Show Democrats Come Home Men have come to Utah from every part of the United States whose political affiliations have always been with the Democratic party They were proud of its history fully believed in its loyalty and confident that its steady and conservative con-servative policy was needed in our public affairs They regarded the Democratic party as specially charged with the duty of protecting the weak as against the strong the laborer as against the monopolist mon-opolist the local as against the general governing power But there seemed to be no room for a Democrat in Utah Newcomers found two local political parties One of these is named the Peoples Party and is the political organization of the leading church It was and is simply a church party organized to support a church its caucuses very generally held in church buildings the officers of the church and the leaders and officeholders of the party were always the same persons A man belongs to the Peoples Party because he belongs to the church and because he is a member of the church he is under an added obligation to belong to the Peoples Peo-ples Party All the Mormons who come from the Southern States of our Union especially have found this an onerous and humiliating burden Accustomed to the absolute freedom of Dem cratic conventions to their devotion de-votion to the best interests of the whole land and their constant recognition recogni-tion of the right of individual judgment they have felt outraged by having their tickets made up for them by the priesthood priest-hood and dictated to them from the pulpit pul-pit NonMormon Democrats were no better bet-ter off The liberal party is the opposite in most respects of the peoples party Nominally it is an antichurch party in reality it is composed of nonMormon Republicans and Democrats led officered officer-ed and controlled by or through the Republican Re-publican administrations at Washington The policy dictated by the Republican leaders has been a simple onekeep the Mormon question open furnish the Republican Re-publican party an issue give us another club with which to pound the Democrats It is fair to say that there has not been a time within the past twenty years when the Republican party could not have settled the Mormon question had it been for the interest of that party to dispense with it as a national issue We say therefore to the Democrats Come Home You have no place in a priestridden patty nor in a party which uses you for dishonest ends Say you are not Liberalsyou are not of the church party you are squarely and honestly Democrats Demo-crats Had there been a Democratic party in Utah years ago our Territory might now be a peaceful loyal and prosperous pros-perous American State Form Democratic Clubs in every village and town Take the platform of the Utah Democratic Club and give one evening every week to debatiiif its winninlAs lino o i i j by line and paragraph by paragraph Adopt a brief series of bylaws providing simply for officers and meetings and then have open debates to teach in Utah the first principles of government Make Gentile Jew and Mormon alike welcome Apply no religious testwe have had too much of that If you can find three voters to plant the seed of Democratic principles let them organize as a Democratic Demo-cratic Club and put themselves in communication com-munication with their friends in this city Do your utmost to bring out Utahborn young menthere is good stuff in the sons of the pioneers The work is a noble one it is worthy of your time and means and it will surely result well for our Territory and our country coun-try |