the winter with her sister, Mrs. C. H. Benjamin.

There will be a meeting of the chorus at the home of Mrs. T. W. Charles, Friday afternoon, Sept. 15, at 2.30 o'clock for the purpose of electing officers for the coming year.

Mr. Samuel Evans was in Portland Thursday evening to hear Mr. Hughes in his address in the City Hall.

Mr. and Mrs. P. J. Meserve of Brunswick were in town Thursday, calling on former friends and acquaintances.

Hon. A. A. Perry returned from Boston on Saturday, making the trip via automobile.

Mr. Fred Haley has bought of the William Towle heirs the old Towle homestead on Main street.

Mrs. Whitehead, Miss Florence Whitehead and Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner Perry left Sunday afternoon for Boston.

Hon. Frank H. Haskell of Portland and Hon. William A. Carleton of Indiana were the speakers at the enthusiastic Democratic meeting held at K. of P. hall last Wednesday night. The speakers were introduced by A. O. Pike, chairman of the meeting, who stated that he took pride in the record of the Democracy for the past four years and introduced as the first speaker, Hon. Frank H. Haskell of Portland. Mr. Haskell is well-known throughout this part of the state and is an easy, entertaining and logical speaker. At this meeting he confined himself chiefly to state issues and to the reasons why he, a Progressive, was supporting the Democratic ticket in this campaign, having been a Progressive delegate to the National Convention at Chicago and being thoroughly well versed in state affairs his words carried weight and he was frequently interrupted by applause and cheers. Hon. William A. Carleton, who followed Mr. Haskell, was a fluent and brilliant speaker, the charm of whose oratory did not detract from the strength of his argument. His address dealt with the national issues. On Thursday night Mr. Haskell and Mr. Carleton spoke at North Fryeburg and on Saturday Mr. Carleton addressed a meeting at Lovell.

Dr. N. C. Thurlow and family left Monday for Burnham Junction where they will spend two weeks. Miss Lillian Pike will be in charge of the office during Dr. Thurlow's absence.

Dr. S. C. Gordon has been in Portland for two days this week.

Mr. Paul Robinson of Bangor is spending two weeks in town.

Considerable interest is being manifested in the exhibits for the West Oxford fair. Six granges have signified their intention of competing for the generous prizes offered and there will be several exhibitors of live stock who have not registered in previous years. There will also be new exhibitors in the fancy work department from Cornish and Portland.

Mrs. F. H. Haskell, who has been in town for a few weeks, the guest of her aunt, Miss May S. Howe, returned to her home in Woodfords on Friday.

Mrs. William W. Howe of Winthrop, was in town for the week-end, going to Wentworth Hall on Monday.

Mr. and Mrs. C. E. Fox spent Sunday as the guests of Mr. and Mrs. B. E. Brown at Brown's Camps, Centre Lovell.

Mrs. M. B. Barker, who has been quite ill throughout the summer, was able to be up town on Monday.

Miss Maud M. Irish is in Boston to procure her autumn millinery.

At the Church of the New Jerusalem on Sunday last the regular organist, Mrs. Z. O. Wentworth, was assisted by H. Archie Hurd, who gave the following numbers: Prelude in D flat, Joseph Challerts; offertory, Handel's Largo, arranged by Whiting; Postlude, Prelude and Fugue, J. F. Bach.

Mrs. C. G. Willard, who has been a guest at George Weston's for a few weeks, returned to her home in Brockton, Mass., on Monday.

Rev. H. H. Hoyt of Hiram resumed his biweekly services at the Knights of Pythias hall on Sunday evening last, the meetings having been discontinued for a few weeks.

Mr. Frank Peterson, Clifford Eastman and Richard B. Chase will make the ascent of Mount Baldface on Wednesday if the weather is favorable and will remain over night.

Mr. Ellis W. McKeen left on Monday to resume his duties as submaster at the High school at Turner Center.

Mr. William H. Dougherty and family of Portland are the guests of Mr. William Kelly.

Mrs. Marshall Spring of Hiram is the guest of her daughter, Mrs. Blanche S. Page.

