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Show THE CAPITOL REVERSE. The returns of. tho vote at iltc dec tion to determine whethrr the Constitution Consti-tution of I he Slate .should be so amend-od amend-od as to jiroide for the J.evy of a ono-mill ono-mill tax for lifteen years for tho purpose pur-pose of building a State capitol, have now been ran wished. The vole in favor of the proposition was 'i!7U: the vole against was 1U.H7G; a majority of O'OUG against the prupoM't inn. Of the total vote in favor. .Salt Lnko rimnty rat :il.'!.'. and the conniies outside of .Salt Lake cast IS!". Kvery county outside of Salt Lake, with the exception oT Car bon and Grand, gnve a majority rg.-iinst tho capitol. Of course ii might have been easy fur Sail Lake county to overcome I his adverse ad-verse majority of (iuOti if I he vote had come out, wore I Iio surface indications decisive. However, il di'd iiot come out, and if there ' had hern such feeling arotifcd as to bring il out, il. is likely that the corresponding feeling adverse would have been stirred up throughout Ihe Stale, and Iho result would hae been the same. So that Salt Lake city and county has nothing to blame itself with in this respect. Under no circumstances could it, have prevailed in that election against, the adverse feeling that was so general throughout Ihe State. What made thai, hostile feeling? Unquestionably, Un-questionably, as wo have slated hereto-torn, hereto-torn, it was tho feeling which grow out of the resentment towards the "Federal bunch" in this city for its corrupt and treacherous political deal and betrayal of the .Republican party and of the church, at (ho election last. fall. The church, through its ecclcsiasts. took a. virulent and strenuous interest in that political campaign. The stake presidents presi-dents of this county made themselves extremely active in politics, as stake presidents, openly and avowedly so, and they used their church positions to the full extent of the ecclesiastical authority author-ity conferred upon them, and went even so far as to say that those church voters who refused to follow the dictation dicta-tion ("counsel") of these presidents were "traitors to their church." Tn all the officious procedure of these stake presidents it was assumed by them, as the natural and rightful result of their political activity, that their follower's would be bound by the "counsel" which they had given. Thov were so bound, as the election returns proved. At the same time that the "Federal bunch" was thus aligning the church in favor of its political schemes, nnd -m, falsifying the repealed declarations of the church that it is not in politics, this same "Federal bunch" made an alliance with the brewers and liquor dealers for their votes, having threatened, threat-ened, through their organ, the brewers and the liquor interests with the passage pas-sage of a prohibition bill in order to make those interests "come down" with campaign cash. They did come down to the extent of upwards of $-10,000. the "Federal bunch" thereupon guarantee i.ng immunity to tho liquor interests and the brewers agaiust any prohibition prohibi-tion bill. And it must be confessed that the "Federal bunch" kept its corrupt, cor-rupt, bargain with the liquor interests and nrovonied nnv legislation at all on the liquor question. But when the church poople found that tho "Federal bunch" had allied them with the liquor interests, they affected af-fected cx.trcnie indignation about it. They called a State convention to protest, pro-test, and a great deal of angry talk was indulged in in denunciation of the "Federal bunch," and in accusation of its political methods and its bad faith. Tho church had always posed as friendly friend-ly to temperance and oven to prohibition, prohibi-tion, but all at once found itself aligned alongside of the liquor interests, pledged to support the brewers and the liquor men by a bargain made by the "Federal bunch," with the representatives of the liquor interests on the one side and of tho church on the other, President Joseph F. Smith being the one dealt with by the "Federal bunch" for the backing of the church vote in this corrupt deal. President Smith, finding the matter getting too hot, for comfort, lit out for his "vacation" to the Sandwich Sand-wich Islands, and stayed away until after the Legislature had adjourned. But the sore feeling which resulted from the corrupt deal and the failure to pass any legislation on the liquor question remained. The feeling of resentment re-sentment at the betrayal of the church and the shame and indignation which lodged in 'the minds of a great many of the church people to find themselves tied up in that kind of a bargain with the liquor interests, caused such a feeling feel-ing against tho "Federal bunch" that the capitol proposition, being attributed to that source, suffered an ignominious defeat. It was openly stated all over the State that this was the cause of the feeling, and it found concrete expression ex-pression in many places in the form that tho voters "were not going to help Bill Spry" lo carry out any more of his scheine5. And this feeling accounts for the defeat de-feat of the capitol proposition. It was openly so anuounced in many places in the Stale before election, as the reason for the opposition; and after election the salne expressions were heard even more generally in the rejoicings of those who had thus been able, as they ''counted coup," to deliver a body blow to the "Fodoral bunch." |