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Show I Is Ben E. "Rich to Manage X5he Tribune? I B Tho sacrifice of his old friend Perry Heath B by Honorable Shifty Senator T. Kearns appears mk to be imminent. B Not because ho loves the ex-post office official B less, but that he loves the retention of his seat H in the senate more. B Mr. Kearns was never an idle gentleman poll- B tically. Just at present he is the most strenu- B ously active politician in Utah, and through the B connivance and influence of certain important mk Mormon officials whom he has impressed into the B service, he is building up a formidable mechanism B for carrying the state in his interest next year, B when his term as an erudite and unimpeachable BB representative of a great state in the United m States Senate will terminate. B To divert for a moment from Honorable Per- B ry Heath and his impending divorce from Kearns, B a few words regarding the plan of Mr. Kearns for B carrying the state next year. Mr. T. Kearns, know- B ing that his candidacy would meet with the open B hostility of President Smith, has formed a quall- B fled alliance with some lesser, though high, eccles- E iastics, and of these the most active is Mr. Ben B E. Rich, president of the Southern States mis- B sion of the Mormon church. The others are a B triumvirate of Mormon apostles, John Henry B Smith, Woodruff and Cowley. This quar- B tette of dignitaries is doing active prose- B lyting throughout the state in the interest of Mr. Mm Kearns re-election, but among all of them the B most virulently obstreperous is Mr. Rich. B And for this reason. Mr, Rich has been prom- Hj ised, it is stated, as a reward for hie services, the B successorship to Perry Heath as editor of the B Tribune. It is impossible to state at present B whether this fact is known to Mr. Heath, although B it has long been suspected that Kearns was anx ious to get rid of his imported post office hoodoo. Knowing Mr. Heath's exceeding wiliness and the adhesiveness with which he clings to anyone who can be of financial aid to him, it is a difficult prognostication to state that he is not in on the deal. If he is not, however, the spotless Statesman States-man would do well to look to his guns, if the statements of some high Mormon officials are not to be disbelieved. Mr. Rich's activity in benalf of Senator Kearns dates back several months, to a time in fact when his son, through the influence of the Shifty Senator, was appointed to an important clerkship in Washington. Since then, it is stated, stat-ed, Mr. Rich has neglected his duties as president of the Southern States mission to inaugurate a campaign in the interests of the Senator, for whom he naturally entertains an abiding sentiment senti-ment of gratitude. In order to capture Mormon votes, and probably the statement is true, he announced that he is to succeed Mr. Heath as the guiding spirit of the Tribune, which during three decades fought what was unlawful in the church of which Mr. Rich is a more or less distinguished disciple. It would be unkind to state that the position of editor of the Kearns organ is one for which Mr. Rich is utterly incompetent, unless, forsooth, the fact that he has written one or more books in advocacy of the Mormon theory of salvation is to be faken as a standard of efficiency for a modern mod-ern editor. The statement at least sounds well to the Mormons among whom he is politically evangelising, evan-gelising, as they consider that the transfer of the ancient enemy of the church into the ranks of the regenerate is a very healthy indication, and in order to secure so desirable a consummation, consumma-tion, many of them would be willing to stoop to the ignominy of sending the miner back to the great deliberative chamber which his erudite presence has graced, by virtue of much manipulation manipu-lation of money, during the past two years. Mr. Rich will be remembered as having been active in the politics of Utah and Idaho ever since the farcical division into a national party alignment. align-ment. He was a compeer and fellow campaigner with Hon. Frank Cannon. That Mr. Rich was originally orig-inally a Democrat does not necessarily reflect upon his sincerity as a Republican at the present date. But other things are said of Mr. Rich which do not sound so well, and if known, in Washington, Washing-ton, would not reflect any great amount of resplendence re-splendence upon the miner senator. Mr. Rich was married a great number of years ago and a great number of years more recently, if reports be not incorrect. The bearing of this on the present situation is the fact that Rich, while working for Kearns, Is presumably a friend of Smoot. Kearns is the acknowledged political enemy of Smoot in Utah, and at the same time is employing in his behalf a man who would be subject, if elected to office, to the same amenities which are being tendered to Smoot at Washington. Tho Tribune, as an organ of the Mormon church, by virtue of being under the managerial control of a Mormon official, would be a spectacle which would make the peaks of 'the Wasatch quiver upon their apex. And yet it appears that such a condition may be consummated in the near future. Does Perry Heath know of this, and the fact that the story is being circulated, or is that astute politician Ignorant of his approaching march to the scaffold? The public knows Perry very well and will not bo in the least surprised if the fact develops that Mr. Rich is merely launching launch-ing the statement that he is to become the managerial man-agerial head of the Tribune purely to gain Mormon Mor-mon support for Kearns and with tho connivance and knowledge of the present Spotless Statosman " LU of statute of limitations post official malodor- &M mWt ous notoriety. 1 j , jB Whatever the true plans of the Shifty Sena- ij B tor may be, it is undeniable that some formidable ' , j H work is being done in his behalf with a view to ' B his re-election to the United States Senate. Tho B aforementioned quartette are assiduously working t ' B in his interests, and the menace of a repetition l B of the farce whereby he was sent to the Senate BB through the courtesy of the officials of the Mor- B mon church can no longer be overlooked. The B uncomfortable alliance with the Mormon apostles B is already creating great alarm in the minds of B the people who have consistently fought against H the supremacy of the ignorant miner senator and Lwm the hierarchy's unquestionable and ominous do- ' B minion over the political destinies of this and B adjoining states. B Every Gentile in the state would greet with ! B shouts of acclaim the removal of Mr. Statutes P B Heath from the political and moral environs of !' B Utah, but if such a contingency will result in the i; B elevation of Mr. Kearns for a' second time to the B Senate and the selection of Ben E. Rich as the mW controlling spirit of tho Tribune, it is to be B feared that the first estate, unsavory- though it B be, would be better than the last. B |