Mr. and Mrs. Wallace Cooke of Portland are guests at Ye Inn.

Miss Marion Charles is taking a vacation from her duties at Ye Inn and gone to her home in West Fryeburg. Her sister, Miss Bertha Charles is taking her place.

A large number of people gathered at E. P. Weston's on Monday night to witness the unfolding of a beautiful night blooming cereus.

Mr. Rudolf Ganz, the celebrated New York pianist, Mrs. Ganz, their son, and a party from Bridgton were at the Argue Not Inn on Sunday.

Mrs. B. N. Stone, Mrs. William Wiley of Peabody, and Mrs. F. W. Thoms as guests of Mrs. Hannah McKenney, motored to Jackson on Monday.

Mrs. Anne Shirley is quite ill at her home in Fryeburg.

Mr. and Mrs. Everett Ridlon and son and Mr. and Mrs. Dolby of Saco were at the Argue Not Inn on Sunday.

Mrs. William Anderson, Miss Louise Anderson and Wilson Anderson of Merion, Pa., are guests of Mr. and Mrs. A. H. Evans.

The election returns were received at Eastman store up to eleven o'clock last evening when it became pretty evident by reports from Portland which way the tide had turned. Fryeburg and its adjoining towns of Brownfield, Lovell, Hiram, Cornish, Parsonsfield and Porter all gave good Republican majority. Stow went Democratic 31 to 28 in favor of Curtis, the representative vote being Stearns 29, Spencer 30. Fryeburg polled 401 Republican votes an increase of 19 votes over the combined Republican and Progressive vote two years ago. The Democrats made a gain of 26 votes over two years ago.

—The Fryeburg Post, Fryeburg, Maine, Sept. 12, 1916, p. 2.

Taft Flays Wilson Record

1916

"The Democratic Record" is the title of an article in the October Yale Review by William Howard Taft. In it Mr. Taft analyzes and points out the shortcomings of the Wilson administration, reviews the career of Governor Hughes and points out why the Republican nominee should be elected. "There are enough instances," he says, to justify the conclusion that Mr. Wilson has few, if any, convictions on the issues of the day which exigency in the field of politics may not induce him to give up. Nor does Mr. Wilson waste time in explaining in argument the reason for his frequent changes of view. His facility in this regard robs of special importance his public utterances as a basis for supporting him as a candidate.

"On the other hand, Mr. Hughes is a man whose convictions have always been the guide of his action. I say what the people of the United States know when I say that the chief characteristic of Mr. Hughes is the courage of his convictions in meeting the embarrassment of political opposition. He gives the reasons for the faith that his in him. He argues out his propositions, and he does not depend upon mere facility of expression, mere happiness of epigrammatic statement, mere graceful phrasing of a platitude to support his opinion. He carries conviction by his speech to his audience and he carries his own conviction into action. His strength before the people and the importance to them of his utterances and promises grow out of their confidence that he is not an opportunist, but that no political expediency will prevent his hewing to the line and fighting to the last for his principles. It has been said that there is little difference between Mr. Wilson and Mr. Hughes except that Mr. Wilson has had the presidential experience. This is as far as possible from the fact. Having in view Mr. Wilson's record on nearly every political question and Mr. Hughes's course as governor of New York, it would he difficult to find among the public men of the country, one who is less like Mr. Wilson than Mr. Hughes."

Beginning with the appointment of William Jennings Bryan to the Cabinet, the Wilson administration, Mr. Taft says, has made a series of blunders in foreign and domestic affairs. He points out the vacillating that was involved in our dealings with Germany and with Mexico, the weakness of our policy with regard to China, the emasculation of the Department of the Philippine government, the extravagance of the Democratic Congress and the surrender to the railroad brotherhoods. "The character of the Democratic party," he declares, "which has been manifest through many decades, is itself a reason for relieving it from its responsibilities in the face of such an emergency as the ending of this war is bound to present. It is not a constructive party. Its legislative leaders in a long period of opposition have acquired a habit of mind which looks to political success by criticism and destruction of constructive policies, instead of to the framing of measures for useful affirmative results. The consequence is that when they are thrust into power and devise legislation, they find themselves confronted by their own past arguments, and they injure all their measures by an attempt in each one to coddle some faction of voters and thus greatly impede the normal and legitimate object of the legislation."

