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Show WRECKERS A T WORK IN THE I t REPUBLICAN PARTY I TTOR some weeks we have .found frequent occasion to chastise "de-1 "de-1 1 f IT serving Democrats" for 'the good pfthe state and the sanctifica-K sanctifica-K Jl V on tner sous And i5owlthaf underserving Republicans have help he-lp gun an insurrection which has escaped the attention of the daily news-' news-' , papers, an insurrection on narrow, perilous, prejudiced and provoca-i provoca-i ive principles, we shall not hesitate to employ the editorial lash for the general welfare of Utah. jj & Insurgency often is praiseworthy. To be a rebel is respectable 1 1 if one's purpose is respectable, but to be a rebel either because of bad i i motives or bad judgment is to invite attack and merit defeat. i Perhaps we can best characterize the new movement for domina- i tion of the Republican party in Utah by saying that its promoters ' l are making their appeal in the name of the "young Mormons." In i ? their folly they would revive a conflict which the wise leaders on both sides tacitly agreed to terminate some years ago. (k Politically, socially and otherwise the state has been a delightful place to live in since that time. It has been an era of good feeling t I whicn all of us have enjoyed and which we should be loth to see end. Yet there are those among us who, to gain their own objects and in this instance one of the objects is the control of the Republican party ( woujd proclaim the golden age at an end, stir once again the black and poisonous waters of religious prejudice and renew a struggle 1 ( which brought only hatred and heartbreaks. t f One of the protagonists of this movement, having assumed lead- i j ership, deems it necessary to intervene in all Republican affairs. j I There was, for instance, that affair of the Lincoln day dinner. We t hear on reliable authority that Herbert R. MacMillan, beyond ques- I tion one of the ablest lawyers in the West, without fear and without x I reproach, was proposed for toastmaster at a meeting of Republicans. i J Up rose busy "Mr. Protagonist",( who desires the Republican party f run for the benefit of the "young Mormons," and announced that he i could see no good reason why Mr. MacMillan should be chosen a . I r . Republican toastmaster "before he had warmed his feet at the Re- ' fl publican fireside," or words to that effect. H For the benefit of those who are-not familiar with all the in- H tricacies of our politics we took the trouble to learn what the in- M nuendo was meant to convey. Mr. MacMillan once was a Democrat, M but repented, duly recanted and joined the Republican party. It was H long, long ago before the war. In fact, he became a Republican M before Mr. Taft ran for president in 1912. A little further inquiry H brought us the rather amazing information that it was in that very H same year "Mr. Protagonist" deserted the Republican party and began H to swim around as a minnow in Progressive waters. Evidently, there- H fore, he believes that he can sit at the Republican fireside and have H his sins "burnt and purged away" in a much shorter time than is re- H quired for the warming of Mr. MacMillan, for Mr. MacMillan was H sitting comfortably at the old fireside while his critic was cavorting t H about strenuously with those rebels who brought defeat on the party. H "Mr. Protagonist" evidently desires to make a reputation for him- H self by tilting at giants and, therefore, he selected Herbert MacMillan H for his victim. In this way he has brought himself unenviable no- H toriety. H The Lincoln day dinner incident is cited merely by way of inch- H eating the meanness and smallness of the faction which has set out in H the name of the "young Mormons" to have us all at each other's M throats as in the old, ridiculous days. Unless the calm judgment of H the really capable leaders prevails this faction may accomplish its H sinister and altogether disastrous purpose. No greater injury could H be inflicted on the Republican party at this time than to give such H men, acting in the name and on behalf of their patron saint, dominant M influence in Republican councils. It would rejoice and hearten the M Democrats beyond measures, for it would sow the seeds of defeat from H one end of the state to the other. M Mt J them to wage war with a pitilessness and brutality unequaled in mod-Hip mod-Hip crn times. Hi I Let us take the case of Professor Delbrucck himself. Is not this He, ' the same Professor Delbrucck who said of Bismarck: HE "Blessed be the hand that falsified the Ems dispatch?" Hfr The Ems dispatch, in its falsified form, drove the French into a H frenzy which produced the France-Prussian war. The sequel of that H-jjL conflictwas the cession of Alsace-Lorraine to Germany. Hp Here we have a German professor who, for many years, has been H calling