The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1883-07-04
DON'T BE H4sTY.

the following:
Two months sgo sixty missiouarle
sailed from New York to secure pros
| elytes in Europe, and that their mIssiDl
] has been successful il shown by the Fac
chat the steamship NevddG, which LEI
| Queenstown for New York lsst1 huTsdsy
has on board nearly 700 Mormon cen
veris. Why should the government per
NIT those people to land, when 1t i
known that they intend to violate thi
| law Of the United States against polyg
amy in the Territory of Utah?
The paper quoted from subjects
itself to grave censure, if nothing
worse, when it deliberately prints
statements which it is unable tC
prove, and which, in fact, are as
baseles5 as the "airy fabric of q
dream" It's conclusions are de.
batab,e, but its direct statements
throw upon it the responsibility OF
making them good or suffering the
consequences Of not doing so.
The Nail says it is known that
the immigrants referred to intend
to violate the law of the United
States. By whom is it known? 1t
may or not be known by the people
themselves; but even if such
were their deliberate intention, it
IS morally certain that they
have not so expressed themselves to
our cotemporary or any other con.
Germ or person; and to assume the
responsibility of first, stating that
such is the case, and second, that it
Is known to be the case, seems to us
to.be going long ways in the direc-
ton of unprincIpled if not menda-
clous journalism and INSCRIPTIONS
demogogery.
Our New York exchange is not
satisfied with merely framing an
Indictment which rebounds upon
itself; it goes further, and writes
itself down an ass. What method
can it suggest for the prevention of
the immigrants discriminating e?
Force? It dare not ask that. In.
terVention of the courts? Alas !
there is no law against the subject
complained of. An executive pro-
clamatiOn. There is no special or
pressing emergency requiring it.
What then? Nothing, absolutely
So the Mails fulmina-
lions amount simply to an array of
Oig-sounding words, as meaningless
and vapid as dicers' oaths.
But our unhappy cotemporary is
not satisfied yet. There are two
kinds of people that never know
when the quitting time has far
rived-children and fools. We
don't say the Mail man is either
but he acts like both. Hear him
further:
There is a law 10 prohibit p8uper and
criminal immigration, and certainly it
ought to be possible to u'e il for the ex-
clus!on Of parties who intend TO practice
polygsmy in the territories ofthe United
States.
But what, in the name of common
sense, has that law to do with
people whose fare is fully paid and
whose wants are completely sup
plied-a condition of things that
raises them far above that unfor-
tunate position which the diction-
airy defines as pauperdom? And
then he flies off again with "inten-
ti0ns." Will he-dareihe-assume
that every Mormon practices poly
gamy-and If not, what right has
he to say that 0l5 the persons re-
ferred to, or even any portion of
them, are coming to this country for
that purpose? Or, for the sake of
the argument, suppose we admit
that the whole party, old and
young, male and female, intend to
practice polygamy, what then :?
They have not done so yet, conse-
quently have committed no crime
so far as that is concerned-and
would so large and influential a
journal as the Mail and Express
lend itself to a scheme looking to
the punishment of assumed pro-
Spectt0e offenses = crimes which
were never committed, and may
never be? Oh, fie!
Our contemporary had better be-
gin at the beginning once more, and
make a better effort than the one
of which the above extracts form
a part.
THE GHFAT nav