Salt Lake evening Democrat. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1885-1887, 1885-03-04

finances shall be established upon such
sound and sensible basis as shall secure
safety, and the confidence OF business IN
terests and make the wages OF labor sure
and steady. Our system OF revenue
should be so adjusted as to relieve the
people from unnecessary taxation, hav-
ing due regard to the interests Of capital
invested and workingmen employed In
American industries, and preventing the
accumulation OF surplus in the treasury.
Care for the property of the nation, and
for the needs of future settlers, require
that the public domain should be pro-
tected from purloining schemes and I'M
lawful occupation. The conscience of the
people demands that the Indians without
our boundaries shall be fairly and hon
estly treated as wards OF the government,
and their education and civilization pro-
NOTED with view to their ultimate
citizenship, and that polygamy in the ter
ritories, destructive of the family religion
and offensive to moral sense of the civil
lied world, shall be repressed.
The laws should be rigidly enforced
which prohibit the immigration of a SER
vile class to compete with American
labor with no intention of acquiring citl-
zenship, and bringing with them and re-
tanning habits and customs repugnant to
our civilization.
The people demand reform in the ad
ministration of the government, and the
application of business principles to
public affairs. AS means to this end,
Civil Service reform should be in good
faith enforced. Our citizens have right
to protection from the incompetency Of
public employees who hold their places
solely as the reward of partisan service.
Those who worthily seek public en-
ployment have the right to insist that
merit and competency shall be recognized
instead of party subserviency or surrender
of honest political belief. In the admin
istration of a government pledged to do
equal and exact justice to all men, there
should be no pretext for anxiety touching
the protection of freedmen in their rights
or their security in the enjoyment of their
privileges under the Constitution and its
amendments. All discussion as to their
fitness for place accorded to them as
American citizens is idle and unprofit-
able, except as it suggests the necessity
for their improvement. The fact that
they are citizens entities them to all the
rights due their relation, and charges
them with all its duties, obligations and
responsibilities.
These topics and the constant and ever
varying wants OF our active and enter
prising population, may well receive the
attention and patriotic endeayor of all
who make and execute the federal laws.
Our duties are practical, and call for the
industrious application of an intelligent
conception of the claims Of public Office,
and above all a firm determination for
united effort to secure to all the people of
the land the full benefits of this
best form of government ever vouchsafed
to man. Let us not trust to human power
alone, but humbIy acknowledge the
power and goodness OF Almighty God
who presides over the destiny OF nations,
and who has at all times been revealed
in our country'c history. Let us now in
woke His aid and His blessing upon our
labors.