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Show i 77f FIRING SQUADS AT I r ''- SUNRISE I QAMUEL GOMPERS, president of the American Federation of m, O Labor, on his way home from the Paris conference which has been drafting the "Magna Carta of international labor," assures us that the workers of the United States are building a dam between the civil-P- ized world and Bolshevism. It is the intelligence of American labor, j he tells us, which "fits it to play this all important part in this supreme j crisis in the history of the world." i These words are of salient significance. If we can trust his soundness of judgment we shall have reason for hope that anarchy L will not submerge civilization. f Most of our hundred million people have been resting quietly and . pleasantly on the sunny slopes of the Bolshevist volcano. So different g are conditions in America from conditions in darkest Russia or ruined m Mittel Europa that there has been little fear of a Bolshevist revolu-L, revolu-L, tion. The affair in Seattle which brought defeat to the foreigners who f were trying to run American labor is taken as an example of the tri- f umph of American intelligence over imported ignorance and anarchy, k But was it? f , It is true that at Seattle the American workmen quickly wearied of the "dictatorship of the proletariat" and sought an adjustment , when they discovered how little public opinion sympathized with the strike. But the amazing thing is that, being intelligent, they ever should have been misled. The foreign agitatois were basing their I appeals on conditions which did not exist. They were spouting and h haranguing about economic conditions and class hostilities which they had remembered from their European days. !i The chief complaint of labor in this country has been that the ;' rise in wages has not kept pace with the increase in living costs. The 5 foreign agitators employed that hardship to talk socialism and com munism and harp on the undying conflict between capital and labor. There is no such conflict in this country. Theie are points of difference differ-ence big ones, in fact but the revolutionary conflict to which the foreign firebrands alluded, the conflict which strives for the complete 4 destruction of an old system, was practically non-existant. There is danger that the revolutionary spirit will spread unless un-less the intelligence of American labor is as high as it is rated by Samuel Gompers. If ignorant, low-browed savages from the slums f of Europe can take our intelligent laboring men by the noses and tlead them at will into Bolshevist follies then there is danger of class conflicts which cannot be suppressed without violent revolution. There is something ferociously, fantastically laughable about the I propaganda of these foreign agitators who come here to urge Bol- , shevism, "the dictatorship of the proletariat" on American labor. It i is almost as if they were trying to persuade American labor to adopt l "free love, dirt and cooties" as a battle cry. f The spouters who talk about appb :ng Russian communism to jj ' America forget to say that communism Was prevalent in Russia even under the czar. Even before the revolution the peasants had a form of communistic government. It was a form adapted to conditions of H life wholly unfamiliar to us in this country. M Our industrial development, compared with which Russian devel- H opment is as a pigmy to a giant despite the fact that Russia's popu- H lation is nearly twice our own, was the result of co-operation between H intelligent labor and intelligent capital. If we should pull down that H structure about our ears we would produce a chaos compared with iH which the Russian chaos would be as Russia is to hell. jH Bolshevism has made even the insufferable conditions of Russia more intolerable. Think what it would do were it able to hurl to the jH earth the American industrial structure which, for magnitude and efficiency as the war has proved has no equal. M We are prompted to make this comparison because, in our larger M cities and in great industrial centers, barbarians from Europe, who 1 were reared arhid conditions of which we had small knowledge until H they brought them into our midst and who imbibed the poisons of Ifl class hatred amid degradations unimaginable to Americans who had fl passed their lives in God's open spaces, are agitating for revolution, M crying "down with the American government," and escaping punish- M merit. How long can that go on without disaster? M But we cherish the hope that Mr. Gompers is right that Amer- M ican labor and the American people generally are too intelligent to M trade their democracy and the titanic machinery of production which M demociacy has produced for communism and the ramshackle indus- M trial system of Russia. M We think we have made it clear in our criticism of North Dakota fl solons that we do not think much of their venture into socialism, of fl their laws which tend to cripple private business, but we desire to M point to one element of hope in the North Dakota experiment. It was H a bloodless revolution. It was achieved by the ballot, in an orderly H fashion. The American