OCR Text |
Show Politics In Salt Lake City. Tho campaign In this city will bo sot In a few days. If the American party names one candidate can-didate that Is not worthy the place named, our I' hope Is that he will he beaten, assuming, of course, that a wouhior man is named for the place. ! The struggle will be with the American iparty 4. . to elect men to fill tho various ofilces, who will s, be under no obligation to do anything but the right. On that they claim the confidence of the voters. The American party was organized to beat down the tyranny which has ruled in Utah, with perhaps three years intermission since 1847; to lift the state from the subordination to the church which has been the rule from the first. Thoio who say It has had a less noble mission from the first are, to use no harsher term, badly mistaken. It was put off just as long as possible; pos-sible; it was put off until every man of common understanding in the state knew that because of ecclesiastical power over most of the Mormons in , the state, Reed Smoot dared to name who should be the officers of the stato for four years. And as though to show his contempt for any opposition, he named sonVe candidates whioh no man in the stato had over dreamed of being either by oducation, training or natural aptitude oal-ablated oal-ablated to reflect any honor upon themselves or bp of any essential service in office. The test of I fitness for the respective places was not con sidered; the- question was, "Will he be obedient : to counsel?" . . In that question rests the full justification for the formation of the American party. There will probably bo two tickets opposed to tjie American condidatos. But If there are, voters generally, the morning after the nominations are ( made will guess shrewdly which men on both tick ets will receive tho bulk of that iportion of tho IVJormon vote whioh looks to tho high ocoloslasts for counsel how to vote. That such a state of affairs af-fairs exists is, in itself, full justification for forming form-ing tho American party. There is more to it. There will not be a candidate can-didate on either the so-called Republican or Dem-J Dem-J , oeratlc tloket who will have the slightest hope of j election, save through the favor of the chief priest- rg hood of the Mormon church. That fact shows exactly how church and state 1 are separated in Utah; shows whether any church here usurps any functions of the stato or not. The American party was not created because those engaged in the work loved contention. Evil Ev-il ery one of them would have vastly preferred to avoid the duty. But Utah must be an American Amer-ican stato. It must be so that all tho opportunities opportuni-ties of the state shall be open, alike to all her children. The Mormon people, ' ,ttor than tho Gentiles,, know this fact. Unless they are stone- -blhm they cannot avoid seeing that the fat places Inr Utah are reserved for a few families; that the duty of the others is to work, to pay tithing, to obey counsel. While that continues the state will be handicapped, handi-capped, just as it has been for sixty years. This power that rules here has no respect for anything but force. It does not keop its political promises. It assumes that it has divine rights nmong which one is to deceive Gentiles whenever when-ever it feels so disposed, and when the object is to anchor more deeply this church rule. In the past year a great many votors have oome to Salt Lake. Of these more are Gentiles than Mormons. These Gentiles have been accustomed to vote either a Republican or Democratic ticket. To them we bog to stato that if they try to do that hore, they will simply be puppets in the hand of a power which has no use for members of either of the old parties except to use them, for they have a government of their own, a kingdom with its king right here, its king, its parliament, its courts with the machinery of its government so perfected that wero the last vestigo of the ipo&er o the United States removed from Utah tomorrow, nil that would bo necessary would be to appoint a postmaster and two or three other federal officers. This has been the rule since the first T,heo-oratlc T,heo-oratlc Government was instituted hore and from the altars of tho treasonable church men were directed how to vote. It is changed only in form, not one sinister purpose has been relinquished, not one determination determi-nation has boen changed, for as Brigham Young was wont to say "This is a celestial kingdom and a kingdom of God on earth," and by the last was meant that tho civil rule of the land should bo only such as tho ecclesiastical power might dl rect. |