Show THE WAY TO REFORM Repetition said Napoleon is the strongest strong-est figure known to rhetoric and it maybe may-be said that by repetition alone call the attention at first be riveted If repetition must first rivet the attention so must learning by rote be the forerunner of learning by reason and this is as true of political ogress as of intellectual progress pro-gress while freedom to act and time in which to act alone arc equal to the task of accomplishing the acceptance of right and desirable ideas in any direction Believing firmly and honestly as we do the truth of the above observations it is for this among other reasons that we are opposed to a commission for Utah With those who are advocating the need and calling for the establishment of a commission we agree in great measure as to the sorrowful condition of politics in Utah but from them we differ as to the method by which our political condition is to be reformed To those who desire a I commission here and we will frankly admit that we do not believe that all of them are seeking the spoils which we think would follow the establishment of a commission there seems but one way in which the reform sought can be effected that way is the withdrawal of all powers of legislation from all the people of Utah and in place thereof the imposition of a commission to exercise them From our dilemma they think this our only outlet and we believe that to do so is to dam up our only outlet The natural cndwe had almost said aim of a commission is to become an incubus upon the people to lie the initiative and the support of a lawful tyranny to attempt to throw off which would be deemed treason Would not a commission be justified in saying they were bad when we came but have become much worse and for our very safety we need greater and more unquestioned unques-tioned and unquestionable power And this they would say rightfully and truth fully for was not despotism ever calling for more power to crush the evils which it created True it is alas I too true that the evils from which we are today suffering in Utah arc the evils of our own creation and that we have created them is a reason why we should reform them ourselves Religious and exclusive the people of Utah have made their religion their politics and to differ politically from the l majority has been heretofore to deny a 1 religious right to reign and when the law has claimed the supremacy to which it is entitled the Constitution has been invoked to show a religious right to a civil supremacy From this theory have arisen our evils and to controvert and change this theory is our object This theory and the exclusiveness of the people peo-ple who have held it have been the sole cause of the present condition of things here in Utah So far from the central power of the General Government have we been that an unprecedented centralization centrali-zation has grown up in a Territory which has always loudly protested its love for local selfgovernment The protest has always been in favor of things as they are and not as they should be Things as they are in Utah are as they were in Europe during the Middle Ages when the Church was all and the State if anything was but a means to enhance and uphold the Church The Church of the Middle Ages in Europe is a thing of the past unless it be in Spain and the Church of the Middle Ages in Utah is fast becoming a thing ofI I the past and people arc beginning to recognize that church interference in civil affairs is a source of continual I I trouble and is more reprehensible than beneficial The beginnig of this recognition re-cognition is the beginning of the reform we all so much desire and when people are beginning to see this fact and to know that in the exercise of the right of control by each citizen of the affairs of the commonwealth is the true guaranty of liberty to all the church member and the nonchurch member is it not bad policy to close the avenue by which he may show that he recognizes this fact and intends to profit by it To the mind which has ever been guided in political affairs is it not shutting out the light which begins to enter to supplant the power which has guided and controlled by another power to guide and control it in the future although the new power may bs perfectly legal and lawful and for its exercise has an hundred hun-dred precedents To a commission there is the objection and a grave objection it is that it may equally be the instrument for propogating error as well as for the inculcation in-culcation of true and right ideas of government gov-ernment and is not Goodwin right when he says Those instruments will always be regarded by the discerning mind as suspicious which may be employed with equal prospect of succes on both sides of every question u uououess it win take a longer time to make recognized the theories of our government gov-ernment and our rights under it by argument ar-gument and persuasion than to take away nil rights and have things done from without on the theory of a commission but if shall have we a commission we shall be no nearer true ideas then than now We close this article with an extract ex-tract from the works of the writer above quoted and believe that his method is the true one and as such commend it to the deliberate and thoughtful consideration considera-tion of all parties The true instruments for changing the opinions of men are argument and persuasion per-suasion The best security for an advantageous advan-tageous issue is free and unrestricted discussion dis-cussion In that field truth must always prove the successful champion If then I i L t I we would improve the social institutions I of mankind we must write we must argue we must converse To this business busi-ness there is no close in this pursuit there should be no pause Every method should be employed not so much positively posi-tively lo allure the attention of mankind or persuasively to invite them to the adoption of our opinions as to remove every restraint upon thought and to throw open the temple of science and the I field of inquiry to all the world |