political system operated smoothly and ef- H fectually to accomplish the ends sought by the voters. In that sense H it was a triumph for our representative form of government. And jH when the fitful fever is over the people of that state can retrace their H steps in the same peaceful and orderly fashion. Their expeiiment H will be a lesson to other states which have been allured by the glib VH promises of feather-brained reformers. - H If we must have revolutions in this country let them be y the H ballot and not by the bullet and bomb. We shall find voting plcasantcr H than the firing squad at sunrise. H But for those who would overturn our government by violence H the bomb and bullet and the firing squad may yet be necessary. H In conclusion we take occasion to quote a striking piece of advict. H to British labor in a dispatch sent by John Ward, a labor member of H parliament, who is serving with his regiment in Siberia : H "For the love of Allah, never more talk of the glories of revoiu H tion I am in it h-c. Friend strikes down him he thinks his foe and H finds the dead man his brother. Princes, peasants, plutociats, work- M men, rich and poor, go down together in one welter of blood and dirt H J SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH, APRIL 5, 1919. M m I , "The Bolshevik thinks nothing of standing five hundred social H revolutionists against the wall and shooting them down before break- H , fast because of some small, petty difference of opinion as to whether H, the railways should be national or communal. How the gods must H ' ' cry with rage that men can be so mad. However any of our leaders Hl ' failed to grasp the Bolshevik creed of blood and presumed to condone !the horrors committed by this mob of fanatical maniacs I cannot imagine. im-agine. Rather pray Heaven defend our old country from such a calamity." H BAKER THE BIG. HAVING won the greatest of wars, almost without help, Secretary Secre-tary Baker considers himself able to crush Lieutenant Colonel Ansell, who dared to criticize the spirit of military despotism in our army. The secretary hastened to reduce the bold critic from the rank t of general to his pre-war rank of lieutenant colonel. No doubt our H little war lord was quite content with himself after he had performed H this broad-minded, generous-souled act. He could point to the regu- H lations as entirely justifying his magnanimous conduct. Our secre- ' tary of war is noted for nobility, generosity and magnanimity. H One of the secretary's latest acts of liberty, justice and democracy H has been to suppress Colonel Ansell's reply to Major General Crowder H on the army's courtmartial system. When demands became insistent B that the letter be given the same publicity accorded Major General m Crowder's communications the secretary returned the letter to Col- m) onel Ansell with the excuse that he "did not consider it helpful." We m are sure the secretary is right. - We can quite believe that it is not ' helpful either to the secretary, to General Crowder or to the "dictator- m ship of the militariat." It is too bad that Secretary Baker cannot send m Colonel Ansell to Devil's Island, following the example of the French M military war minister in the Dreyfus case. M Both the secretary and General Crowder have tried to sneer An- ff sell out of court by various damnable accusations one to the effect m that he thrust himself forward into a military position without right M or warrant. An atmosphere of opprobrium, like a poison gas, has B been spread around the soldier who had the moral courage to de- M nounce a courtmartial system which was imported from Europe be- B fore the Bastile fell and which has not been changed substantially i' since the days when the common soldier ranked somewhere be- H tween a slave and a convict. After creating a venomous impression against Colonel Ansell H the military dictators speak sweet words about his letter not being H "helpful," at the, same time trying to force an iron muzzle over his H mouth. He cannot publish his letter without violating military dis- H cipline and thereby giving his enemies a new chance to humiliate and HL degrade him. H The secretary defends himself with hypocritical words. The let- H ter was returned, he says, because "personal controversies between of- H ficers cannot be aired in the newspapers." H( Major General Crowder's statements have been aired in the, news- H papers. All his bitter sneers and accusations against Ansell have been H aired and have poisoned the atmosphere, but the sweet-scented secre- iHt tary of war refuses to permit the victim to clear himself. That is typical of the oppressive military system which Ansell is attacking. Better than anything else it supports his charges. mi DEMOCRATS AND THE LEAGUE. TO obscure the significance of their defeat and discomfiture the Democrats are vociferously proclaiming a change of front on the HI ' part of the thirty-nine Republicans who signed the round robin warn- II ing President Wilson that the League of Nations covenant would not f be ratified in the form to which he had given his assent. The senators Iflfc are represented as returning to Washington in a chastened