H Well and Hts Appointment? M What U He "JTct Apart'For JJWhat Was He Promised A What Will He Get? H When Governor Wells confided to an anxious B public his choice for Judge of the Third Judicial H district, he knew that his official act would he a H ' fit subject for discusson at the bar of public opln- H ion. When, ten days later, he appointed a district Hj attorney for the Second Judicial District, he also M knew that his official act would bo considered an B appropriate subject for general comment. The Bj appointments have been made: Lewis for Judge m and Halverson for District Attorney. m There was a time when the American citizens R of the state of Utah took pleasure in pointing with H pride tothe official acts of the young governor, es- 1 pecially in view of the fact that Utah politics were M , beginning to shape to a calm after years of turbu- H lent storm. After a while it was Druited abroad M that the successful governor would like to be sen- M ator. Coincident with this information came the H pract' demonstration that Senators were not H el .1 the State of Utah, but were appointed H by the President of the Mormon church. So much H tor history. H It will be necessary, in order to make clear the H existing state of affairs to all men, including resl- H! dents of Utah, to say that Governor Wells Is a H Mormon. That is born and raised a Mormon B) but he never did much at it. He was a Mormon B that liked to be thought well of by the Gentiles. H And as such he has not always been found silently H acquiescent when ordered to "take counsel." Dur- B ing the Fourth legislative session he jarred the B foundations of the kingdom by refusing to stand H for Evans' polygamy bill and the McMillin anti- H vaccination measure. These things were laid up H against him. Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord, H I will repay. About that time a spirit of rejuve- H nation or spring house cleaning became rampant H in the church. It was the policy to cut off the H dead branches from the living tree, and those who H believed were to be saved and those who believed H not were to be damned. It was only natural that M the young governor with the assertive indlvidual- H ity should be made to feel the thumb screws or H the Inquisition. He was a Mormon, to be sure, but H in the language of Heber Jay Grant, he associated M with enemies of our people and he added the high- M ball to the bill of fare contained in the Word of M Wisdom." These things in the course of events M were called to the attention of the ward bishop M and the teachers were Instructed to take up a M labor" with Brother Wells. So much for current M rumor. m It is not the object of this paper to question M the individual right of any man, woman or child H to a full and free choice as to religious belief. M Suffice it to say that away down In his heart the H governor knows the "gospel is true." Ho nmy M not have had a "testimony," and he may not be M absolutely satisfied, but tho preponderance of evi- H dence, inherited and absorbed for forty years, nas B served to place him in the ranks of "our people," H and there he will remain. So much for the mcii- H vldual; now as to the official: There are gener- H ally two reasons why a Mormon official always B plays the Mormon hand. The first is because he H believes in Mormon ascendancy; the second is H because that way lies the incubator of ambition. H Having satisfied ourselves that the governor is a H Mormon because he wants to be one, we are H brought face to face with the logical proposition, is the gentleman ambitious? Ask Secretary Ham- B mo'nd, ask General Cannon, ask any of the pro- H Wells crowd, and you will be answered In just B the length of time It takes to tell you that the gov- M ernor would like to be senator. m Is there in the state of Utah that benighted in- B dividual who does not know that the Mormon m church names the United States Senators? If BBv- , , v ?-'"- . BBBmBKBBBMBMMIbm"-'' t ' . . . such can be found the steering committee will please guide him to tho office of Heber M. Wells, and if the governor has a frank turn of mind the doubting Thomas will soon be undeceived. No one knows the power of the church better than Heber M. Wells. No one ambitious to be United States Senator needs the aid of the church more than Heber M. Wells. It means sackcloth and ashes for Heber; it means the abject surrender of the governor's offico to the demands of the church; It means the mourning bench for the man and the blind obedience of the official. One of the questions now uppermost in the minds of the Americans of Utah is, "Will the governor pay the price?" Tho answer is that he is already paying, pay-ing, and has so far delivered the goods. Kearns, Sutherland, McCornick et al., take notice. The action of tho governor in naming the two most unfit, from tho standpoint of ability and party service, of the candidates for these high positions po-sitions simply because they were demanded by the Mormon church, has caused a righteous thrill of American Indignation in the heart of every fair-minded fair-minded citizen. The people had the right to expect ex-pect better than they have received. It is a betrayal be-trayal of public confidence and it has the appearance ap-pearance of either a bald-headed bargain or an abject bid for church favor. So much for the ethics of the case. Lewis was appointed some time ago. The Mormons justified the governor's choice by explaining ex-plaining that out of four judges fairness suggested that two should be Mormons. Of course the fact that Joseph P. had said "the judge should .be a Mormon" (which was at once conveyed toHis Excellency), Ex-cellency), settled the matter. So much for the judge. The situation is different in Weber county. There the interloping Gentile is unknown in Judicial Ju-dicial circles. The court officials from the Judge to the deputy clerk of the court, are all servile followers of the prophet, seer and revelator who rules this dispensation. Hayes was a Gentile. When the people had a chance to make a selection selec-tion for the office they choose Mr. Hayes. In view of the conditions