down the blessings of heaven upon German hypocrisy and HF alschood and who boasted that Alsace-Lorraine Was won with a lie. H Listen now to his polemic against the French, uttered as if he were a HI night of Arthur's round table and were about to set out in search of the Holy Grail. He says : H "Another example: France plainly indicates that it intends to H take away the Germany territory of Saarbrucken, with its coal fields. H Saarbrucken has more than half a million purely German inhabitants. B This territory was ceded to France through the first Paris peace of B 1814, but only a year later was given back to Germany in the second B Paris peace. The inhabitants had unanimously in repeated appeals B and petitions, especially in a great memorial, prayed for 'liberation M from the French yoke and reunion with the German fatherland,' and H had solemnly vowed to do everything they could to serve this end. H This land belonged to Germany for a thousand years, excepting the H very brief temporary periods of French domination. Hj "The problem of nationality is much clearer and more certain H! nere tnan m Alsace-Lorraine. Even if the German portions of Alsace- Bl Lorraine are given to France, it can safely be prophesied that a Ger- H man 'irredenta' will spring up there very soon and threaten the peace Hi the world. H "That is true to a still greater degree in the case when territory Hi like Saarbrucken, where nothing whatever that is French exists, is B claimed by France out of naked greed for power in opposition to the B principle of the people's right to self-determination." B Concluding his lofty appeal to those higher humanities which his B gang of pedants have scorned until now lie laments because the B French have billeted so many colored troops in the occupied regions of M Germany. We do not desire to comment on a situation with which we B, are unfamiliar, but all the world knows what the Germans did in B Belgium and northern France. The unutterable atrocities of the Ger- H man soldiery during more than four years may be traced unerringly H back to pedants of the Delbrueck type. We might forgive the ignor- H. ant peasants or even the educated lunatics of the kaiser's army, but H how can we forgive the men who distorted the mental vision of a B whole people, turned their moral and humanitarian impulses awry and H sent the pride-maddened "blonde beasts" to slaughter and slaught- H ering? H What presumption such a man must have to don the pious mask H of virtue and sweet tolerance and appeal to the human reason he H helped debase, to the human soul which he and his ilk strove to make , H mto the image and likeness of the habitants of hell. H DONT ANNOY CRIMINALS. IF you would believe our representatives, F. E. Morris and R. E. Currie, the most approved modern method of getting along with B criminals is not to make them angry. B "Don't pass laws against them or they will become highly indig- Bi nant and try to get even." B This, we think, is a fair description of the argument employed by W these Solons when the were striving to prevent the passage of a H law faimed at criminal syndicalism and sabotage. So tender are fl Messrs. Morris and Currie of the I. W. W. and the anarchists that H they would not disturb them at their merry atrocities. We fancy that B if Messrs. Morris and Currie should stroll by a farm and discover an HHH L W. W. hamstringing the horses and throwing phosphorus bombs H into the haystacks they would not inform the proprietor for fear of HH incurring the displeasure of the vandal. Perhaps they might even HHH -' . - -par"-- nfcn-f ,. . S proffer their aid to the despoiler so that he would have a more frijendly J 3 feeling toward honorable and honest men. ' l ,J We might ask whether Morris and Currie took an oath to support 1 law or anarchy? 1 But perhaps Messrs. Morris and Currie will cry out that; we aVe 1 r distorting their arguments. Let us see. We quote from one of thVi 1 ' daily papers : " V "They contended that it was dangerous and untimely to TfURL I DEFIANCE and PROHIBITORY LEGISLATION at the I. W. W., Vg Bolsheviki and such agitators at this time." Our forefathers hurled defiance at criminals for many centuries. That is one reason why Messrs. Morris and Currie were peacefully elected to the legislature at an orderly ballot. Were it not so Messrs. Morris and Currie, on the day that they uttered their fantastic argu- 1 ments, might have been pursued through the wilds of the Wasatch by i natives clad in skins and carrying stone hammers. They would have I us return to the stone age when the man of violence, the man whoJ I ruled by brute strength made himself the master of his group or tribe. g If there is any validity to the argument we might as well abolish M - our police department, for occasionally a policeman will hurl defiance Jt at a criminal and thus cause him much annoyance. In a fine, brotherly Ifyffl 1 spirit Morris and Currie would have us all cease from annoying crim- Mr J I inals. Let the I. W. W. hurl bombs in their playful way while we wl- applaud and encourage them from points of vantage at the tops of T telegraph poles or the roofs of skyscrapers. But let us refrain from I annoying them when thevy are so busy providing us with entertain- I ment. A I The attitude of Morris and Currie recalls to mind a country c?r- i respondent who once sent us a story about a man named Thompson I who crept up behind, his enemy in the main street of a small tjWn I and beat him to death with a club. The correspondent conclude'! his V report with these words: J "Mr. Thompson is being severely censured." 