OCR Text |
Show While there has been a growing sentiment among Gentiles and liberal Mormons in favor of such a movement, we doubt whether it can gain any general support at this time. The Democrats will probably keep out of it and men with pol tical aspirations will hardly dare be identified with it. There will be a large-sized suspicion that the movement was started becausa Senator Smoot instead in-stead of Senator Kearns got control of the convention. con-vention. Had Kearns won out, would his organ have had any kick coming? Yet he couldn't have won without the backing of the Church any more than he could have been elected to the Senate two years ago without Church influence. It seems to make a difference whether it is used for or against the Senator. And Senator Kearns started the row. If ne had kept himself out of the Smoot fight at Washington, Wash-ington, had not tried to run the Salt Lake City election last fall, and had kept out of the county and state conventions this summer he wouldn't have had Smoot and the Church against him. When it comes to a fight between a Mormon Apostle Senator and a Gentile, any fool ought to know what the result will be, and everybody knows that no man, whether Gentile or Mormon, has a chance of winning in a political fight in Utah who has the opposition of the Church. For this reason both parties have always tried to secure the support of the Church. The side that lost would then always raise the cry of "church influence" while the other side would strenuously deny that any such influence helped tthem to secure the victory. We think it will be a good many years before any man can be elected to an office in Utah, except in a very few places, who is opposed by the dominant church. We think this would be the case in any State or community, com-munity, where one religious denomination has jl three-fourths of the votes. We think the result of the new Liberal movement move-ment wlh be the disappearance of Thomas Kearns from politics in Utah, which will be a consuma-tlon consuma-tlon devoutly to be wished. We look to see George-Southerland George-Southerland Senator Kearns' successor. We th nk it will also result In Apostle Smoot being expelled from the Senate. There will probably be no difficulty diffi-culty in proving that he used his position as an Apostle to secure Church Influence in his political flght. Kearns will certainly do all he can to un-seat un-seat him, and his influence at Washington will be considerable. Park City (Utah) Miner, September Septem-ber 10, 1904. - |