Show AN OPEN LETTER TO THE COMMERCIAL CLUB Gentlemen of the Commercial Club The question has been often asked of the Utah why the Salt Lake a paper owned and controlled by Thomas who has large monetary interests has pursued such a systematic course of malicious misrepresentation and vilification to the great injury of this city and and why it is that Kearns himself has become so bitter in his feelings towards such men as Senator Smoot and Joseph F. President of the Mormon with whom he was once on such good The answer is expressed in the simple And why so Here's the story in The Republican party elected Thomas Kearns to the United States This was the party's to speak more the party's for it was well known by everybody who knew Thomas Kearns that he was in no sense whatever a fit man to occupy such an responsible and exalted Prominent men of the State were disgusted with jj this action of the Republican and they attrib- it all to Kearns' and it was freely Jj intimated that Kearns' money bought his way into the favor of the local But it has been since learned that the local politicians were acted upon by men higher up in the and that some of them were in touch with members of President And it was brought about in this Thomas Kearns had become known as a and was credited with given twenty thou- sand dollars to aid Republican and it was also known that he was desirous of entering politics It was this happy combination money and desire for high public office that brought him into notice of the national ft will be remembered that it was not long after Senator Kearns took his seat in the United States v Senate that he became the business associate of nent politicians in the San Pedro Harbor scheme and building the Salt Lake in it is he lost Doubtless our former Senator has long since perceived why it was that influence of men higher up were exerted in his behalf to become a It will be remembered also that a movement was set on foot by the friends and admirers of the late Senator Mark Hanna to pave the way for his election as President of the United and a mighty shrewd move it was for while the adherents of Hanna were ostensibly working for the election who had become President on account the death of they were in reality their wires for Senator Smoot was given special attention by the Hanna They watched him closely until they be-came satisfied that he was not only for but that he could not be turned to After this became and as time went they put the idea into the head of our former Senator that it was altogether too inconsistent a thing for an Apostle of the Mormon Church to be also a United and as Senator expected to be re-elected to that office he should either resign his Apostleship or get out of the political which attitude was thereafter assumed by-the Kearns organ and worked to the This scheme was resorted to by the shrewd Hanna men to crowd Senator Smoot out of the and to put one of their own men in and the subject of this article became a party to fully believing it was going to because of its strong and so firmly did Senator Kearns believe that the successor of Senator Smoot was actually picked out by the Hanna men and accepted by Senator and that man was no less a personage than Perry Heath who afterwards became associated with Senator Kearns in the management of the Salt Lake and who acquired a residence in Utah for the purpose of making himself eligible to hold the office of Senator from Most of you gentlemen will remember the swath that Perry Heath cut while and how he to dictate in local and as a politician he was regarded a I am reminded now of one worthy of which came under my notice at the which I will A district judgeship was within the gift of Governor Heber M. and Perry Heath had a man of his own selection for the and he insisted on the appointment of his whose name need not now be It was very important that Heath's man should be that important as an aid to Heath in carrying out his political and therefore all the influence at the command of Senator Kearns was brought upon the Governor by way of urging this particular The scheme was to intensify the agitation then going on by arresting and imprisoning men- for living in polygamous a thing the Kearns-Heath men had agreed with them to do if he should given the judicial This was the game up the sleeve of these men to press into service Mormon votes for A Utah boy was among those who sought the a boy capable and with whom the Governor personally who succeeded in getting the appointment contrary to the wishes and denials o the Kearns and Utah to this day has reason to thank Governor Wells for the manhood displays t J by him under the fire of Kearns and for by this act Governor gave to us a judge of whom the whole State has reason to be I refer to Judge Thomas D. Because of this Hanna Senator Kearns became the opponent of Senator Now remember the influence of the administration friends of Thomas Kearns was in and of itself to elect Kearns to the it required also that of Senator But after Kearns for the reasons he was led to believe that besides helping the Hanna he could get along better without Smoot than with and this the real origin of the must either resign his apostleship or the But of men and mice gang aft Lo and Mark Hanna up and and so did the scheme of Senator Kearns to get rid of Senator In fact when the one died the other Senator Smoot was and Senator Kearns now saw exactly where he was Instead of crowding Smoot he sought Smoot 's help for his own But as a self-respecting Senator Smoot not and did not help I have learned from very good authority that he sought the help of President Joseph F. but in And I have learned also that every conceivable influence of both Catholic Church and was brought to bear on President Smith for the purpose of using Mormon Church influence to Senator but that President Smith stood firm on the ground he had already and that was to steer clear of Doubtless the present President of the Mormon Church had learned a valuable lesson from the mistake made by his predecessor without went out of his way to help to elect Thomas a mistake which neither reflected credit on himself as a high Church nor the State in which he so widely and favorably It will be remembered that when the present President of the Mormon Church was in Washington as a witness in the Smoot Senator Kearns gave a. that the Mormon President was one of the At that time our former Senator still had hopes of his hence the In fact I have learned that it was announced by our former senator himself that the banquet was given in of the Mormon at which there were all the Western senators including those of But before he returned shorn of his senatorial all hope was as Senator Smoot was and without his our former Senator very well knew that he not be Now it may interest you to know that L before Thomas returned a plain American party was that it was organ-v wed in D. C. for the purpose of I and it may interest you also to know that Judge Powers was in Washington at that particular also Frank J. whose services were secured as editor of the Tribune while in Washington and at this time he was without means to return home and in a most dilapidated I may tell you if you cannot now read between the it was that organized the American and who it is that has so successfully steered the two old parties apart to make room for his new and while posing as a Democratic has been voting the American ticket right some of you have been directly aiding and abetting Thomas Kearns to gratify his insatiable desire for while others of you have been doing the same thing in an indirect way against your own judgment through failure on your part to raise your voices in the open against the Tribune's policy v of the State has been made to suffer all the Are you afraid of Kearns and the Tribune or do you stand in with f v. Next |