5C 5J 5j H ( THE SEATTLE STRIKE. THE Seattle strike could succeed only on the theory that the Mer- ican people have turned Bolshevist. ' -' "' . It was foredoomed to collapse because the American people believe be-lieve in obtaining their reforms by constitutional means. The Seattle strike was an appeal to the spirit of revolution and the American people will never sanction revolution until they are convinced that their government has failed. They will endure many 1 ills before they consign to the scrap heap a government which has 1 made this the most powerful nation in history and has provided peace- ' ful and orderly means of obtaining all those reforms whiclvthc judg- ment and conscience of the majority approve. I The Bolshevists who took control of the labor unions in Seattle, I overriding the conservatives, wildly imagined that because revolution g had thriven in Russia, it would assert its supremacy in the United 1 States. Their mistake consisted in believing that Americans were as J dissatisfied with their government and their social and industrial systems as were a people who had just thrown off the yolk of an ancient an-cient and intolerable slavery. The workmen of the United States, in the army of the United States, had just finished a war for justice. The Bolshevists launqhed the Seattle strike to enthrone injustice and anarchy. They did not have the sympathy of union labor. For a few days they simply had its grudging assent. The strike was a pretended protest against what had come to be known as the "Macy award." It was an award by which both sides had agreed to abide. It was a contract with the government. Under it the workers were given $4.46 for unskilled labor and from that up . to $7 for an eight-hour day. They demanded $6 a day for common la- .1 bor and $1 an hour for skilled labor, and a forty-four hour week. ) During more than four months the Bolshevists went about among i the shipyard workers counseling rebellion. The conscience of the workers, so to speak, was worn down and weakened by a constant appeal to their passions. They lost sight of the fact that justice required re-quired them to abide by their contract and at length, in Seattle, the I Ml agitators carried their point. The men walked out and more than 50,000 members of tqther unions declared a "sympathy strike." Never I had a strike been so misnamed. The strikers, because of their in-I in-I justice, had earned no sympathy among the people generally. Public i opinion1 was dead against them. Even the members of the union were ""troubled by bad consciences and began to fall away from the strikers J almost at the ouset. They felt that they were in dishonorable com-r com-r pany, that they wWe assisting anarchists and revolutionists. It was all a wretched, deplorable piece of business. Men who received $3 and $3.50 a day were striking to help men who received $6 and $7 and who demanded more in defiance of a sacred compact. At a time when the labor market was overstocked, when returning sol- diers were looking for jobs, the union members of Seattle, against I their better judgment, inaugurated the strike in weak submission to a I band of international anarchists. 1 Some of the week-kneed citizens of Seattle, forseeing a bitter 1 fjfight and paralysis of all kinds of business, appealed to the federal J" government to surrender. m Never could such an appeal have been more untimely. To sur- rl'f render then would have been to invite a reign of Bolshevism every-f every-f ii where. It would have been a concession to injustice and would have jf j set a precedent for I. W. W. and Bolshevist aggression. jy Fortunately Seattle had a mayor who knew the real temper of the people and who was resolute in the enforcement of law and I order. His intrepid, unyielding attitude deeply impressed workers I who knew that they were supporting an unjust cause. While he re-I re-I mained firm they wavered. I Director General Piez of the Emergency Shipping Board, replying , to the appeals of the timid, had said : I "The government is not so badly in need of ships that it will com' promise on a question of principle." There was a profound significance in that sentence. It meant that the government would not wreck the Ship of State even though it could obtain a thousand ships by compromising with anarchy. The moral loss could not be compensated for in steel ships. What doth it profit a nation it it gain a merchant marine and lose its soul? Germany Ger-many lost its soul and in the end it lost everything. 