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Show If A JACKASS LEGISLATURE. J Km By Barney Considine. 1 If the present legislature, which is now nearly j two-thirds through the alloted days of Its career, m , establishes a reputation for doing anything else H ( than proving itself a collective jackass, it will D . be because of some action not yet above the sur- B face. Besides allowing itself to be stampeded H , anu" ridden over roughshod by the Federal bunch H , it has also tried the experiment of allowing Heber H : J. to roll over it with his water wagon in just as H complete a fashion. H And then as if to prove that all this is not D enough to satisfy it there must come up a freak H f collection of bills, the like of which has never H seen an equal. One is a freak bill to prohibit foot- H I ball playing, that is so thoroughly asinine that H : it is difficult to keep good natured and think about H ; it. And just after you have hoped that some in- H dividual is more particularly long eared that the H others because of his actions In this matter, there H p comes 'pjidly along an anti-cigarette bill, an,d you double your number of asses, and still again try to, smile. Sunday closing adds to your difficulty. dif-ficulty. Blue laws? Massachusetts In the worst days of witchcraft was broader than the minds of the pumpkin-fed Sanpeters and Siwashes, Nephltes and San Juanamltes who make up the voting horse-se.nse of the legislative body. Even Joseph F., In all his glory has never approached the fine reaches that this legislature has shown its ability to get to. And Joseph F. has left Heber J. In the lurch. That was the inevitable outcome. Heber He-ber is not a man to team with anyone. His is the field of slaughter. Catching an idea on the wing, rushing poll mell forward with It, kicking over every kettle of fish around the fireplace, and ending end-ing it all In a hari-kari sword dance, this Is He-.ber He-.ber J.'s forte." And those legislators who dance to Heber J.'s fiddle, plus those who dance to the music of the Federal bunch, have left Benner X. and young Ashton, almost alone. And thus to their warfare they come weaponless. Benner X. has found it convenient to be most of the time far away fiom his senatoiial seat, and then to smile quietly at what Is going on, saying nothing. Ashton, filled with a stripling's zeal for square dealing, has at last told the Federal bunch what a propeily sensitized sen-sitized Mormon can really think of it. Sam Russell, Rus-sell, for half so big a sin half a dozen years ago, was ostracised from his church. Ashton probably won't be, because they have found out that such a game hardly pays these days. Bilgham H. Roberts, long an isolated -object of severe attack, is probably recalling with glee certain sentences of his to the effect that Smoot was in the saddle riding for a fall. ' If the jackass legislature has done nothing else of service, it has shown what a muddle the F al bunch can be pushed into when Heber J. j really starts to cut up and show that he thinks f unpleasantly of them. In the sixty days the legislature will be among us it will spend $30,000 or more. Its service is likely to be appraised at about 1 per cent of this, if marked up to twice its real value. Its members simply were not of legislative legisla-tive size, especially as regards the senate. Stookey, Marks, Wilson, impossible all three of them with such men where is there hope? And the crime of it all is that they were selected by good faithful stake presidents anxious only for one thing, that votes for Reed be in the legislature. legis-lature. The votes for Reed were there. They were delivered. . Of what other service a legislature legis-lature could h&Jno thought was taken on election day, nor on nomination day. And for what the people failed to prepare, they are now the recipients. re-cipients. Direct primaries will never come to Utah while Smoot reigns. The kind of men, judged only by their calibre, that tie to him and that he tries to, makes the strongest arguments for these primaries. If the people ever get them, they will probably have this legislature to thank for it, and by that we mean not that this legislature legisla-ture will ever pass a bill calling for them, but that it will furnish so horrible an example of the present system that relief will be sought regardless regard-less of priest and politician or both in one personage. person-age. The legislature has twenty more days in which to save itself from the reputation into which it is now headed at full speed. What will it do with its days? |