mood be- Hk cause they have heard from their constituents and have begun to real- & ize that the League of Nations is supported by a great majority of the Iff people. WW Every day's news from Paris demonstrates the triumph of the K "1 Republican senators. Apparently it is President Wilson who is in a H chastened mood, for he went away vowing to, drive his senatorial opponents op-ponents out of public life and now he is humbly announcing that some, at least, of the amendments they proposed are being incorporated the covenant. It is quite true that a few senators urged the rejection of any ' treaty which should make the United States a member of a League of Nations. Virtually all of the Republican senators, however, limited ' their objections to certain specific and glaring flaws in the covenant. They pointed out these flaws so luminously that everyone except the president saw them. A mighty wave of protest went through the nation na-tion like a prairie fire. Former President Taft, who had taken the position at the very outset that the covenant was sacred and not to be changed except with reference to the Monroe doctrine, gradually saw the light in the east as he moved toward the Atlantic and became more and more patient with the critics of the covenant. It was to Democratic standpatters who met with defeat. They declared the president impeccable and his covenant infallible. They demanded that the United States senators close their eyes and blindl$ vote as the president commanded. The Republicans, however, insisted upon persuing the productive paths of constructive criticism. Wherever they went they found the people open to conviction. On every salient point they won the people to their side. Soon the reaction began to be felt at the Quai D'Orsay and the European delegates, including the British, who had hoped to bind the United States by a compact which provided for perpetual membership, commenced to show a spirit of conciliation. The authors of the covenant could no longer defend it as an inspired in-spired document sprung full-fledged from the brain of Jovian wisdom. The thirty-nine United States senators had made it look like a sieve. Hastily the covenant commission began to revise its work and consider the amendments of the Republican senators. Whether all of them will be adopted we do not wish to prophesy, but it is safe to say that the new covenant will contain an explicit provision for the withdrawal with-drawal of member nations from the league, a provision as to the exact powers and limitations of the executive council, a provision safeguarding safeguard-ing the Monroe doctrine, a provision that no member shall become a mandatory without its consent, and a provision which shall modify Article 10 requiring the "high contracting parties" to preserve against external aggression the territorial integrity and existing independence of all states, members of the league. The Democrats shut themselves up in an impenetrable fog and cried out that the ways of Wilson were just and that no fault was to be found in him. The Republicans, on the other hand, at once set about the task of intelligent criticism. The result has been the enlightenment even of Democratic sun-worshippers. "UNCLE JESSE" KNIGHT. AMONG the pioneers of the ox-cart days none is more esteemed than Jesse Knight of Provo, affectionately called "Uncle Jesse" by thousands of friends. J "Uncle Jesse" is seventy-four years of age this month. Although his age and his achievements of a strenuous career would seem to invite rest from business cares he is even now engaged in one of the most gigantic enterprises of the day the Tintic drain tunnel which is designed to release that whole territory from the subterranean waters which bar the way to the ore riches of the lowei strata. The Tintic tunnel is typical of "Uncle Jesse's" faith in the guiding spirit of an overruling providence. Perhaps more than any of the pioneers pio-neers he has held to the belief that a good motive brings success even in material affairs. His has been a strong confidence in the "destiny which shapes oui ends rough hew them how we will." Oftentimes heA has risked his money in enterprises which did not promise prompt and rich returns, holding fast to his belief that if he were helping his neighbors by giving them employment or developing the natural resources re-sources of the districts in which they made their homes his project could not fail. And his altruistic, optimistic faith has been confirmed by an almost unbroken series of successes. Occasionally, it is true, he has suffered a loss, but he was willing f.o take a loss to do a good. This should be an example to some of our employers who are at the head of mighty enterprises in Utah. Never was there a time when it was more essential to keep industry going .even in the face of losses. It is one of the safest methods of tiding over the period of readjustment and quieting unrest. Had .not Jesse Knight's father died while the family was making its way over the plains he would have arrived with the very first contingents con-tingents of Brigham Young's hosts. As it was the family was delayed at the Missouri river. His mother taught school