1 A similar injustice was attempted in Butte. Although the men worked by agreement on a sliding scale some of them went on a strike when their wages jwere lowered to conform to the price of copper. It was another case of triumphant anarchy. Even such a radical as Moyer gasped atsuch immorality. It was something new even to his fighting nature, something so unreasonable and unfair that he hastened to denounce the infamy. The old spirit of Americanism is not dead. It does not even sleep. The doctrine of the square deal is still valid among us. I FALLEN HEROES. THAT the returned soldier should be given the best the country affords af-fords is beyond even the wish of any of us to dispute. On the I pother hand the public expects something of the soldier. Many of us have been amazed to find among the soldiers l:hose who say : "The government owes me a living at the work I want" Most of the soldiers who talk like that don't want work. They want to be supported without working. It is a painful truth that is beginning to impress itself on all the communities in the land. We had heard from some of the writers on the war that war either made or unmade the moral character of the soldiers. Now we understand what they meant. We have in mind two young men who went from Utah after sev- eral years of work at farming. When -they returned they easily ob-) ob-) tained their old jobs, but found the work so little to their liking that ,' they quit after half a day of nibbling at their tasks. We have been J informed that their point of view is entertained by many of the men back from the war. If the soldiers of the Civil war had harbored such destructive ideas the West would still be a desert. Because the veterans of the Civil war were constructive and because they were jiot too lazy t,o address themselves to any of the tasks that lay before them in the fl wilderness the West is great, rich and progressive. It is sad to see a soldier transformed into a tramp. It is a moral ll breakdown which most of us did not expect from those who went out M so gallantly and bravely to defend their country. M We hasten to say that we are not attaching this odium to the M vast majority of the demobilized soldiers. Many of them have not H been unable to obtain work. Some of them those of the strongest M moral fibre have taben whatever work offered even though it was M not on a level with what they had before they went away. These 'M men, everything else being equal, will make a success of life. But the '' soldier who has placed himself morally on the level of the tramp will ' remain a tramp. The government owes nothing to such men. M Of course there are men returning from the struggle of nations M whose minds have been enlarged, who thrill with new ideas and big M conceptions, men, let us say, whose vision will carry them far in new fl vocations. Perhaps a lad from a Utah farm who has been on the firing M line, in Paris or in Russja may become a great artist or writer, M perhaps a ship owner or a manufacturer of airplanes. If such be his HI destiny no one would wish that he should be doing the work of the 11 farm, but we may be sure that if such be his destiny he is willing to spend laborious days and studious nights to attain his goal. M i l p BETWEEN WAR AND PEACE. H WE are getting into a state of needless alarm over the industrial H situation. It is well to be serious; foolish to be panic- jH stricken. H The United States will be rich beyond our dreams a decade or a H generation hence. What does that signify for us? How can that help H us now? The answers to these questions are not far to seek. H When all the people invested in Liberty bonds they felt assured H that the future would take care of their investments, that there was H no chance of loss unless the United States was defeated. H The United States has won. Its future is certain. The future of H its farms, its factories, its mines is certain. Yet we see all around H us timorous men capitalists and laborers who think that the future H is insecure. H When the individual capitalist is compelled to readjust his busi- H ness and faces immediate losses he loses heart. His faith in the future H weakens, although he knows, if he stops to reason, that the future H must necessarily be more prosperous than the past. The individual laborer, temporarily unemployed, imagines that the country is on the verge of bankruptcy. H If our optimism were founded merely in a desire to enthuse it would be futile, but our hopes have sound