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Show UTAH'S GOVERNOR. Tlioso who are striving to prevent tlio nomination of Governor Spry have been planing a grotesque over-emphasis on tlie issue of prohibition. They seek to make it appear that the destiny of the ntato is bound up in this one issue and that the solo value of tho man who is placed in the governor 's chair will bo bis power to aflix his signature some ' time during his torm to a prohibition 1 law. The business men of the state resent , this one-sided campaign. All who are interested in the industrial progress of the state resent it. The purpose of the over-emphai.H is obvious. It has for its object tlio defeat oT Governor Spry. If it serve.i that object the political ring-Bters ring-Bters will bo satisfied. We are not seeking to minimize the liquor issue. We believe that it has reached such a stage of its development that the people of the stato have a right to express their .will on the sub-jt'et, sub-jt'et, but wo do not believe that the people peo-ple of tho stato are willing to have as ( govornor a nonentity whose only policy ; w ill bo to sign a prohibition law. They want as governor a man who has executive execu-tive ability aud constructive statesmanship, statesman-ship, who can, if necessary, sign a prohibition pro-hibition law that the people have decreed, de-creed, but who can do something more who can bo a real governor all the time and not merely tho puppet of some one policy. Governor Spry, as the business men have been quick to recognize, has earned tho right to renomination because be-cause of his services to the state. If ho is ro-eleeted he will be able to give tho stato the benefit not only of his business ability, but of a wide experience experi-ence which has made him perhaps the best governor the state has had. It would be a shame to replace him by a one-ideaed man who thinks that Utah's sun revolves around the single issue of prohibition. The constructive statesmanship t Governor Spry has revealed itself not only in his conduct of the state's affairs, but in a way that has attracted attention atten-tion throughout the country and even in the halls of congress. It was largely out of esteem for Governor Spry and in recognition of his stand on the conservation conserva-tion question that tho governors decided to hold their next congress iu Salt Lake City. The policy of Governor Spry on conservation is now Senator Smoot's policy, although it was not the senator's policy two or three years ago. On that question, as on prohibition, the senator hfts undergone a complete reversal of ! opinion. For this he is not to be condemned. con-demned. Governor Spry's conservation policy a policy that has for its object the highest gooayof the western states has recommended itself to the executives execu-tives of most of the western states and is now being championed in the United States senate by no less a person than that "leader of leaders," Keed Smoot. j ! Governor Spry, if our memory serves ' us correctly, fully outlined his constructive con-structive conservation policy at a conference con-ference of the governors in 1911. Immediately Im-mediately the central ideas were seized , upon as the correct policy of the states , as opposed to the policy of the central government which, under eastern tuition, tui-tion, had become fanatically in favor of tying up our natural resources, which meant western natural resources, for the government had no lands left in the eastern states. Governor Spry's policy has had the effect of defeating the propaganda prop-aganda to place mineral lands on a leasing basis and of checking the tendency ten-dency to lock up the water power sites and to withdraw from settlement practically prac-tically all the public lands in the western west-ern states. The central government's unwise policy, which came to a climax four or jive years ago, threatened to throttle development in all the west. It became necessary to formulate a definite defi-nite state policy which should unite the western states in opposition. Governor Spry was a pioneer in formulating for-mulating this policy, which has received re-ceived the sanction of sentiment all over the west aud has become the basis for resisting the unjust and deadening policy of the eastern conservationists. Already it has succeeded in loosening the grip from the throat of the west and it gives promise of bringing about a federal government policy which will permit the western states to develop their reonr'Vs and at the snme time secure adequate taxes from gigantic stretches of land held by the federal government land vrh'v: h now produces no revenues for the states, although policed ty the states. It wuuld, perhaps, be tedious to give the history of the development of this constructive policy for which Governor Spry deserves so much credit. We -ite it as an example of what manner of governor he has been and how he has come to be recognized throughout the country as one of the ablest executives cf the day. All of Utah could look with pride upon his re-election, confident confi-dent that the state would be well governed gov-erned and that our glory would not grow less in tho land. |