Wilson Independent League

1916

Boston, Sept. 19. — With the announced purpose of furthering the candidacy of Woodrow Wilson for a second term as President, the Woodrow Wilson Independent League was formed yesterday by several prominent business men chosen from all parties. The headquarters of the new league will be at 338 Washington street. An appeal to the independent voters was set out by the league last night and it credits Mr. Wilson with the "achievement of practically all the beneficial legislation of the last Congress." In regard to his foreign policy, the appeal declares that President Wilson has "asserted and maintained without resentment, with almost infinite patience, and yet with firmness and success, the rights of both this country and all neutrals."

Charles H. Jones of the Commonwealth Shoe and Leather Company is president of the league, John F. Moors is treasurer, and Ellery Sedgwick, editor of the Atlantic Monthly is secretary. The executive committee of the league consists of Charles H. Jones, chairman; Edmund J. Burke, Francis J. Goodale, John F. Moors and Ellery Sedgwick. The vice presidents are: Charles W. Eliot, Harry A. Garfield, F. W. Taussig, Bliss Perry, Henry B. Cabot, F. Lowell Kennedy, Lewis J. Johnson, Ray Stannard Baker, Charles P. Hall, Meyer Bloomfield, Frederick N. Wier, Arthur M. Huddell, Roger W. Babson, E. N. Vallandigham, J. Porter Russell, Hector N. Holmes, Dr. George W. Kaan, Rev A. W. Vernon, R. M. Hull, Jacob DeHaas, E. T. Hartman, E. H. DeLany, John S. Codman, Henry D. Nunn, Joseph B. Eastman, Robert H. Schacht, Dr. Fred L. Abbott and C. Crawford Hollidge.

Nomination Cost Senator $21,445.08

1916

Montpelier, Vt., Sept. 23. — The expenses of the United States senatorial campaign of Senator Carroll Page of Hyde Park were $21,445.48, and of Ex-Gov. Allen M. Fletcher of Cavendish, $22,425.39, according to sworn returns filed with the secretary of state.

Page and Fletcher, who were candidates for the Republican nomination in the first Vermont primary, fought each other with literature and advertising. This is the first year that accounting of campaign expenses has been required in this state.

Gov. C. W. Gates, who ran only a little behind Fletcher, spent less than $500.

Origin of "Whig"

1901

Several reasons have been assigned to account for the word "Whig," universally known to all the English speaking people. By some the word is supposed to be a contraction of a longer one, "whiggamore," which in some parts of England and Scotland, especially Scotland, signifies a drover or herder.

It was in 1679 that the word first became common in the British isles, when the struggle was in progress between the peasantry and the aristocracy to have or not to have the bill passed by parliament to exclude the Duke of York from the line of succession. All who were opposed to placing the duke in the line of succession were derisively called "whiggamores," or "drovers," just as the city dude of today speakers of the "grangers," the grays," the "chin whiskers" and the hayseeders."

But Scotch tradition gives altogether a different reason for the existence of the word. It is this: During the early religious wars in Scotland the weakest of the factions used the words "We Hope In God" as a motto. The initials of these words were placed on their banners thus, "W. H. I. G.," and soon all the followers of that clan were given the title of "Whig," which was afterward attached as a party nickname.

Women In Parliament

1901

It is a fact seemingly known to very few people, that there are actually ladies who have the right and privilege to sit in the British parliament, writes Clement Scott in The Free Lance. There can be no doubt, according to many excellent authorities, that those few people who are "peeresses in their own right" can claim to sit in the house lords during any ordinary assembly that house.

Such ladies as the Countess of Cromartie, the Baroness Couyers and the Baroness Burdett-Coutts might at any time create a sensation throughout the empire by appearing in person and claiming to take their seats in that house, and if they can sit and vote there they can certainly take part in actual debates of the house.