reasons for being tri- M umphant over our doubts and fears. H We must not lose sight of the fact that the process of feeding aid M clothing ourselves, one hundred million selves, will continue without M cessation. Capital must be invested, and men must toil to keep this fl process in operation. M But it will be argued that there is such a thing as business stag- M nation, that there have been hard times in the past. M If we cast a retrospective eye over the hard times of the last M hundred years we shall find that they began in lack of confidence, in M a panic that frightened capital away from investment in enterprises. M The average business man, seeing the whirlwind approach, rushed into M his storm cellar, thinking that his whole state had been blown away H and he did not come out for months. He did not regain his courage H for years. The hard times were the result of this obsession, this lack H of confidence in the future. H Business men, we fancy, are accepting the period of readjustment H with more courage than of old. They know from experience that the H timt o work hardest is in the period of stagnation. 1 is a temporary H state and by good doctoring can soon be removed. H In the hard times of the nineties neither public officials nor busi- H ness 'men did much to relieve stagnation. If someone proposed that a (H few millions be expended n roads or other public works the egq- H fe' nomists held up their hands in horror. It was a false system, they mm , said, and would lead to worse disaster. Wkk i We have a larger vision today. Knowing that the future is eerily eer-ily tain we are simply bonding that future now. We are spreading its Ik profits, by a retroactive process, back to our own time. We are IS mortgaging the future in the sure knowledge that the future will be mm able to pay. Bf Where shall we find the money? some will ask. Money is the Bf cheapest thing in the market. It is locked up in public or private BL' strong boxes. It is to be had whenever investment becomes alluring. BIL During the war we loaned our money, or most of it, to ourselves and Bp spent it among ourselves. H- Government federal, state, county and city is not waiting for B j investments to prove alluring. Government is planning extensive B s public improvements throughout the land. Bonds will be issued so H' that the future may take care of the present. In a word, government f forgoes profits in the present so that the workers shall not be idle and H trusts to the future to square the debt. H Why is not the governmental system desirable in private busi- H ness? In Butte where thousands' of men are idle, the heads of a H copper company say: H "We do not need to keep the mines open because we cannot sell H ; our copper, but we wish to keep them open to provide jobs, for re- H turned soldiers and' those who wish to work." H It is to be hoped that they will carry out this plan. It will not pay B them in immediate profits, but it will result in a future prosperity m which will be much more extensive than will be possible if millions are M unemployed during the period of readjustment. B But the employers cannot accomplish the task by themselves. B They must have the co-operation of labor. Both must be satisfied B that the future is certain, that a little self-sacrifice now in the way of B reduced profits and wages, will be fully compensated for when the B war ends. B "When the war ends" sounds odd, 'but it describes the situation B exactly. The war has not ended. War measures are still in force in B this country and in Europe and other parts of the world. The normal B course of business cannot return until the peace treaty is signed. B .Here we have the explanation of the present lull in business. We B are between war prosperity and peace prosperity. When peace actu- B ally comes there will be a revival of business all over the globe and he B is sadly lacking in vision who cannot see that the wants of mankind, B long limited by war, will demand a production never before ap- B proached in human history. H If we but maintain our tranquillity and create work during the H) period of readjustment, we shall tide ourselves over safely and even Hi prosperously into the golden times ahead. M H( GOVERNOR AT CRISIS OF HIS CAREER. AS the closing years of his administration begin Governor Bam- berger undoubtedly is interested in adding to his credit and H fame. He wishes to retire from public office amid the plaudits of his H fellow citizens. However futile and absurd the record of the legisla- H tive branch of the government the governor can still win for himself H a personal triumph if he acts with circumspection. H The governor now stands at the crisis of his public career. H Within a few days he will lay the foundations of enduring fame or H commit blunders that will indelibly mar his record as chief executive. H The friends and foes of the governor are awaiting his appoint- H1 ments with eagerness. If he blunders his foes will rejoice. If he Ml comports himself with wisdom his friends will feel that he has in- B. sured the -success of his administration and will be content. 