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Show I S B ITil SfflLD U 1 IT BE POPULAR If ira . 1 Si , Editor The Standard: ; P ..III I hand you herewith an open letter M jj ;L : .to voters, which I will thank you to ' f r ? ' give space in your paper: ' 5 ;f I To the voters who are members v : j' of the Mormon church: J" 'TA It is keenly to be regretted that I I ' '4f some of tlie good people of Utah jjfj seem to have entirely forgotten ; i ':m n that but 26 years ago, under the n i ' (fi Republican administration of ; i j jj r President Benjamin Harrison, the j bh entire Mormon people came very 4 ! ' F deprived of their right to vote and ' I J j - hold office in the (then) terri- ; i I j; tory of Utah; that such a thought ' ; ' i fi as trusting the people with state- i ! ' j s hood had never been entertained ; t by congress, and that it required ! U the most sacred and unqualified t ft $ promises from the leaders of the j h Mormon church, followed by years j I p probationary work, before Utah j iL "was allowed admission into the i ilaC Union of States. The objection IjH of the people of the states was to i gin the religious beliefs and practices , Ell of the Mormon people. t ) m At that time, and for years aft- UP er, we were despised and illy I a j;, spoken of, at home and abroad. " j Ajlft Now that the tone of public opin- m ion has changed, our state has 1 fljj ' become somewhat prominent and Rj we are not so frequently taunted ffl over our religious opinions, we ( ' tR seem to be forgetting our past and k some of us are permitting our- 1 JlJl selves, in the heat of a political H 111; campaign, to oppose the election ' of Simon Bamberger, for gover- jjjjfj nor, upon the ground that he is Ojjl a Jew. Of all the people in the j. Jill world the Mormon people should ( ! j In be the last to raise such a ques- ( JHf tion, for they were as sorely dc- . my spised and as unjustly smitten as jjffl j they could have been, because of Jjfgf' their creed. Further, the Mormon ,, m people pride themselves upon be- ij M ing descendants of that grand old I M patriarch, familiarly spoken of as j H P "Father Abraham," .and one of his fl IP sons, a distinguished brother of Judah. And they also claim close JJ relationship to the Prince of , m Peace, that great leader and ' 1 ' IP teacher of mankind, whoso life '' jjp they are ever striving to emulate, who was born in tho manger at y Bethlehem and who lived and died 6) 'a Jew. In one of His parables A our Divine Master used tho follow- v ing language: ft "O, tliou wicked servant, I for- A gave thee all that debt because V thou dosiredst me. "Shouldest not thou also have a had compassion on thy fellow V servant, even as I had pity on 0 thee?" A Fellow members of the church, A and fellow citizens, let me urge y you not to bo so inconsistent as ft to oppose Mr. Bamberger's elec- A tion because he is a Jew. For tho V past twenty years we have elected (a all kinds of Gentiles some rich, A some poor, some taxpayers, some Y non-taxpayers, some efficient, w some incompetent, somo moral A and others grossly immoral to x the highest legislative and judi- w cial positions within our gift, and e have assigned political expedlen- a cy as our reason (sometimes ex- y cuse) for so doing. Now that the A first onnortunitv is presented to vote for a Jew, some of our members mem-bers are vigorously protesting against our votes being cast for him. Wo have strenuously insisted in-sisted that the race or creed of Mormon candidates for office should not be raised against them, and we should be just as insistent that prejudice against the race or creed of any other candidate should not be permitted. Mr. Bamberger is reputed to be a wealthy man but his wealth has been honestly accumulated by his own untiring energies, covering the past half century, and within our own commonwealth. We have seen his clean, modest and unassuming unas-suming life, liis steadfastness of purpose and material assistance in building up our state and his consistent application of tho motto: mot-to: "Live and let live." Mr. Bamberger is a large taxpayer; I understand that he pays over thirty thousand dollars of taxes a year. Is it possible that he can have less interest than any one of us in securing a clean, honest and efficient administration of the affairs of state? Certainly not. He stands upon his party's platform and pledges and has given giv-en sacred promise to fulfill each and every one of them. Ho has no disposition to evade or to repudiate repu-diate any of them he could not afford to do so, for it would bo political suicide for him if he should. He is a bright and successful suc-cessful business man; his word is as good as his bond, and he well knows what deception and treachery on his part would mean to him. Let no race or religious preju- dice enter into this campaign; let us treat Mr. Bamberger as we want the Jews to treat Mormon candidates for office. ' Sincerely yours, (Signed.) CHARLES C. RICHARDS. Ogden, November 4, 1916. fin |