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Show THAT EXECUTIVE "INTERFERENCE." liI?i4B 1 ' & tl 'f Vm On its face, no American believes that the i'd y'lVVl President of the United States can consistently IMfjilMi go out of his way to interfere with the election J.f tfR of an officer in a sovereign state. The first dis- Vi! PH patch placed President Roosevelt in that situa- fe'j' ' 'IvB tion and his warmest friends recoiled before this fZ.1 4H assumption of interference on his part. But more )&th ifftB light has been shed upon the matter since. It IJti&!$JB seems the President did not interfere, but that the fl Jiff llB trusted friend of Apostle Smoot, Ed. Loose, made IwY iB a journey to Washington and obtained a special PraitrJB interview with the President to sound him upon liltfelffB that very theme, and in his c ect and earnest way flIir''itaB the President told' him it would be bad business, ' KlSft MaB bad for Utah and bad for the Church of Jesus tt'S'lliB Christ of Latter-day Saints. j$!jjj ff ff-fl He did this although he is not a subscriber to aSPo bB Goodwin's Weekly. That is, Mr. Smoot, through f i "' -B his rather Loose attorney, called the President rsf kB to testify. IjRf . ; mim v 1 VBj By all the rules of all the courts the accused mm 'M cannot repudiate his own witness. 1!ih1jj$B That the result of this private Interview be- S'S if fffl tween the President and Mr. Smoot's particular 'I mH friend was telegraphed broadcast to the country 1'slryfl was not the President's fault. There was a 11 ij fl Loosfe pulley somewhere. i'i'wlfl But suppose the President had taken kindly to VI B f H the Apostle's candidacy, what would have hap- S'lji ; l' pened then? We all know how modest Ed. Loose MM Vfifl is, it is proverbial, but had the response been i! ra lilfva favorable is it not clear that for once that mod- IsKf1 'Hal esty would have broken down and that Loose VwL lljfl would have proclaimed all the facts to the discom- Sm ifl fiture of all who have opposed Mr. Smoot's elec- mm ,!' ffl tion? Ifp-fB As the matter stands nothin has really hap- 111 ''B pened except that the apostle having sent a special 11 fl messenger to Washington to sound the President mUIiB on the matter of his candidacy, the president, in the Wt JUS confidence of his private office, being thus solicit- jfif W5fl ed. said he believed it would be a mistake for m InfjH Utah and for the Mormon church to elect an raillifl Apostle to a seat in the American Senate. wUfl That does not prevent the Legislature from BSvbbi going ahead and carrying out the compact made ffiUvvfl with most of the members when they were nom- mBHvl Inated, and because of which the teachers went Ivf'VVaVi out and told the faithful that it would be pleas- m H ing to the First Presidency If they would vote H BUM the ticket as it was printed. We do not think, m fffiH either, that the Apostle will be denied a seat, for sfflBH the reason that in Colorado are two Jack Mor- MBSH mon senators, in Wyoming, Idaho, Montana, Ore- BBBnB gon and Nevada there are enough Mormon voters BBbbHI to make, In a close election, a balance of power, B&HBH and all the Senators from those states will rally VhbVbRB around Mr. Smoot and certify to their brother sen- flflvaVaB ators that he is all O. K. vflvaflvB The only danger is that some Eastern Senators hBbVbb9 will insist upon asking some troublesome ques- fifvoBBH isbVbhE&hh Mmm t W) I-1 -. r ,il .... m 1 9 .if H J ff ji tions. These will go to the country, the newspa- B i 1 !i pers will ventilate them, the churches will take : jj I if a hand and the result will be a black eye for Utah m I and for the dominant Church in Utah, for when Hj i f1 it is once understood throughout this Republic B f i si that the real fealty of a Mormon Apostle is to an J I W earthly temporal kingdom which is opposed in I fj! every feature to a Republic, there will be a clam- I If O or, which will come pretty nearly causing the dis- j '1 I ! "franchisement of all Mormons. K .:'. H ti 1 |