OCR Text |
Show Dare Our Officials IT was perfectly natural and proper for Presi-1 Presi-1 dent Wilson to listen to a request made by the )( representative of all the people of Sweden, in regard re-gard to matters affecting a Swedish citizen in the United States. It was perfectly natural and proper for the president to transmit to the governor of Utah that request and to add his own request so long as there was no intimation of authority coupled cou-pled with it. It was perfectly natural and proper for Governor Spry to accede to that double request, re-quest, so long as nothing was demanded save a briof postponement of the execution of the laws. But this could not be accomplished without awakening the curiosity of all the people of this republic to know why proceedings so extraordi- nary were resorted to. This imposed a duty on W the Swedish minister to personally investigate the case that his report might lay the true facts before his own people; it, we think, should have caused the president to send ione learned juriBt to Utah to report to him the ieal situation, which report in turn should be made public, that the national na-tional curiosity might be satisfied. Neither the people outside of Utah, nor the president, nor the Swedish minister, nor the Swedish people know anything about the true status of the man Hillstrom. They should know authoritatively about him now. Citizenship isery sacred until by the acts of the citizen himself he withdraws that sanctity from himself. The man Hillstrom, V by his own acts and the importunities of others, has had drawn around him international interest. It is quite possible that many innocent people in Sweden have been led to believe that he has been put under the shadow of death because he is poor and friendless and a Swede. This thought the Swedish minister should personally per-sonally satisfy himself as right or wrong, and if wrong make a report to correct it. In the same way the minds of vicious men and hysterical women should be given the facts under un-der the authority of the direct agent of the president. pres-ident. , . This much is due to the executive and judi- cial authorities of Utah and indirectly to the people of Utah who. choose their own governors and judges. |