PSALMIST PADEN AND HIS SYCOPHANT BLAT I Another, of the Brethefen Parkhursts Himself Into the Political Arena and Basks in the H . . Smirks of the Federal Bunch. H DIATRIBE BASED ON IGNORANCE OF REAL CONDITIONS EARNS CONTEMPT OF CITIZENS I WJith the loose mouthings of a text-grubbing pulpiteer fresh in one's mind, it is somewhat difficult dif-ficult to write coldly and impersonally of the ostentatious os-tentatious sensationalism and ( insufferable af-frontry af-frontry of the attack made on Mayor John S. Bransford by the Rev. William M. Paden of the First Presbyterian church of this city, last Sunday Sun-day morning from the pulpit of that institution. In the civic development of any community and the political activities of its men and women, a partisan division of the latter has come to be as certain as the existence of politics itself and in the very nature of the latter there always accrues ac-crues to the body of men who have been selected to administrate the municipal affairs a certain amount of political and personal abuse varying In 't rrees of detestiveness; a condition that is lit' Jmost invariably anticipated by those who . .'Ider the responsibilities of such offices. It is as difficult to entirely suppress the mud slinger as to it is impossible to prevent the mud. No mallet has yet been found that can stopper stop-per up the bung hole of ignorance. These are antiquated truisms, you say; grantedand grant-edand yet the periodical and eruptive activities of an occasional gentleman who barkens too readily to the fog-horn voice of the. ME within him and stampedes into the spot light, to the never ending contempt of his fellows, makes their reiteration necessary now and then. Politics in Salt Lake has for years been exceedingly ex-ceedingly bitter. But political lines have been sharply and clearly drawn, despite their occasional occa-sional chaotic aspect and the leaders of all parties par-ties have known to a fair certainty on whom they could or could not rely for active or passive support, " The problems confronting the municipal authorities au-thorities of Salt Lake since the advent of the American party to the administration of the city's affairs have been many and varied and perplexing perplex-ing and probably as difficult of solution as those of the officials of any other western city have ever been called upon to settle. The slander and abuse and wretched personalities person-alities that have been heaped upon the American party officials of this city from the leaders and hirelings of the principal opposing political party and the dominating church, together with the petty annoyances that have eminated from the disgruntled patriots of the home camp, have al-$ al-$ ways been borne as things that must be expected with the honor those offices convey. The unjust, impudent and contemptible tirade iof about and sanctimoniously ponderous ecclesiastical eccles-iastical platitudes which flowed from the pulpit of this ministerial satellite Sunday of this week, aro unequalled in the local school of calumny, J besides revealing a superb ignorance of existing conditions on the subject on which ho spoke. The spectacle of a non-Mormon man facing a Sunday morning congregation in Salt Lake on the eve of an important political campaign and I singling out from all the important and vital Is- j sues ur a which that campaign is to be waged, the proposed and attempted disposition of a hun-j hun-j dred or so professional prostitutes with their mac ' quereaux, dangle them before his auditors for an j hour and a half and then demand that the Am- I erican party renounce the mayor and his advls- ors because their plan for the segregation of this j underworld element, while still in Its experl- i mental stage, cannot be shown to be a complete and instantaneous success such a spectacle is unique among even those members of the clergy here whoso consuming wish for notoriety has lead them on before to public contempt and condemnation. con-demnation. The farce of it all! Yawping of hell and the horrors of the stockade, stock-ade, of "social experts,' prostitution and all its kindred vice; rehearsing conditions of a trade that has existed since the first of the race; calling call-ing it up in all the vividness his paucity of first hand information would permit, he vituperative-ly vituperative-ly condemns the motives and partially materialized material-ized plans of such a man as John S. Bransford, for the most suitable handling -and supervision of the nauseous condition. The truth of his tale of underworld woe no one cares to dispute or discuss. It has always existed and probably always will. For two years " Mayor Bransford and his councilmen have spent their time and money endeavoring to discover the best method of dealing with the question. They believed they had found it in the system of seg--regation in Salt Lake and that if given time to perfect their plans and complete the segregation they could have successfully solved the problem. To date political and municipal tricksters have made the way as difficult as possible; they have placed obstacles in the path that were very hard to surmount; unprincipled party leaders tried to checkmate every move and partially succeeded; succeed-ed; no stone was left unturned that might put the mayor in a bad light and yet he has never faltered and has gone on in the face of the abuse and vilification and slander heaped upon him by men and newspapers of the opposing political party, sure of the correctness of his theory and determined to give it a fair trial in the face of all odds. Quite a remarkable perspective of his position and ability, is it not, that enables a Paden to condemn con-demn such a move as a failure and a crime and the man responsible for it an enemy of decent society, a business consort of prostitutes , a traitor to the oath of his office, a man of whom "the community has no reason to