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Show "UNCLE" JESSE EXPOSES SMOOT. , Evidently thero was mismanagement mismanage-ment in the Democratic campaign in this State this year. The most effective and tolling speech of the campaign was reserved until just the night before election, elec-tion, and was delivered in Provo by "Uncle" Jesse Knight, too lato for the people of tho State at largo to know about it. And yet evory ono in the Stato ought to have known of that speech before be-fore election. It was the quaintest, tho most earnest, the most appealing speech that was delivered by any ono during thei whole progress of tho fight. Mr. Knight devoted his speech very largely to matters of special interest to Provo, and his account of tho shutting down of the woolen mills there and the promise prom-ise to reopen them when wool got down to fourteen cents a pound, was a realistic realis-tic piece of oratory that was extremely telling. And Smoot was tho central figuro for blame. In this connection, Mr. Knight told authoritatively about tho first money that Reed Smoot made. Ho was moved to do this, apparently, by the slurs that Apostlo Smoot had passed upon tho wa3' that "Uncle" Jesse himself and Jesse's son had made their money. Smoot, it appears, claimed that it took no brains to make mouey in mining; all that a man had to do was to dig tho wealth out of the ground and put it in his pocket. Replying to this, "Uuclo" Jesse told how it was that Reed Smoot got his start. As to the amount of brain power involved in this sort of monej'-makmg which he described, any one cau judge for himself upon reading the way of it, which is thus narrated by "Uncle" Jesse: I know some people with whom I am well acquainted whom I have known for m.-uiy years. When they .were small they thought when they grew up they would bo superintendents of big Institutions. I have beard some people tell this untJl It rang In my ears like a saw. You have hoard this yourself and Reed Smoot tells everybody about It. Now tho first money I knew him to make (understand I know tills) was the giving of orders on the Co-op store so? that his workers could not trade anywhere olso and then once a month he would go around and draw in per cent from the storo on account of giving the people those store orders. I do not know what he did with this 10 per cent, hut It was the llrst monev I ever knew him to make. Of that I am sure. I havo known him about ns long as anybody has. l bought tho Co-op store and after I bought It ho Wanted mo to glvo him 10 per cent for sending customers to me and I told him I would not be u party to that kind of business. (Applause.) (Ap-plause.) Ho said that he would go to some other store and give hlK orders. I told iilm I did not care; that I was not going to be a party In that kind of transaction trans-action and take some poor inan"B wages. ou see, he got the commission of every mans order be sent there Now. there arc different kinds of nralns. and I am very glad 1 have not raised a son that has tho depraved bratn that wants money bad enough to get It In that kind of way 1 ?ys read,nP 'n the paper that tho onfe' qualification Will Knight had was lift money, but I want to tell vou that he hnu a brain and an honest one. I w!nt to nay to yu that If you vote for him T will ffietn?to0ProU,at " W a" Thoro have boon some very curious stories told from time to time about bow Smoot got his start in life and tho means wheroby he added to hi.s toro' wheu ho began to get. forehanded. This account of Smoot's financial start, however, as given by Mr. Knight is undoubtedly un-doubtedly the true story; for Mr. Knight is sure of his facts. And Mr! Knight is not a man either to make any mistake of that kind or to tell anything that is not absolutely true. The Reed Smoot fortune, therefore, is built upon the foundation he laid by skinniug the workers in the Provo woolen mills. Hu forced them to take orders on the Co-op store for their pa3', and then got a rake-off ox ten pr cent on those orders. or-ders. No more disreputable way of get-tiug get-tiug a start in life can be conceived thau this. The mau who fleeces the laborors who are in his employ and at bis morcy in a way liko this "is to all intents and purposes a robber. This rovclntion which "Uncle" Jesse gave of Smoot's start towards accumu- j lating bis fortune is about the worst I thing ever said about SmooL And it was said in self-defense, by reason of , slurs that Smoot had thrown out upon j the successful mining oporationa of : "Uncle" Jeese Knight and his son. Of all the ways to got mouey in this world, tho cleanct-t, the most praiseworthy, tho way freest from oppression of infringe- ( uient upon anybody else's money or 1 property, is to dig that money out of the ground. Tho man who adds to the wealth of the world by digging his money 011L of tho ground adds new I money to the accumulations of the ages. In most ways of making money, the one who gets it takes from somebody ' else. In ordinary trading one makes money through the mono he gets from I othors. In mining, however, tho man J adds now money to the world, ho fur- 1 nishofi others with that money, he skins no one, he robs no one, ho is benefited by nobody olro money. Every one obc, the whole .community,- on tho cou- j 1 trary, is benefited by tho money that he digs out of tho ground, this being new metal furnished by him for nil, and likely to bo retained by tho human race for ages to come. And it is certainly cer-tainly ono of tho anomalies of ignorant and absurd misapprehension, of insolent presumption, for a man who has laid tho foundation of his fortune in skinning skin-ning his fellowmon and impof-ed on the employees of a company which ho was operating, to rail at men who havo made their money in tho clean, holpful way of mining. Jesse Knight nnd his son, in digging their money from tho earth, not only benefited themselves, but have benofited everybody. And thoy benefit all not only this year and next, but. for all the year3 to come, because the metal they dig out is made into coin aud is kept alwayp. "Uncle" Jesse Knight, theroforo. in vindicating himself from the aspersions cast upon him by Apostlo Smoot, not only vindicated the cause of mining against the cause of the sharper and tho "rake-off "rake-off hero," but completoly turned the tables on the impudent aggressor. It was a noblo speech, characteristically dolivered, and received with the wildest enthusiasm by "Uncle" Jcsso's hearers. And this shows their good sense and discrimination; for tho speech was 0 worthy one, and such an answer to the impotent attack of Apostle Smoot as to turn that answer into the tables in a way most effective. The Democrats evidontly made a bad mistake in not getting "Uncle-"' Jesse on the stump early in tho campaign. |