to support herself I and seven children, but in the spring of 1848 she and the children I resumed the interrupted journey. The cart team consisted of one ox and a cow. The cow helped supply food for the little ones throughout the entire journey from the Missouri river to Salt Lake. Such was the courage, patience and noble spirit of sacrifice of the parents of the pioneers. No wonder, therefore, that the pioneers were strong of soul to s&hieve the work that was before them in the wilderness. In his early manhood Jesse Knight freighted between Salt Lake and Butte. Later he became extensively engaged in buying and sell- - ing cattle. It has commonly been supposed that his first success was in mining, but he was not a poor man when he began prospecting for ore. His first mine was in the Tintic district the celebrated "Humbug" "Hum-bug" mine, which produced vast treasures of lead and silver ore. How it came by that dubious name is an interesting story in itself. Jerry Roundy was superintendent of the Northern Spy mine in the same district. Jesse Knight applied to him to make out the notice of location and, incidentally, to take an interest in the property. While he was making out the notice Roundy laughingly said : "I don't want any interest in your humbug of a mine." Then he added: "By the way, what are we to name your mine?" "You have already named it," said Jesse Knight. "Call it the Humbuer mine." So the mine was designated, but it never was true to its name. From the beginning it proved anything but a humbug. Jesse Knight and his son, now Senator J. Will Knight, used wheelbarrows wheel-barrows to cart out the diggings from the tunnel. The drilling was done by two men Jesse Knight employed. This was his start in the mining business. Today he owns vast holdings in the Tintic district and elsewhere. . In fact, there are few men in the state who own as much mining property of various kinds. Near Helper is the Spring Valley mine, which is one of the great coal producers of the state. One of his altruistic ventures was the Knight woolen mill at Provo, where Mr. and Mrs. Knight and their children have made their home for many years. The mill had been started by Brig-ham Brig-ham Young to furnish employment for the increasing population and Jesse Knight took over the factory with the same object in view. It was a struggle always to make the enterprise profitable, but Mr. Knight has taken great satisfaction in it because it has paid scores of thousands of dollars in wages. In the first days of the war the mill w4' set afire and destroyed, but has been rebuilt and is being enlarged. ' At Springville one of the most up-to-date and efficient sugar mills in point of machinery and equipment is the property of Jesse Knight. It has enabled the farmers to plant more acreage in sugar beets and has given employment to many. This is but a glimpse at the life and achievements of one of the most beloved of the pioneers, a good and a great man. MOCKING THE POOR. WITH a patriotic feeling for their own pocketbooks certain of our highly esteemed citizens are supporting the campaigns which have for their slogans "own your own homes" and "dress up." Most of us would like to own our own homes and be dressed up not merely for one week, but all the time, but the problem in these days of trial and tribuation is to find the money. The backers of the campaigns are at the receiving end of both pleasant proposals. They believe that it is good to receive while uttering platitudinous piffle calculated . M to inspire the people to spend money. 1 We trust that we have not uttered sacreligious language M against our sacred business interests, but occasionally a word should M be said for that self-sacrificing, patient, enduring individual who may M be called "Mr. Common People." The poor man is not so enthusiastic j M about "owning his own home" as is the man who wants to sell the home. And as for "dressing up" the poor man feels that he must be ' M content for some time with beards on his cuffs and fur on his shoes., M Both campaigns are national in scope. They have been intro- j M duced into Salt Lake by well-meaning men who thought that what 11 was good for other communities ought to be good for Salt Lake. 11 But why should the poor man or the man in moderate circum- Tl stances build or buy a home now ? Today he must bear the peak load H not only of prices but of taxes. Never before, except for a few i months in 1918, have prices been so high as they are today. The ' H man who buys or builds his own home now must pay unexampled 11 prices for labor and materials and he must shoulder a burden of tax- 'H ation which probably will lose him his home after he has acquired it. H We have in mind a man who owns a little home and is striving to ' H pay for it on his salar.y of $90 a month. A short time ago a tax of I $1,200 for paving was added to his already crushing obligations. It is a certainty that he will never be able to pay for his home and that sooner or later he will lose it. " H This suggests another thought which we recommend to the con- H sideration of our citizens. The gas company is asking the Public H Utilities Commission for means of raising