expect an execution exe-cution of the laws on the statute books." Is it not apropos, Rev. Mr. Paden, for men to wonder if, were your reputation and that of Mayor Bransford's for honesty of purpose, integrity, integ-rity, personal and civic morality and purity, executive ex-ecutive ability and general manliness placed side by side from which would shine the whiter light? It is our opinion and that of scores of others that the diatribe of this gentleman of the cloth was but in reality a portion of another political plot to aid the Morning Redlight in blackening Mayor Bransford's character. Four weeks ago word was brought to the mayor that the Paden attack on him was in preparation. Members of Paden's congregation have been reported as boasting of its coming. Rumors Ru-mors of it have been heard openly for two weeks past. "We must drive this business from the city. We have laws enoi":h on the subject, or if we haven't we can make them. We have enough of decent public opinion to do it; or if we haven't it is our duty as Christians to make such public opinion," shouts the mayor's vilifier, A world-old cry, Rev. Mr. Paden, from just such reformers as yourself, and now, granted that you gave two weeks' study to the proper method H of disposing of the social evil of Salt Lake or any other city, before you decided Mayor Brans- H ford's plan to be wrong and the mayor a traitor H to his oath of office, we would ask you H First. That you give to a waiting people M YOUR plan for making Salt Lake the first and only city since the beginning of Time where prostitution is not plied as a trade. H Second. That failing in this, you announce what you consider the proper way of abolishing M all restricted districts and other rendezvous of the underworld, stamping out the social evil ub M a police regulated institution and at the same M moment keep the rooming houses, hotels and res- idence districts of your city free from the demi M monde. H If, sir, you succeed in either of the above lo M twenty-five degrees out of a possible hundred, you will have the distinction of being the first to triumph of the thousands upon thousands who have tried and failed after years of study and H experiment. M How the heart of this pulpited Comstock must H have warmed to the fulsome flattery bestowed upon him by the Morning Redlight editorially In its issue of Tuesday! How wonderfully has he impressed the Fus- sies, the Kinkies and the Curleys (not forgetting H Reed) with his valiant bravery! fl Pardon them, gentle reader, while they turn H their heads and smirk loud and long over the H gullibility of the last sucker to take bait, hook H and line and reach for the pole. It is about the H first fruit of the fall for their months-long cam- H paign of lies, rancid journalism and character as- sassinations. M And they plucked him from the fringe of the H enemy's camp! M Ah, the sweetness of victory! But the Paden poison is already in the dis- H card. M The man who for nearly three mayoralty H terms lvas stood at the helm of this city as it I struggled up into the light of a newer metro- H politanism and behind whom stands a life time H of business and personal integrity and success is H a little too far removed from the zone of Mr. H Paden's activities to find them more than a pass- I ing annoyance in their unwonted viciousness, ab- H solute unfairness and stereotyped ureasonable- H ness. M As indicative of the trend of thought of a cer- H tain class of people here, however, relative to H the coming city election is the Paden attack of I moment, only. And that trend of thought among ' I a good many citizens is the direct result of one H of the filthiest, most repellant and loathsome H newspaper campaigns of misrepresentations ever H waged in this state. For months the Herald-Re- publican has daubed its front page with "stock- I ade" stories daubed it until decent people would no more permit the women of their households H to peruse the rag than they would allow a small- H pox patient in the house. Every other possible H issue on which Mayor Bransford will go before H the voters in October as a candidate for mayor un- H der the new commission form of government, has H been ignored in the ceaseless promulgation of the H (Continued on Page 4.) H PADEN. (Continued from Page 3.) temporary halt in the completion of the mayor's plans to regulate the social evil of the town. The other newspapers of the city have followed fol-lowed in the same footsteps more or less, until a condition exists hero that should be the shame of every decent man and woman. Is the disposition of a few score women of the j half world and their consorts all that the new j mayor and commissioners will have to decide? Is the executive direction of the city's government gov-ernment of no matter? Is the planning and carrying car-rying out of public improvements of no consequence conse-quence as regards the men who shall direct the work? Is the question of the proper administration administra-tion of the business affairs of a great city not a paramount issue in the coming campaign? Does the question of the proper supervision of a town's demi monde supercede all these and form the pivot upon which candidates for the mayoralty and commissioners must swing? i Is the new alignment of the Rev..Paden with the red splotched Smoot sheet to becloud the real issues of the campaign? We hope that the parishioners of tho Rev. Dr. Paden feel that he has earned his hire. We know that it must have been an effort for the Dininny pew to refrain from applause during the psalm singer's fulminations; but in that congregation congre-gation there are hundreds of tried and true friends of Mayor Bransford's who know him for the man he is and who understand local economic and political conditions. Would it be surprising if they questioned in their own minds whether this Paden person were just the proper pilot to guide them to God?