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Show THE REAL ISSUE ALWAYS THE SAME. The vets In the City Council on Monday Mon-day night on the outrageous franchise demanded of the city by the Smith Light and Railway Company, demonstrated demon-strated once more, what has been so fully demonstrated on numerous occasions occa-sions heretofore, that the real issue here Is now, as always. The Church versus The Community. Otherwlso stated, ultimately ul-timately the lln..-up Is the hlerarch and his followers versus the people; Mormon Mor-mon vs. Gentile. The Question was on the obnoxious franchise which the i hlel hlerarch, as president of the Mormon church and president of the Utah Light and Railway Company, had prepared to railroad through the ' ouncll; and on that every Mormon, ignoring his Re-puhlicanlsm Re-puhlicanlsm and Democracy professed, voted for the franchise, regardless of the public rights and of the claims of the city. Similarly, In the former Council, that Just prior to the present one, the Mormon Mor-mon members without the least regard to the fact that fotir of them had bi I rt elected as Republicans, forme.) a i.abal to thwart and obstruct the progress of the city, and to "down'' the Republican Mayor. Party lines were lost sight of altogether In thlB purpose, which was carried out to the end, of holding the Mormon vote solid against the Gentile Mayor, though he was entitled, In party sense, to the support of eleven out of the total fifteen membership of the Council. But the "solid eight-' Mormons defeated him from first to last. The "eight to seven" was a constant con-stant exasperation to every Republican. Republi-can. On Monday night the question was on granting to a monopoly company, of which Joseph 1-' Smith, the president of the church, Is the president, a franchise fran-chise distinctively antagonistic to the Interests of this city. The only reason why any one could possibly favor it Is because that person is a devotee and practical serf of Joseph F. Smith, holding hold-ing his highest fealty to him and disregarding disre-garding the Interests of the people. The only reason any member of the Council could possibly favor such a franchise Is through the perversion of mind which leads him to consider anything demanded de-manded by the chief hlerarch of bis church as right and obligatory upon him, canceling all other obligations and excusing his faithlessness to his official oath and to the public Accordingly, we find that this Is precisely pre-cisely the position taken and the action performed by every Mormon member of the Council. Though some of these were nominated and elected as Republicans Repub-licans and others as Democrats, they got together in perfect harmony In obe-dieffi obe-dieffi e to the dictation of the hierarch whose interests were at stake, and rallied ral-lied as ono man to his support. This chief hlerarch has repeatedly declared that he Is not In politics, a meaning of which s?ems to be that It makes no difference dif-ference to him what sort of partisan politics his followers profess, lie has them at his beck and call In any case, serviceable tools to do his bidding, carry car-ry out his purposes, and advance his Interests, In-terests, personal and corporate, precisely pre-cisely as they are expected when his name is presented In the Tabernacle to be sustained as "prophet, seer, and rev-elator." rev-elator." unanimously to hold up their hands In approval. There Is no mistaking the slgnlfb a'nee of this vot? It demonstrates that the so-called "party lines" arc a mere sham and myth, used wholly to give the Mormon Mor-mon hlerarch a tight grip upon both parties here. The play by which this Is done, the pretense under which the putrid affectation is carried out, acts simply to strengthen the hierarchic power, t aring nothing for either party as such, nor for the principles of either save as he can wrest them to his own service and use, he gives the victory to whichever party he chooses, according as he considers that one or the other will be useful to him And the ghastly comedy goes on year after year, campaign cam-paign after campaign, with a solemn mockery and a stupid parade of earnestness earn-estness that Is Insulting to the intelligence intelli-gence of every one concerned. And what of the Gentile members of the Council? They were forced, for the protection of the city and Its Inhabitants, Inhabi-tants, also to Ignore party lines, and vote flown the hlerarch'fl scheme of robbery rob-bery and plunder. They were forced to recognize the fact that the partisan line-up Is a fraud and deception, and that in order to resist hierarchic aggression ag-gression and robbery, the only possible thing for them to do as officials faithful faith-ful to their public trust, was to vote against this scheme of ecclesiastical extortion ex-tortion and outrage upon the public. They did this duty nobly, and will be prepared with a fuller comprehension of the actual cleavage of sentiment in public affairs here, to continue to range themselves definitely and permanently on the American side, the elde of de-i de-i in y, good order and the due recognl-' tlon of public rights and the Interests of the municipality. |