What would happen should any such lady venture to exercise her peeress' rights in that direction the imagination fails to conceive, but it is easily seen that with the ideas which are at present in the air with regard to the advance of women we may ere long have some peeress in her own right or even more than one who will insist on these rights being accorded. Then what an upheaval of parliamentary tradition and custom there will be!

Russian Fairy Tales

1900

A book of fairy tales was the cause of the expulsion and consequent ruin of 175 persons at Poltova. A pupil at one of the state schools there was caught in the act of reading this book of fairy tales, which had been prohibited by the censor on the ground that certain of the tales might be applied to Russian conditions and Russian politics. The boy explained that the caretaker of the school buildings had lent him the book. The principal of the school reported the caretaker to the police, and on the ground of this denunciation the offender was sent to Siberia.

The officials of the institution, together with several parents of pupils, were so indignant at the conduct of the principal that they drew up a protest describing his denunciation as a mean and despicable act. The only consequence was that the officials lost their posts, and, together with the residents who had signed the protest, were expelled from the province of Poltova for three years. The order of expulsion was extended to all the relatives of the offenders, so that 175 persons were sentenced to this severe punishment on account of a book of fairy tales which in other countries is given to every child to read. — Chicago News.

A Good Politician

1910

The good politician rolls his logs in public, and is not ashamed of his job. He needs the help of others, and he knows that others need his help.

When a hundred honorable men come together, each with a purpose of his own, each must expect to yield something if he is to gain anything. It is likely that more than one good measure will be proposed, and if one is skillful, good measures may be made to help one another. Here, without any sacrifice of honor, is a wide field for good fellowship and tolerance.

The austere, uncompromising patriot, whose mind is impenetrable when it is once made up, who is incapable of sympathizing with other men's aspirations and who insists on all or nothing, is an egotist who does great service when he happens to be right. Unfortunately it often happens that he is wrong, and then his private conscience must be overcome by the common sense of the crowd. — Samuel McChord Crothers in the Atlantic.

Holding Lincoln's Hat

1918

"He'll be holding my hat some day," said a United States westerner recently, speaking of a bitter political antagonist. This expression, intended to convoy the assurance that some day the b.p.a. will see the error of his ways, own up, and strive to make amends, was heard oftener a generation ago than it is today.

It had its origin in one of the most interesting incidents in American history. Stephen A. Douglas had been unsparing in his attacks upon Abraham Lincoln in the campaign of 1860, but Lincoln won, and, on the 4th of March, 1861, as he stepped forward to deliver his inaugural address in front of the capitol, he fumbled awkwardly with his historic "tall" hat, not knowing, apparently, whether to lay it down or to hold it in his hand.

Seeing the embarrassment of his successful rival, Douglas, who sat near, and who had gracefully "accepted the situation," arose, took the "stovepipe" from Lincoln's hand, and held it until the conclusion of the address. By this act Douglas perhaps came nearer rising to the full dimensions of the title "Little Giant," which his partisans bestowed upon him, than on any other occasion in his career.

—Christian Science Monitor, 1918, reprinted in Waterloo Evening Courier, Waterloo, IA, Jan. 22, 1918, p. 5.

Mr. Bryan's Position on Candidates

1911

Mr. Bryan's requirement that the Democratic presidential candidate next year must be one who supported the nominee of that party in 1896, 1900 and 1908 evokes the sarcastic wonder why he does not include 1904 or 1892, when Mr. Bryan voted for Weaver, or 1872 when Horace Greeley ran. But the answer is plain enough. Br. Bryan Was not the candidate those other years.


The Canal

All discussion of legislation respecting the Panama canal is interesting, and now is the time for it. That is one subject about which there should be no politics. All want the canal completed as soon as possible, and conducted successfully when completed: Let there be no delay about settling the question of fortifications, of tolls, of the general features of management. The president is fully informed about and alive to the situation, and congress should give prompt heed to his recommendations.


Habit Grows

"I hate to see a little country buying its first battleship."
"Why?"
"Reminds me of a boy taking his first smoke."


Many who think they mean right are right mean.

If some man were compelled to pay as they go they would stay.