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Show COUNCILMANIC STAGE FRIGHT. H The councilmen who favor the granting of the H mysterious franchise to 'the Utah Light & Rail- H way company apparently suffered from acute M stage fright on Monday night, with the result lfl that even the hitherto indomitable Swedish El statesman was afraid to unfurl the document on 11 his colleagues. The presence of a large and H hostile gathering of citizens in the council jH chamber must have also had .its weight, and there H can be no question that the opposition to the jH franchise was of a highly volcanic temper. The jH belligerent attitude of the influential local jour- iH nals, which were bulky with but thinly clad jH threats and covert charges of bribery, also acted jH as a strong deterrent upon the councilmanic H sages. jH Kf At the same time the impression is quite gen- Htt eral that the delay was not a sign sufficiently po- Hr tent that any great hope of the ultimate defeat H of the franchise could be anchored to it. Even Hm the most stalwart and wrathful opponents of the Hf light and power company believe that the meas- Bf ure, however perfidious, will eventually pass the Hf council in a form entirely satisfactory to the IM monopoly. This impression is probably due to Hg a cynical conviction born of recurrent expe- Hl riencc, that whatever the influence behind the Hh'J great power company wishes it will have. The H Lord knows it has desired much, commercially, Hi politically and in a thousand other ways, and no HHfi one can question that in consummating what- EfiHEi ever it starts out to do, the church is a consis- Ht! tent performer. Many decades of distressing his- Bff, tory have shown that the church leaders ride Bfi best on the thunders of opposition, and that after Hi all the tumult is over they ae always found, Hf undismayed and unashamed, safely anchored in Bl the haven they started out for. If the present Ht proposed encroachment is shattered, the church Hf official phalanx will have suffered its first de- M' It is quite true that the church officials own HB but a comparatively small proportion of the R Utah Light & Railway company stock. The fact H remains that they possess a healthy slice of it, but H if they owned the whole block, they could not B be more ardent in their desire to have the phe- H nominal franchise hurtled through the council. H ' The pure and limpid audacity of the present B proposed theft, however, may after all cause a Hj successful revolt, which may show that non- R : churchmen are not always to play the role of a HB chained Prometheus. One quite certain thing H is- that the Gentile councilman who gives his HI support to the proposed bucaneering of the Utah H Light & Railway company will for all time be Hf branded with the suspicion and distrust of the Hf entire community. |