more revenue from the H householders. Higher rates and other methods are proposed, such, for example, as a meter charge. jH Why should not the gas company pay for the use of the streets. H The unfortunate man to whom we have alluded is taxed $1,200 for a ' H few feet of the street which he uses but seldom. Indeed the gas ' H company uses those few feet of thoroughfare more than he does. He H is charged $1,200 for the use and the gas company is charged nothing. jH Is it not about time that we try to ward off Bolshevism with more j H of that much-bepraised and little-practiced "square-deal?" iH t t yfi 5fc H WHAT IS AMERICA'S DUTY? M ALL eastern Europe is being flooded with Bolshevism. Only yes- 'H terday the barriers of the old civilization were carried away in H Hungary and the flood overran the country like the tidal waves of H barbarism which swept out of Asia in the early Christian ages and H submerged the civilizations of Greece and of Rome. :H In such a crisis what is the duty of Europe, of America? Let us H say that it is the duty of Europe to erect new barriers and to repair those which have been swept away. Let us say that it is the duty of H Europe to carry on ceaseless warfare against the Bolsheviki. What, H then, is our duty? Are we required to remain in Europe till the last H Bolshevik is dead? M No sooner has the covenant of a League of Nations been promul- 'M gated than nations which were to become members of the league are M threatened with extinction before their boundaries have even been H agreed upon. As a member of the league, under the present covenant, "'1 we would be required to maintain their territorial integrity and exist- H ing political independence. But what if they capitulate to Bolshe- H vism? What if Poland, Rumania, Czecho-Slovakia, Jugo-Slavia, and H Serbia adopt the Soviet form of government and commit themselves H to Russian anarchy and the social system of free love? Shall we H recognize them and admit them to the League of Nations and shall we H fight for them and their institutions? H In the present turbulent state of Europe would it not be better H to wait until European nations have established enduring govern- H ments? We must ask ourselves this question in all seriousness be- H cause we must know who are to be our associates in the league. H Democracy cannot consort with anarchy ; Christian civilization cannot H be at peace with those who scoff at all religion and morality. H If Europe promptly vanquishes Bolshevism or even compromises H with it the chance of establishing the league will be brighter, but the H i present indications are that revolution will not run its course in a u few months, nor, in fact, in a few years. America can still serve humanity, as of old, by its example. The ' Statue of Liberty will still stand in New York harbor and shed ever brightening rays across the world. It has been by example that we i have served the world best. It is not merely of recent years that we ' have preached liberty, justice and democracy. From the day that Hi r Paul Revere rode through every Middelsex village and farm and told H the waiting colonials that Governor Gates had at last determined to H ; crush liberty by force Americans have held before the world the ideals H of freedom and justice. In 1812 to 1814 we vindicated our right to sail H ships freely upon the seas without asking permission of any nation. H In the days of the Civil war we purged our body politic of the poisons H of slavery. We raised stricken and shackled Cuba from the blood- H welter of an ancient despotism and bade her gaze with unflinching Hj eyes upon the torch of liberty enlightening the world. HI Once more the clouds of barbarism are sweeping, as in the olden Hi days, from the borders of Asia into Europe. Let us keep that torch H 1 aloft so that its shafts of light may pierce those clouds and transfix the H ' zealots of anarchy and brutality with terror. And when Europe shall H have set her house in order, shall have made herself fit for true lib- H erty and justice, then we can join with her in some League of Nations H that will guarantee peace and pave the way for international justice. Hi It is our hope that we may be permitted to form that league H soon, but can we afford to form it amid the wreck of nations? You H may hear it said that if it is not formed now it never will be formed, H but is it not true rather that if it is formed now it will not endure? HI' At all events let America be true to itself, true to its old ideals, H' ready to help where help it may, but let it avoid entangling alliances H that will help neither itself nor others. H' Today we have a League of Nations, but it is a league for war. It H will be called upon to enforce the terms of peace and no doubt we shall H be asked to do our part. It is the plan to incorporate the League of H Nations in the treaty of peace and the argument is that peace can best H ' be maintained by the machinery of the league. But after all is said H and done we shall have merely an alliance for a long time, an alliance H to compel peace by force of arms. H In the nature of things a confederation which will maintain peace H; permanently throughout