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Show THE PROPHETS VS. THE PEOPLE. It seemed just like old times, that vote on the Utah Light & Railway franchise, or rather -. , : ( h its reference back to the city attorney. The Eld- al ers stood by their guns with the usual and im- '1 memorial fortitude, thereby verifying Reed 1 Smoot's Los Angeles announcement that there 1 are no people in the universe more loyal than the ,91 Mormons of Utah. A blast from the golden trum- jH pet could not have brought the brethren into fll closer communion. And the Gentiles for once pre-sented pre-sented a solid front. Not since the days when ' there was a supposed division on national party lines have the aliens been able to deport them-selves them-selves with such dignity and, what is more im- portant, in a manner so gratifyingly victorious. jH The vote was probably conclusive regarding the council's final action on the preposterous de- ; mands of the Utah Light & Railway company. It is j believed by some people that some vagrant Gentile councilman may be led into joining the Mormon 1 forces when the franchise comes up at the next councilmanic meeting, but that appears hardly probable, because if there is some such craven in the ranks of the Gentile contingent in the coun- cil, he would scarcely dare to face the natural in- jH dignation and execration which would follow his ll desertion to the enemy. 'M Seven to eight. The prophets versus the peo- 'M pie. Never was there a time in the cyclonic social 'M and commercial turmoils of the city when such an ! issue was defined and won by the non-Mormon contenders, who have always looked upon a il pitched battle as hopeless. And yet they fought tH and won, a great and memorable victory. But that calls to mind the fact that there must have been some grievous oversight upon the part of il the prophet's political agents when they per- mitted the Gentiles to take control of the council. i 'H Eight to seven. Gentiles versus Mormons. It seems incredible. Some big sprocket in the machinery ,fl must have been shattered, some trusted agent of liH the Bee Hive must have blundered ,and a vast retribution will surely be meted out to the trusted but recalcitrant Mormon political evangel who permitted the Gentiles to capture in the late . election that lone, solitary councilman whose vote ! thwarted the ambitions of the great sagamore of 1 all the Mormons. What will now become of Fussy James Ander- jH son and Revenue Callister after such a disaster? A great triumph for the church converted into de- jH feat all for failure of a little whispering among the brethren and a little more judicious steward- 'H ship at the polls. And irony and inconsistency of Tl fate to lose by a single vote. Surely these twin ' political Pinkertons will be cast aside and stoned even as was Stephen of old; to be turned' over to the buffetings of Satan will in their case be con- 1 j iH isdered too mild a diet. In the triumph of the j I people and the defeat of the prophets, there is yet a little space for sympathy for Callister and Anderson, the political pathfinders of the hitherto undismayed organization, who, for the first time and in a great crisis, have fallen short of the political po-litical glory whereunto they were called. The vote at the last meeting of the council was a great victory. It means that civilization in Utah is at last assuming dominion over superstition supersti-tion and ignorance. It leads people who believe in. government on an American plan to hope that within a few months, with immigration and enlightenment en-lightenment encouraged by recent railroad development, de-velopment, it will be possible to take Salt Lake from beneath the menacing phantom of church control; to place the city on the same fair and easy-going basis as other cities of the rpeublic, arid to finally so shape conditions in this city that vv Americans may treat as a jest the defiant words of, the Cataline of East Brigham street. I |
