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Show I POLITICS AND POLITICS. The political situation in Salt Lake City is really taking tangible shape. The most important happening of the last few days has been ( the activity on the part of the two elements of the Republican party , the fight between the so-called Smoot machine, or regular organiza tion, and the Anti-Smoot, or independent crowd. The meeting of the Republican State Committee and County Committee, at which gather-it" gather-it" ings the independents were severely arraigned and criticised and , read out of the party, resulted in the meeting of the independents or 1 1 insurgents in which an address was formulated and their attitude de-'. de-'. fined, in which the regular organization is in turn arraigned and criticised, criti-cised, and the question raised whether that organization is the whole party. So there you are, the regular organization reads the independents out of the party and the independents turn and say they are Reoub-hcans Reoub-hcans and insist that they are as much the party as the men who attempt to read them out of the party, and they maintain that they will not only not be read out of theparty, but that they will as Republicans, and believers of Republican principles, put up the fight of their lives at the primaries and in the conventions. They claim they have at least one organization in the party which they control and through which they will be heard and make themselves felt, that is the Young Men's Republican Re-publican Club. With this organization as- their nucleus they propose to form an aggressive working force throughout the entire state. At the head of this independent movement are such men as John Q. Critchlow, Stephen 11. Love, Benner X. Smith, Geo. N. Lawrence, A. 13. Irvine, D. (J. Rideout, Jas. Devine, Geo. Wilson, C. S. Buckwalter, and others. These men claim that there is a tremendous sentiment throughout the state in sympathy with their movement and policies and that if they do not control the primaries and conventions they will at least show such strength that the regular organization will tremble at the magnitude of their following. On the other hand the regular organization which is led by such men as Senator Smoot, Congressman Howell, Marshal Spry, E. H. Callister, Jas. H. Anderson, Harry Joseph and other prominent politicians, poli-ticians, claim that this insurgent crowd is a mere baby affair, that it can command no following and cannot do the organization any harm, I because in reality, they say, these insurgents never were loyal Republicans. Re-publicans. Jft ' In the meantime the Democratic party and the American party are both contributing with all their power and might to the widening of the breach of discord between the two factions in the Republican party. What it all means and what the result and outcome will be no one really knows other than that a really strenuous time will be had from now on until election time, by office seekers and party workers. |