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Show SWARMING EARLY. Much animation is already apparent among local politicians, with every sign of an early t-warming, and on all sides the political optic ig focused upon Washington, for Democrats and Republicans Re-publicans alike agree that the future Is tied up in t!ie fate of the attenuated apostle-senator. If he makes a headlong exit in front of the senatorial boot, the Democrats feel assured of victory in the Ft ate this year and of the complete collapse of the local disciples of Smoot. It is interesting to note that Republican confidence confi-dence this year is all based upon the supposition that the Provoite will be able to maintain a firm grip on his chair. Starting from this premise they affect to believe that a state nomination this year will be equivalent to appending to their locks the victorious laurel. There are many reasons why this hope is lkely to be badly battered, even if the malodorously advertised senator remains in the faenato hall. It is the idea of many sage people all over tho United States that the darksome financial finan-cial scandals uncovered by the rough rider of San Juan hill will be blamed to the party to which that eminent citizen professes to belong, and that an unprecedented victory for the Democrats in 1908 is not in the least improbable. What if some such idea as that should enter the profound prophetic pro-phetic intellect of the seer up at the sacred Bee Hive? It is just as certain as it is that he has a B quartette of wives that he would immediately begin arrangements to have Utah politically In harmony with the next administration. As suspicious eyes from all over the nation are hung upon him, he would naturally bring this about in a manner the least revolutionary, and it looks not in the least improbable that he would scart hewing to tho lino by presenting the congress this year with a Dem-cratic Dem-cratic representative. It is hot a question of pol- . itics with the president of the church and never has been; with him the consideration is to have the Mormon church harmonious with the nation- executive, and the question of who will win this year in Utah will depend almost solely upon which party the great Mormon Sagamore believes will elect a president in the election of two years hence. But whatever happens to Smoot, it looks plain enough that he will control the Republican nominations nom-inations this year. If he is not thrown out, this will be so simple that anyone with the courage of a regiment of polar bears would not have tho temerity to run for an office unless he could exhibit ex-hibit a Smoot certificate. But even if the senate performs its duty and throws him out the result will be the same. .Arising battored from the fall he had survived, he would loom up in Utah as the most powerful and awe-inspiring martyr that ever invited the sympathetic patriotism of a Mormon, and the tearful brethren would answer the call of the apostolic trumpeteer with the same docility they have shown the political ecclesiastic for the past two years. So the Smoot Republicans who wish office this year will naturally be prepared to be very kind to the apostle, even if ho comes back to Utah looking like a refugee from a boiler explosion. In defeat, he will be terrible, at least to the office seeker. "So it is up to Mr. Parley Christensen to extract his Smoot badge from the vicinity of his bulging thorax and carefully reburnlsh it; if Mr. George Lawrence hasn't one, and still wishes to be congressman, he should arrange to steal one from a neighbor or withdraw; Mr. Howell, who Is no maverick, will meanwhile arrive, fat, smiling jH and flatulent, knowing that all he has to do to scat- ter all competition is to exhibit at the right time his Smoot brand of slavery and his Smoot cer- jflj tiflcate. |