the world must be developed by gradual Ik processes that grow out of ever widening experience. fi WL isitjiujitsu? H Hi TF Japan is backing the colonization scheme of its nationals in Lower H' A California it is furnishing an object lesson which will teach the H American people something they should know about the present cov- Ht enant of the League of Nations. Hj By Article 10 of that covenant we undertake to preserve the ter- H ritorial integrity and existing political independence of nations, mem- H bers of the league. Hk Let us suppose that a controversy arises between Japan and the H United States over the tract of land a million acres in Lower Cali- ' fornia, the United States insisting that Japan must evacuate the land Hp and Japan declaring that the land has become a part of the Japanese H . empire. H ' Under the terms of the covenant we shall be required to submit Hi the controversy to the executive council of the league or to arbitra- H tion. If we submit it to the executive council we shall have but one H ' ' vote ; Europe and Asia will have eight. As the Monroe doctrine is a H ' purely American institution opposed by Europe and Asia the chances H ' are that the vote would be against us. But suppose that we elect to I i try the case in a court of arbitration. No rule of international law I ! sanctions the Monroe doctrine and the court probably would decide I against the United States on the ground that the Monroe doctrine was simply an American policy which international law could not " recognize. If we should decline to accept the decision of the council or of the court and should decide to go to war with Japan we would become an "outlaw" nation according to the covenant. All the other nations in the league would be bound to take sides against us and boycott us economically while lending every possible help to Japan. And if the court should decide that the Lower California colony was a part of the Japanese empire as it might become if Mexico ceded the land to Japan then the members of the league, under Article X would be compelled to wage war against the United States to preserve the territorial ter-ritorial integrity of Japan. As Nanki-Poo would say : "Here's a how-de-do ! "Here's a pretty mess-" THE PIONEERS. WE are reminded by the passing of so many of our noble pioneers lately that this mighty commonwealth is the work of their hands. As the state grows in greatness and prosperity we realize more and more the debt we owe to them. Had they been men of feeble mettle, like those first settlers of Virginia who were too proud to work, they would have been daunted by their task at the very outset. t The successful migration across the plains was a notable victory in itself. For men adventuring by themselves it would have b'een no , easy task ; for the pioneers, their wives and their children it was an achievement seldom equalled in all the history of pioneering. And after their arrival their work and their trials grew to titanic propor- i tion, but in their faith and fervor, in their courage and sturdy uprightness, up-rightness, they persevered and gained the triumph for themselves, for their children and for the state and nation. No wonder that the sons of such pioneers have become famous in the councils and offices of the state, in the halls of congress and in the cabinets of presidents. We can see them, aye and the women of Utah, achieving today in education, science, art, music and literature, not only here at home, but in the centers of culture. And here at home the successors of the pioneers continue the work of their fathers, making of Utah one of the soundest states of the union. They have not only made it rich and powerful but they have protected it from those immoral and anarchic influences which are destroying civilization in many other parts of the world. . READ THIS STORY. WE recommend to our readers a careful perusal of the story on page 5 relating to War Savings Stamps. This is one of the most profitable forms of investment ever offered by a government to its people. Under the able leadership of Mr. George T. Odell and his aides the work for the government has proceeded most satisfactorily, but there is still much work to do. The plans for 1919, in the campaign cam-paign for thrift education, are outlined in this story. The reader will be made acquainted with the great value of this form of investment and will be enthusiastic, we feel sure, in passing on the information to others. A great many governors and senators and politicians generally have taken to gallavanting around in airplanes. It looks as if &hat were to be an issue in the next campaign. Anybody who is afraid to do it must simply stay out of politics. If you want to rise in politics : soar in an airplane. T f K T To the families of all members of the Indian army who died in the service Queen Mary of England has sent her photograph. That's to make them laugh. The newest, agricultural implement is the airplane. An aviator has been hired as a scout on a great Montana wheat ranch. Tf Little Egypt, Grept Titain's latest adopted child, seems to be the most unruly of all. Giving American food to the Germans seems to make them wild. |