1 These are times that test the character of men in public office. B In times of less crucial significance the appointment of small or unfit H men on the various state boards is apt to escape public attention. H Unless they are grossly dishonest they even avoid serious criticism. B But in times such as these, gigantic times which hold the pros- H perity of the state and of the nation within their grasp, the governor's b appointments are awaited with keen interest. The records of his mM appointees will be scrutinized in the most critical spirit for in'effici- encics. If his appointees fail, or if they do not conduct their offices I with vision and with superior ability, the governor will be held re- 1 sponsible and will find himself the target for justified attacks. I Above all else men should be selected for their unwavering, un- I compromising Americanism. The state demands men whose patri- otism has been pure and lofty, men to whom our educational insti-"jyJ tutions may be entrusted with- confidence in their loyalty, men to whom any of our institutions can be confided with the assurance that the administration of them will be conservative, sane, honest and efficient. It is easy to make the mistake of selecting the popular man, the one who has a personal or political pull, the ringster or the fixer. Such a man is often able, but unless an appointee is high-minded, honest and conservative he will bring discredit upon his superiors in I office. 1 The governor should be particularly careful to avoid the aspiring 1 Bolsheviki, the men who feel themselves bound to some particulajjlfj class and who will administer their offices with a view only to the I interests of that class. Just as the legislature should avoid class leg- I islation so the governor should avoid placing in public office those who m will feel themselves responsible, not to the people generally, but to a I clique, faction or class. Never has there been such great need of the 1 official whose public acts shall be guided by a sense of responsibility V to the public as a whole. 1 The governor, therefore, should shun the purely personal appeals I of friendship or political or business affiliation and should be influ- I enced solely by th element of merit. So far as possible he should I appoint the big men of the state, not necessarily those who have gained notoriety, but those whose outlook is big and whose purposes B are beyond mere selfish interest. I These counselings of perfection may be regarded by some as 1 mere commonplaces, without life or meaning. We are quite sure that I the governor will not regard them as such. We feel that he will un- I derstand the necessity of meeting a great crisis with sure judgment, 1 that he will realize not only that the well-being of the state depends upon his appointments but that his own record will be measured by them. T T K "K THEIR HYMN OF HATE. WHEN the devil's brood of anarchists were being shipped from I Hoboken to Ellis island for deportation they united in singing I this refrain: 1 "To hell with the United States." I It was a most appropriate sentiment for brutal, low-browed and bestial aliens whom we had harbored far too long. There is nothing, I there can be nothing in common between such men and the American people. We might as well expect to make ourang-outangs, gorrillas or rattlesnakes good citizens of the United States as to make creatures of this character good citizens. Between them and us their, is an irrepressible conflict. , That the federal authorities have finally declared war upon them is a natural development that could not be escaped. As we have insistently in-sistently pointed out in these columns the Bolsheviki and the I. W. W., by their very doctrines, have proclaimed a standing declaration of war against all orderly society. Ours is one of the most highly-organized, one of the most successful representative governments. Law, order and liberty go hand in hand and bring satisfaction to a people who know how to cherish this inheritance from their forefathers. In the midst of our successful development aliens with' no more self-control than is possessed by wolves or tigers, aliens who do not understand us or our institutions, aliens who have inherited the phys-W ical and moral dirt of a thousand years, who have known only slavery and the lash of a master, come to us in their madness of revolt and try to assume the role of leadership. They ask us to emulate the unutterable un-utterable follies and atrocities of the Russian revolution. For Lincoln, Lin-coln, Roosevelt and Wilson they would substitute such exemplars as Lenine and Trotzky. |