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Show r THE FIGS GROWN ON THISTLES. I The present Utah Legislature apparently bell be-ll lieves that sumptuary laws are sufficient to cure I all the wrongs and all the vices of poor human ' jLjf-, nature. Utah is expanding rapidly; all its mas' ma-s' , terlal interests are advancing. The business cen- ter of the state is Salt Lake City, and the city X should be under the management of men of broad g calibre, of prescience sufficient to anticipate a lit-f lit-f m tie the requirements of the city and the prepara- if tion needed to meet the advance of the state, but the ijf Legislature cannot give any attention to that. Men i in the Legislature who live in counties the salaries , of whose officers and the expense necessary to P equip and keep running the public schools are fi chiefly met with money paid by the property own-i own-i m ers ot Salt Lake City, cannot afford to listen to ' If any of the real requirements of this city, but com- fort themselves with the reflection that Salt Lake j mk wants too much even when it only desires to have W provided the means through which it can help it-,' it-,' K self. This provincial envy of the outside coun- f ties, this belief on their part that they must al- vL ways combine to fight Salt Lake and its interests ; i and to put every possible brake on its progress, I would be laughable were it not such an exhibition I of ignorance and meanness that it is disgusting. I But everyone of these provincials is alert fir enough when it comes to the matter of taxation. If there is any form of property in Salt Lake or f any business that centers here that an added & tax can be attached to, these representatives of W bigotry and ignorance are always ready to help f unearth and impale it. Again, if there are any k men or women in Salt Lake who are not quite L ' of the standard which these prowlers believe to ' be the correct one, they are crazy to have them I reformed and seem to be entirely careless of how the reform shall be drafted, provided only that ' it shall be drastic enough. Probably in about seventy-five years it will dawn, upon the average citizen, and we hope by that time upon the mud- idled brains of the dominant Church, that when legislators are elected for a specific purpose, when that purpose is accomplished it will be better to W send the slaves home, lest the old experience that I -was gained by the China shop when entered by at, the bull, may become the state's experience. f When there shall be repetitions enough we t hope that a majority of the people of this state (will begin to realize the wisdom of the founders of this Republic when they fashioned a govern-I govern-I L ment in which a line of perfect demarkation was drawn between the functions of the state and the functions of religion and decreed that the lino should be crossed by neither, that the State should pursue its way without ever trenching upon any religion, that religion should be absolutely abso-lutely free under the law, but should forever keep its hands from the state. Save for a brief two years that rule has always been ignored in Utah. The persistent determination determi-nation of the Church to subordinate the state to its control has been pressed from the first, and the effort has been, not to elect capable men, but men who would obey counsel. The result is that narrow bigots and those under absolute control con-trol are called legislators and the State is the pity of intelligent men. |