Show THE SITUATION The arguments for and against Home Rule for Utah are now all in The friends of the measure have presented an array of facts in favor of the passage of the measure that was simply unassailable The one astonishing as-tonishing thing in connection with the presentation pre-sentation of the case before tho Senate and House committees on territories is that anyone could be found to oppose R measure that promised some degree of justice to the misunderstood people of Utah and at the same time preserved to the government every advantage it bad gained in Its BtruR glo against the peculiar Institution of the territory polygamy But strange as it may seem it found stout opposers and among them men who claim to be attached to democratic ideas of government Those who opposed Home Rule were given a patient pa-tient hearing and now that engagement i has taken place and the smoke of the conflict con-flict has cleared away what is the state of the question How stands it with Home Rule for Utah Just like an impregnable Gibraltar after a bombardment a tower destroyed not a ram = art thrown down not a wall shattered not a gun displaced dis-placed but stern grim and terrible it stands unmoved mocking the efforts of its assailants and demonstrates how unassailably unassail-ably true aro the principles on which it is founded As we predicted the only thing that the Liberal representatives could urge against the bill was distrust of the Mormoa people the plea tat they were insincere in their proposition to abandon the practice of polygamy poly-gamy insincere in dissolving tho Peoples party und dividing upon national issues To make this clear the history of the Mormon Mor-mon people was scanned for more than half a century and the words and acts of men a half and a quarter of a century I ago and whose tongues are now silent in death were introduced in evidence Not only were their objections based upon distrust of the Mormon people but upon distrust of the victory which the civilizing forces of tho nineteenth century had gained in its contest with the Mormon church and distrust in the ability of those forces to maintain what they had won Rut after all was said that could be said from that platform of distrust and doubt and fear eternal justice unmoved by the special pleadings of the apostles of distrust and hate still demanded that the principles of American government in the fullest measure meas-ure practicable be applied to the American citizens living in Utah The opposition from the Republican representatives re-presentatives was more strange still because be-cause not so much to be expected from avowed friends of the people of our territory Stripped of all extraneous matter their objections amounted to this The advantage procured by the Home Rule measure is not commensurate to the cost involved In procuring it Second it would delay statehood for which Utah is now prepared The first argument is childish and would plead as hard against statehood as it does against Homo Rule We think it unfortunate that it should ever have been made and if the Republican Repub-lican delegation from Utah that opposed Home Rule iu Washington voiced the sentiments of the people of Utah in that objection they would have furnished to the honorable gentlemen who compose the committees on territories one great reason why Utah should be granted neither Homo Rule nor statehood for apeoplo who would pause while they sot a value upon the right to govern themselves could scarcely be considered worthy of that priceless boon But thanks to heaven they do not voice the sentiment of the people of Utah As to their second objection viz that the granting of Home Rule would delay the granting of statehood we would like to know upon what argument they Base their conclusions what line of reasoning they follow to arrive at such a result We have I asked a number who advanced that objection I objec-tion to state a valid reason why it would be so and we are still waiting for a reply Let it be established once that under this improved territorial government provided in the Home Rule bill that the people freely exercise their rights and that their acts ae one with their real convictions and from every part of the Union would como the demand that Utah be accorded her full rights in the councils of the nation Lot this be kept constantly in mind that Democrats believe Utah is every way worthy of statehood and ready for it but they doubt that it can be obtained They are not so blind as to think that the Home Rule bill is as good as statehood but if there is anything in Republican executive talk statehood is out of sight for sometime some-time yet and pending that we say give us Home Rule |