| Show WHAT HE WILL FIND The new Associate Justice of Utah has arrived and it is understood that he will I immediately begin the discharge of his judicial functions He will find in Utah much the same condition of things as exists ex-ists elsewhere so far as the usual controversies con-troversies between citizens are concerned con-cerned But there is another field hereupon here-upon which he will have to enter and where his path will not be strewn with roses and the incense which will be offered I of-fered him will be different from any that he may have heretofore inhaled That field upon which he must enter sooner or later is the religiopolitical field which is alternately fanned by the hot winda of religious fanaticism or the hot winds of antireligious hatred Vh never n-ever he shall touch the much vexed and ever vexing Mormon qcestion he will find that he has touched a thing filled with thorns If in the course of his judicial career he shall try a Mormon charged with violating the antipolygamy laws l and that man shall be found guilty he will be charged by the mass of the Mormon people with being a missionary judge whose sole object is to bring persecution per-secution upon an unpopular people If the same man who is charged with violating vio-lating the antipolygamy laws and he shall not be found guilty then the mass of the Gentile population of Utah will charge that the new Associate Justice i who sits in the First Judicial District is corrupt and has been bought by the Mormon church The picture painted is not a pleasant one hut we believe it to I be a true one There can be no middle way for a man in Utah affairs without condemnation and censure and this Judge Powers will find out He will also learn that the friends of today are apt to become the foes of tomorrow and the foes of today will be the friends of tomorrow to-morrow as he shall please either party by his conduct His I conduct per sc will have no weight in the matter but all will be judged from a partisan point He will find in Utah that there are two schools of politics and that I each of these schools has its own theory i I of the law and that when a judge does not decide in accordance with these theories the-ories he is either overriding the Constitution Consti-tution or he is unAmerican and alien He will find that eventually his every act will be judged upon this theory no matter how remote the consequences of that act may be from affecting I I af-fecting the problem in Utah for everything in Utah is either proMormon or antiMormon there is nothing with an individual merit This is rather a gloomy prospect for a man who has been used to look upon the law with a cold dispassionate eye without pas ion and without prejudice and who has always thought that in an impartial administration of justice without regard 10 parties personal or political lay his greatest claim to praise And so it should be and so it will be with those who see in an honest effort to enforce all laws impaitially the best warrant of an upright judge And such we believe our new Judge to be and trust that he will prove to Utah what his chief is proving himself the whole country the right man in the right place |
