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Show Politico-Personal Tb" average American party plurality In Salt Lake City in the general election last fall was 1,-201. To elect the Republican city ticket this fall the ecclesiastical machine must "move over" more than 1,200 Democrats in addition to those who were transferred bodily into the Republican party: In 190G. It is an Impossible tack; every Democrat who could' be counseled, cajoled or bulldozed bull-dozed Into voting the Republican ticket then, was landed in the Republican column The church l got every vote it could. It can't get any more. And there will be three tickets in the field. Fusion has been abandoned, although the Inter-Mormon Inter-Mormon was shrieking denunciations a few weeks ago of every Republican and Democrat who opposed op-posed "co-operation" to defeat the American par- ty. That paper has been overrrulcd by the machine ma-chine which dominates it, and the two church parties will go it alone. It is practically certain that the Democratic ' city convention, called to meet September 17th, will nominate ex-Mayor Richard P. Morris at the head of its ticket. It Is by no means certain yet whether the church will try to elect him or some Gentile Republican to be named for mayor by tho Smootlte party. Mr. Morris showed two years ago that he was a strong enough vote-getter to render Impossible the election of the Smoot nominee; nom-inee; hence the church, at tho eleventh hour, tried to elect him. It may start a similar movement earlier In tho campaign this year. ie k The public generally is In sympathy with the movement to have a grand jury called to Investigate Investi-gate the extortions of the local food trust. Already, Al-ready, however, the Smootltes are figuring on a means of turning the grand jury, if called, to a political use by procuring the Indictment or Amor-loan Amor-loan party city officials on trumped-up and frivolous friv-olous charges. The grand jury, If called now, will bo in session in the thick of the campaign; and, while nobody imagines that the officials, if indicted, would ever bo brought to trial, the Smootltes hope to influence the roeuit of tho election elec-tion by the proposed indictments. One experience of this sort should be enough. About a year ago tho Smootlte paper declared that an action in court would be instituted against divers di-vers city councllmen for accepting compensation Other than that provided by law. It was promptly Shown that, If such an offense had been committed, commit-ted, more Mormon councllmen were guilty of It than were American councllmen. That ended the talk then and there, and the Inter-Mormon suddenly sud-denly ceased its yawp. The Inter-Mormon overlooks no opportunity to slam District Judge George G. Armstrong. Wednesday morning it stated that Attorney-General Breedon was unable to present the pogltion for a grand jury to Judge Armstrong Tuesday because the court was not to be found. As a matter of fact when Major Breeden wont to the joint building to look for Judge Armstrong, the latter was at the county jail conducting an insane in-sane hearing, and Major Breeden was so informed in the county clerk's office. The attempt to discredit Judge Armstrong by creating the Impression that ho is neglecting his duties is all the more disreputable when it is taken tak-en into consideration that he has spent more time at the joint building during the court vacation than all the other judges put together. The animus an-imus of the Smootlte paper toward him is duo to his decisions in the various phases of tho Sheets case. Two city conventions have already been called. The Democratic convention will meet September 17, and the American convention September 19. The political campaign may, therefore, be said to have opened In earnest. The Republican city committee will meet tonight (Saturday) to call the Smoot convention. t The election of Dav C. Dunbar as president of the American Club .ks an excellent choice, and most gratifying to his host of friends. Those thieving members of the Butchers and Grocers Association, whohave the most to say are quietly laughing in their sleeves while a united un-ited press loudly calls for a grand jury investigation. investiga-tion. And that reminds us that the food hold up Is possibly the only thing the local press has over been united upon. The curfew whistle is not only a farce but a nuisance, serving as a signal to tho errant brata that the coast is clear. A dozen times within tho past two weeks the deafening tones of this siren have utterly ruined scones at the theatres, and it is time this relic of the blue laws was suppressed. sup-pressed. There is such a thing as too much government in a town. When restaurants and hotels are forbidden for-bidden to servo drinks with meals on Sunday, it is time some one with a little nerve made a tost case. It is, to say the least, provincial. |