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Show THE CITIZEN 4 all the ills and sorrows of the world would instantly vanish, if this country would only join the league, it is perhaps pertinent to briefly review how this world pact has actually functioned. Europeans cannot, seemingly, get over the delusion that there must be Capitol. Anyhow it will start business on a most auspicious date without the suspicion of disaster to the commonwealth that would naturally attach if it were Friday the 13th, and under most favorable circumstances, because j very large part of its personnel was selected from the ranks of the Republi some way to get the United States into the league. Lloyd George is obsessed can party in the late election. with this belief; so is Mons. Clemenceau; so are many other prominent EuroThis new legislature has a manifest duty to perform for the people of pean statesmen and they never miss an opportunity to let us know how they Utah. It will be expected to set them free from the blight of fanatical lawi feel about it. which have been slowly but surely creeping upon them, stifling their initiaOf course the only nations of Europe that have not joined the league are tive and grievously subverting their liberties, with each successive legislative Germany and Russia, and they were deliberately .kept out. All the others, big session. The new legislative body will be petitioned to repeal the anii. and litle, old and new, have signed the league roster. It has seemed very cigarette law, a useless state measure that only serves to prevent Utah men from competing, honestly, with the business men of surrounding strange that Europe, with this representation, cannot make the league function without the aid of distant America, impoverished Germany and chaotic states. The cigarette fiend, if there are such animals in the state, gets his Russia. supply of paper pills from abroad through the mails, a medium of eAnd the league does not work. It has been called upon in vain to per-- f xchange Utahs anticigarette law cannot tamper with; also the makings if or m the most important duties of its covenant and it has failed. he rolls his own while his home town merchant goes hungry for sales and Poland, a member of the league, invaded Russia without first submitting nashes his teeth to think that Nevada, Wyoming and Idaho tobacconists are' the boundary dispute to the league as it had covenanted to do. Russia reharvesting the coin that rightfully belongs to him. taliated by invading Poland; the league of nations could do nothing. It is anticipated by many that the new legislature will be asked to enact inArmenia appealed to the league in 1920 to protect her from Turkish an antitobacco law, broad enough and restrictive enough in its provisions to invasion. The league did nothing and Armenia was wiped off the map of drive every stock of tobacco out of the state. This is a rumor that has gained dependent nations. great renown of late and only intimates the extent to which the advocates of Rusthe Persia, a member of the league, appealed to the council when a blue dementia for Utah, would carry their program of subvention in Article that sian Soviet army invaded her in 1920. Deluded Persia believed favor of all that goes with, or amplifies, the restrictive miasma now so pre-as 10 guaranteed her against external aggression. But the league was asleep, valent in the nation. If the legislature wants to guide the people of Utah usual, and Persia bought peace from Russia. into channels that make for proper respect for law they must not only repeal the invited When the Soviet invaded Georgia that independent state the antiqigarette law, but also suppress any attempt to fasten a wholesale' antitobacco measure upon the folks who like to smoke and who will continue league to act under Article 10. The league was still asleep. The fall of 1920 the league awoke for a brief period and intervened in to smoke, law or no law. the row between Poland and Lithunia long enough to exact a promise of a Other important measures to come before the new legislative body will truce from both belligerents. A month after suspension of hostilities Pobe a suggested change in the form of government of Salt Lake City, which land took Vilna from Lithunia and has it yet, scorning all league promises change is manifestly vital if the city is ever to get back to normalcy in the of a compromise. mater of public spending. This is a subject fraught with such grave imIf the league meant anything to Europe it would have called a halt upon portance to the citizens of Salt Lake that it must be given mature considerathe Greeks at the beginning of their Asiatic campaign a project that lead tion. Before a city manager form of government or a united city and Greece to an inevitable debacle, and later to the humiliation of the powers of be finally decided upon, all pertinent facts must be western Europe, the consequences of which may yet lead up to another in connection with either adventure. world war. This incoming legislature will be called upon to enact a state gasoline BelIf a league that includes the British Empire, France, Italy, Spain, tax which may be a good thing for our contemplated road construction plan. and gium, The Netherlands all Europe in fact, except broken Germany The measure, if enacted into law, must be so framed that the revenue will addition the bolshevistic Russia has no force, how can Europe expect that actually find its way into the road upkeep fund and not be left subject to of this country to the league would help? diversion to the yawning pockets of preferential political workers or strawould answer lies in the fact that Americas money The phangers. libin so with liberal been has This matters; Europe money country help! Also this new legislature will be besieged with revised and revamped eral that now many of these nations smile at the idea of repaying our war income tax proposals. It is hard to visualize the probability that such pro-- ; loans. Under the league pact they would not have to pay them and they which will emanate from the same deluded sources that handed down posals, machinations the would have direct access to our national treasury, through the late constitutional amendment, will get very far, owing to the recent manAmeriand one of of a supreme council of nine, composed eight foreigners date of the people of about 1,00Q to 1 that they want nothing to do with such can. nebulous, socialistic measures. However it behooves those pledged to sanity It is Americas man power that would help and which would by this in state legislation to be on their guard. time have been scattered abroad in hundred thousand contingents, else we An antiprofiteering law is to be proposed from Salt Lakes legislative would have had to forget and forego all the moral or legal obligation designed the league pact imposed under Article Ten. And our warships would have contingent, and unless it is an ambiguously worded or a trick law, we only to pacify the apprehensions of the people, it may be passed, and if been stationed in the home ports of belligerent nations to fight, instead of beever have another war, it may become useful. ing there to succor the helpless as at present. Really, what Utah wants, and what .THE CITIZEN believes it wants, It was, indeed, a cleverly conceived plan to enmesh America forever would be in the seething and boiling political game that all European nations, large is a little sane legislation and as little of that as possible. What legislor small, continually play. The league is nothing but a name and the brief more pleasing would be the undoing of some of the mischief of past atures and the trimming down of some of our state commissions; history of its existence points inevitably to the fact that it will remain merely all else a name for all time to come. The instant there is friction between Old World in fact, it might be good policy to dispense with several. Above nations the members of the league line up on the side of their particular Utah wants the state tax load deflated. advantage or according to racial inclinations. They do not, and never have, STAND BY IMMIGRATION LAW. done their thinking in terms of the covenant. They think only in terms of nationalism. It would be wrong to declare the league is dead, because the There is a concerted movement on the part of big interests, more inter league was never alive. nationally inclined than is, or has, proven good for our country, and aide law, by Secretary of the Treasury Mellon, to effect repeal of the immigration OUR NEXT LEGISLATURE. which permits entry of foreigners on the basis of 3 per cent of each race are It may be fortunate for Utah that the second Friday in January, 1923, now with us. This is manifestly too high a figure when certain races fur does not fall on the 13th, but on the 8th, for the latter is the date on which taken into consideration and in this respect should be trimmed to effect Tb ther reduction, if not elimination, if the United States is to survive. our new state legislature is to assemble in the magnificent pillared and ornaan mented pile of granite on capitol hill which we all reverently refer to as The main argument of the interests is that there looms a shortage in labor, busi-nes- s " county-government- , closely-scrutinize- all-to-evide- nt over-rate- d , i 1 1 1 |