Show i OAPT JOHX CODMAir ANSWERED The Church Influence Openly Used to Promote Republican Success To the Editor of the New York Times Captain John Codman well known throughout Utah has a short article In a recent issue of your paper anent the first state election in Utan held on the 5th of the present month It is regretable that a man of Mr Codmans Intelligence ana familiarity with the people should have been unaole to distinguish between the Republican talk of protection and the at titude of the early Mormon leaders as to local Industries The Mormons knew nothing about the doctrine of protection as now understood until about the time of the division They were however taught to encourage local industries The reason for this teaching was the belief inculcated by the leaders that the people were to bo isolated from the rest of the world and unless they encouraged among themselves the development of such manufactories as would supply them with tne necessities and some of the comforts of life they would suffer I Moreover as will be recalled L all who are intimate with the middle nistory of Utah tile belief was generally entertained entertain-ed that a famine would come upon the people and for this reason relief societies that is the womans organizations of the Mormon church designed for charitable charit-able workbuilt houses and saved grain I The belief prevailed among all the people peo-ple of the church that the saving of grain I and other articles was absolutely necessary neces-sary to their physical salvation and that they would be unable to obtain from the outside world during the time of famine the things Indispensable to the preservation of existence This was the fundamental reason for the encouragement encourage-ment of local industries on the part of Brigham Young His message to one of the early legislatures of this territory while he was still governor shows that he felt that the distance between the cities of the east and the west and Utah afforded af-forded all the protection necessary to encourage en-courage local industries and he very explicitly ex-plicitly stated that he did not wish the taxes of the people to be used to develop local nompanies Whei Democrats are prepared to explain ex-plain the cause of the defeat of the Democratic party in Utah by the claim that the Mormon people have been taught to believe in a system of protection as now understood there is little hope for Democratic success in this part of the country The claim of Captain Codman that the Democrats counted largely on the tact that the socalled persecutions of the people have emanated from a generally gen-erally Republican congress is also opposed I op-posed to the facts Democrats did behave I Oattht1e ffitue have that the attitude Fc the national Democracy in interposing Democratic principles against the disposition of the Republican party to ride the Mormon people peo-ple into the dust would be remembered with some sense of gratitude but the results do not justify the belief on the part of local Democrats It is no longer a question as to whether church influence was used by churchmen to bring about the Republican victory in this territory The contention now is as to the extent of the inlluence Everybody knows that President Woodruff while a Democrat has been overshadowed by the ambitious desires and the personal antagonisms an-tagonisms of Mr George Q Cannon against leading Democrats In the face of the claim of the Mormon people that they first seek pure and capable men upon whom to bestow oltice the election of Mr Frank J Cannon is evidence that the desires of the people in this as in other respects were made a secondary consideration to the wishes of strong church Republicans Captain Codman has sufferea rimself to be as badly deceived de-ceived about the affairs in Utah as he thInks the nponlp of Utah were deceived with regard to the Republican promises as to wool free coinage and so on The defeat of Democracy in Utah was compassed com-passed by the use of church influence Any man with intelligence enough to read aright the tendency of current events and who has any knowledge of the facts knows this to be true There are however those whose personal pref erments demand a denial of these truths and such denial of the truth is one of the easiest of tasks to perform per-form Captain Codman must not be classed with such but he has suffered himself to be deceived nevertheless Salt Lake City Nov 16 L G New York Times |