OCR Text |
Show K GIVE PLAIN STATEMENTS. Utah is always agitated over something, some-thing, and at times this agitation assumes as-sumes new shape and comes forth in wild excitement. For the past two weeks the McMurrin-Collin affair has been the j cause of the extraordinary" agitation. This agitation was followed by the advent of a number of soldiers and the holding in i readiness of quite a large number of troops along the lines of transit leading to Utah. This was followed by investigations investiga-tions of the situation by the Federal authorities au-thorities and the City Council. What the Governor reported as the result of his investigation in-vestigation we do not know ; but the City Council, as the result of their investigation, investiga-tion, reported that everything in Utah was peace on earth and good will towards man. Possibly this is so ; we hope it is. Now, why did not the local press give a plain statement of the McMurrin-Collin affair? They did not, but on the contrary con-trary the press of the Mormons, the Xeivs and the Herald, and the press of the anti-Mormons, the Tribune, gave highly-spiced highly-spiced accounts of it, and each endeavored to make political capital for its party and to throw the blame of that affair upon its opponents. The consequence of this was that this affair led to . a great deal of ! excitement, and the excitement finally led to alarm and the anticipation anticipa-tion of serious trouble in Utah. The Mormon presn termed Collin an assassin and a murderer while the anti-Mormon anti-Mormon press called McMurrin a priestly I assassin, doing the bidding of the Mor- I mon church. All this was but an infer- j ence drawn from passion and prejudice, J and did not alter the facts in the case in I the least. Such inferences, when sent I forth as facts, and the' were sent forth as I facts in this case, can only tend to in- I ' flame an already too excited people. It should he Ihe aim of the press to do away with inflamatory feelings, and to make the people look at tilings as they are, without prejudice or passion, t and without reference to, party. 3 The very contrary was done in the shooting affray alluded to I above. It was no exceptionihthisca.se, I . but is rather the rule in all things in Utah. On the one side we hear no cry- j but that all is peace and obedience I to the law, while from the wther side there comes only the cry that there is naught in Utah- but lawlessness lawless-ness and rebellion in incipiency awaiting an opportunity to burst forth. The one nor the other case is true, while a compound com-pound of both, sprinkled with a plentiful supply of "salt, would about be the case. J ' The Territory is at peace so far as any iopsn acts of hostility are concerned, but the minds of the people are not at peace, because the minds of the people are more or less ag'Utid over the enforcement I : of the Edmunds law. The people j , ace not in rebellion, . but they have uo desire to S2e a rigid enforcement I of the Edmunds law; in fact, they look such an enforcement as persecution I : rather than as prosecution. The feeling f between Mormons and non-Mormons is !t ; . anything but cordial, and each day it grows less cordial. Such being the case, j would it not be better for the press" of all I parties to give plain statements of occur- I ; 5 rences here? If two statements about (any matter, as the McMurrin-Collin affair, ; are given, would it not be better to give I I these statements side by side, and let the I , 3 public draw their own conclusions ? Such III a metho l would cause the people to weigh the pros and cons of all questions, I and this would soon bring about sober I condition of mind that would be very I ' loath to believe sensational stories from either side. When the minds of the I people are in the condition we have indi- I cated, it will be an impossibility to get up i a great excitement in a few minutes. We I "; i hope our local contemporaries will adopt ' f this course, for then they will confer a I real boon upon their readers. |