existing in Utah, it seemed to the uninitiated that the successor of Hayes should properly be a Gentile. There were a number num-ber of prominent attorneys who would have liked to succeed Hayes, and from those receptive candidates can-didates the representatives of the party and the Bar Association unanimously endorsed Mr. Murphy. Mur-phy. Mr. Murphy belongs to no church. His claims for recognition rested on his blameless life, his recognized ability in his profession, his constant con-stant and powerful party service and the generally accepted impression that he was the man for the place. Mr. Halverson is a young man striving hara to succeed in his chosen avocation. He is a Mormon. Mor-mon. That was enough for the church. Of course there are those who will pretend to scout tho Idea of church interference and attempt to laugh the case out of court. They will know when they do so that they are laughing a lie to dishonor a truth. They will know that we know that the church knows we know what we are talking about. The governor knows. It he is inclined to be chivalric and wishes to screen the church, we can convince him that such a course would be the folly of desperation. des-peration. Truth is bound to prevail. The governor knows that Brother Shurtliff, President of the Weber We-ber Stake of Zion, demanded the appointment of Halverson in the name of the church. The governor knows Brother Shurtliff would not dare to demand such a thing without the consent of the ) 'deut of the church. That consent may have b y word of mouth or by silent acquiescence. No oru who knows anything about the church system of diplomacy will doubt for a minute that Shurtliff had his orders sealed with the approbation approba-tion of the "brethren." It must be remembered tliat under all circumstances the president of the church must be able to make a square denial and tp say: "I don't know anything aout this appoint-irient. appoint-irient. I did not speak to Brother Wells about it; and I did not know who the candidates were." And so. in order to take this high moral ground, the devious Shurtliff, the foxy president of the Weber stake, the panderer for the church whenever when-ever there is ornery work to do, is chosen to carry to e governor the wishes of the "brethren." And that is why Brother Shurtliff was able to pass around the tip in Ogden several days before the appointment was made that on a certain day Mr. Kalverson would be named for the place. That Is why the appeal of the Republican party from Weber We-ber lor a hearing was denied. That is why two United States Senators asked in vain that fitness and party service be recognized by appointing Mr. Murphy. That is why the American citizens olj the State of Utah have the right to cnarge that an unholy church influence is at work in the state, and it is up to the Governor to explain why he has permitted his skirts to become spotted and unclean. It was known as early as March 20th in Salt Lake that the church was backing Halverson, and that the governor was willing to "take counsel." coun-sel." The Gentiles stood aghast at the audacity of the proposition, and Senator Kearns was importuned impor-tuned to ask the Governor not to bow beneath the yoke. The Senator responded (our Ogden correspondent corre-spondent to the contrary notwithstanding), but he found the calf's eyes set and he learned the lesson that even a Senator is no match for the insidious power that sits enthroned on Brigham street. At .the solicitation of Senator Kearns, Senator Smoot called on the governdr and seconded the efforts ioI the senior senator in behalf of party virtue and the recognition of merit. Smoot could not cut It. It might here be stated that Kearns should have known that a mere apostle could have no weight against the dictum of the president or the church. His own experience in January, 1901, when the venerable head of the church said "T want Kearns for Senator," over the protest of a half dozen apostles, should have taught him that. But maybe he wanted to put Wells to the supreme test. It Was a fight fraught with much meaning to Kearns. It meant a trial of strength between the Senator and the church. It meant that the governor had or had not come into the fold and was prepared to put on the livery of a serf. It meant the strengthening strength-ening of the Kearns' power or the breaking of the driving rod in the Kearns machine. The- rod broke. The Kearns maxim of "get there" received a rude jolt and the church, silent, sombre, unscrupulous un-scrupulous and powerful, won. ' No, dear apologist for the church, don't say the governor preferred Halverson to Murphy, and that i is all there was to it. Such is not tho fact. The I governor had the chance to consider HulaniskI, j Bagley, Heywood, Agee, and several others, all ' older in practice, all abler than Halverson, all more deserving from a party standpoint, but his orders forbade him. These old-time giants of the party are all Gentiles. It was not a question of fitness, or merit, of party. It was a question of church. "We want Halverson," demanded the church. They got him. The church knows no party, no politics. But it knows that In the operation oper-ation of the public duties of certain officers some of the peculiar institutions of the church might be handled without gloves; hence put none but tho faithful on guard. It is not our purpose to comment further on tho probable reasons why the governor meekly submitted to the wearing of the collar, but it is not at all unlikely that Wells has read in the handwriting on the wall the doom of Kearns and he knows that unless he stands well with the 1 church ho would, have no more show than a snowball snow-ball In hell. What does Kearns think about that? There Is one other feature to this politcal laroe, and that is the oppressive silence with which the daily papers treat the matter. Both the Tribune and Herald are in possession of these tacts. Both know it was a rank piece of church. J domination as ever occurred in the state. Both j are thoroughly disgusted, yet do not evea publish the story as news. Moral: If you don't like it, you can lump it. i