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Show THE CITIZEN 4 The voters know what they want and if they dont get at least a semblance of that, they are bound to raise a ruction. And nothing is more certain than this ruction will trend in the direction of a change in state administration, like unto that which hit the nation during the late election, caused political consternation to reign supreme, and upset many a valorous politicians calculations. This session of Utahs law makers is expected to function in the interest of the lowly and heavily burdened taxpayers as never before. Both major parties have gone on record as favoring a change to a normal and sane basis in the matter of spending public moneys. There will be radical propositions brought up during the life of this legislature to lighten the tax load and it depends largely on how such proposals are treated as to just what the voters will conclude is best to do in the premises for future state economic welfare. It appears there will be little if any opposition to a gas tax of two cents a gallon at the source which means that the consumer must pay it all if the license load, automobile owners now carry, is reduced and all other fanciful and predatory auto law features now hampering the auto owner and the auto dealer are eliminated. This legislative body will be expected to deal harshly with the state overhead costs. In this respect there will be varying suggestions for banishing several state commissions. Among the commissions at will be chiefly aimed will be that of the which scrapping-suggestioPublic Utilities now dominated by a class of men who function largely in the interest of corporations. It is a matter of note among a great portion of the voting population of Utah that the state is virtually commission poor. There seems to be a commission for about every avenue of state activity, drawing rather fat salaries out of the public exchequer. This thing has been carried so far that the people have reached the conclusion that any time a politician desires to mooch more tax money from them, he suggests another comra-toina- lly ns mission. And above all else it is becoming evident to many residents of Utah that a state with a small population should not be expected to carry highfaluting ideas of administration to the point to which it has been kited in states having large populations over which to spread the resulting costs. Those necessary things like road work and financing state institutions must be taken care of in a liberal way; but it seems unnecessary to many voters to appoint commissioners, at fancy salaries, to guide and direct each and every state function. Also it appears that the voting population is opposed to any further pressure from those who would clutter up our statute books with repressive blue laws, which require the 'services of numerous salaried sleuths to absorb tithings taken from taxable wealth. This is a matter our present legislative body should think over very carefully because it may make or break the Republican party in Utah. The last legislature writ the scroll of repressive and repulsive laws across the ambient blue to such an extent silhouetted the miasmatic ideas of lugubrious reformers against the fair background of Utah in such manner that a repetition is bound to cause a political upheaval. Aside from a few things like the above we may well await the pleasure of our present state lawmakers. LAUSANNE'S OILY CONVERSATIONS. The Lausanne conference goes merrily on, and stript of all conventional and academic international amenities and verbiage, the oil fight between Britain and Turkey, for possession of the Mosul valley, is still tense and gravely portentuous. Turkey, very proper it seems, and quite contrary to boot, rewhen Turkey fuses to recognize an agreement made by was considered one of the spoils of war, and Great Britain is unwilling to give up her mandate on the rich oil lands, the potential of which is rated at billions of barrels. Thus the inter-estjn- g controversy over who shall exploit a proved oil district goes on apace, now waxing warm and again growing most frigid, while Americas Ambassador Child, hangs around like a huge buzz fly at the-Alli- es oil-wea- lth uttering a plaintive wail over the disposition of a handful or two of Christian subjects, but all the time keeping a weather eye on the oil situation. And an interesting thing about all this big oil talk and this tangled oil situation lies in the fact that the ultimate outcome may affect the private negotiations between American, British and French interests. Of course private capital is not supposed to be bound-u- p in this latest peace conference, to which the United States sent two observers, Mr. Richard Washburn Child, ambassador to Rome, and Mr. Joseph C. Grew, minister at Berne; but oil is oil, wherever found a camp meeting, occasionally i and constitutes the very life and energy of some of the more grandiose nations of the earth and private capital evidently consideres the vast Mosul reserves worth fighting for if necessary. And apparently that is just what Britain will have to do to retain her hold on this Turkish province, which she covets for no other apparent reason than that it is rich in mineral oil. Further she apparently wants to assure English capital the right to the inside track over the big oil interests of this country, who have long viewed that same Mosul district with hungry eyes. So all this protracted argument over open straits, territorial guarantees and protective mandates for Christian peoples seems to constitute an effort in rebuttal against Turkish claims to the retention of her fat oil lands. And Turkey resents the attitude of the United States at the Lausanne conference. The Turks in protesting against the entrance of states, Ismet Pasha took it upon himself to remark that: Those people (the United States) would send us spirnon-beligere- nt itual and spirituous assistance of which we have no need. Which, after all,, is merely another way of saying what all Europe has been broadcasting : If you dont intend to open the doors of the treasury keep away ! All this oil fuss harkens back to the time when England took a mandate over Mesopotamia when Turkey was down and out, and the Big Four, including Woodrow Wilson, was most effervescently engaged in dividing the spoils of war between European belligerents, according to Lloyd Georgian conceptions of equity. It remains to be seen if England will fight for the Mosul oil; and it is becoming increasingly apparent that Turkey intends to fight, if she has to, to retain the province as a part of the Turkish hinterland. And it appears that a very strong opinion in Great Britain demands the abandonment of Mesopotamia and Palestine. Some of the ablest British journals support this demand. Their thesis is that the imperial government is already surcharged with costly obligations sufficient to occupy all its attention at home, and that Mesopotamia and Palestine can only bring to it further burdens and unknown risks without corresponding rewards. It is rather singular that there enters no concept of right or wrong into the Lausanne conference. The British do not ask or consider what principle of justice can be invoked to sustain taking possession of strips of countries, which the fortunes of war war supposititiously undertaken to resist aggressions and spoilation enabled them to conquer. Commercial imperialism in England has lost immediate control of all her more fruitful outlying dominions, India excepted. Mesopotamia with its great oil deposits and the possibility of restoration of its ancient agricultural productiveness by irrigation, was too tempting a proposition to disregard. It commands the Persian gulf and under strong military occupation could probably be made to dominate the hinterland of Syria and Asia Minor. The ethical question may yet boil over at the Lausanne conference. As to the oil deposits it appears America is on hand to see that Great Britain extends the most elemental fairness to the rest of the industrial world, should she retain them. So runs the conversational strife at Lausanne as viewed by the impartial observer. h Under the ancient tithing system of a mans income was taken for taxes. Today there are a lot of Americans who would profit by going back to this old system, if the politicians and the could be satisfied with a measley h of their one-tent- tax-kite- rs one-tent- q |