Salt Lake evening Democrat. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1885-1887, 1886-10-27
HEWITT vs.. GEORGE.

this mistaken idea OF the misguided men
who back George must needs become
national issue, in order to forever
put it out of the way, and by so
doing prove to the men who are
deceived by the jgtiS .faiuuj placed
before them by men with hobbies, that
human nature must be controlled by law,
and that to substitute any other means
for governing the people would lead to
chaos, the end whereof no man could
tell. The following excerpt from an open
letter to Mr.. George by Mr. Hewitt, pub
lished in the New York Sun, is so true
and so explicit that we gladly give it
space, believing that any reasonable man
will at once agree with Mr. Hewitt in all
he writes:
''Let us see for one moment how your spe-
ciio would operate in this city. Its valuable
buildings and improvements on the land
belong almost exclusively to rich men and
to corporations whom you hold in holy hor-
ror. They would at once be exempted from
taxes and to that extent you would add to
their already overgrown revenues. This
donation, however, you would expect to
would even, under your scheme, necessarily
be applied to lands upon equal terms. A lot
with building costing million of dollars
would therefore pay the same taxes as n
vacant lot on the one side, or a lot with
building costing ten thousand dollars on the
other side. What would you accomplish by
this change beyond making the rich man
richer and the poor man poorer?
Again, what will you do with the man who
lives in his own house and pays no rent?
with he hnyn rannr1a1 the max
ment of rent as heavy burden. Hence, he
has struggled for years to acquire Il home of
his own. There are thousands of such per-
sons in this city who painfully realize what
this struggle has cost. You propose to re-
move taxes from all other forms of value
and to impose upon land thus acquired
tax equal to the rent which it would now
YIELD thus reducing the owner to the very
servitude from which, by economy and in
dustry, he has rescued himself and his
family
But there is a large class of our people
who have not thus acquired land, but have
deposited their savings in banks, or have
made provision for their families through
the beneficent agency of life insurance.
Under the laws of this State these savings
and accumulations or policies are chiefly
loaned out on mortgages upon real estate.
When, by means of your ingenious scheme
of appropriating the rent of land by taxes
you have destroyed its value to the owner,
what security will remain to the depostors
in savings banks and the holders of policies
of insurance? You will reply that the
buildings and improvements will remain.
But what value do these possess as security
when the virtual fee of the land is destroyed,
and what shadow of security will remain on
unimproved lands and on farm lands where
the improvements are secondary consider
alton?
These are samples only of the difficulties
to which you can devote all the time which
you generously offer to divide with me at
Ohickering Hall.
You object to my conclusion that your
platform means that idle labor is to be en-
ployed by the State. You do not explain
what it does mean, if this be not the true
Significance of declaration otherwise un-
Ineligible.
| find in the newspapers the following
passages, quoted from remarks made by you
few days ago in New York:
With all its drawbacks and horrors and
shortcomings, the great epoch of the French
revolution, now but a century gone, is about
to repeat itself here. Liberty, equality and
fraternity embodies the aspirations of every
workingman in the world to-day. 1t re-
mains for the workingmen to re-establish
the republio-not the republic of the mil
lionaire and tramp. What was done in 1776
in this country, in France in 1889, must be
done over again. Our forefathers won us
our political rights; it remains that we
should assert them
This is a class movement-the uprising of
the workingmen, the revolt of the disinher-
tied class claiming their share of the wealth
their toll produces
"You allege that the press misrepresents
your statements. Perhaps you will inform
the public whether the above passages are
correctly reported. If they are, you are con-
victed out of your own mouth of seeking to
intiict upon this country the horrors from
which France has not yet recovered.
You seem to think that your election as
Mayor of New York will in some mysterious
way cure the social evils which we both de-
plore. If there were the slightest founda-
tion for this belief | should give you my
hearty support, because | know that my
election cannot have any such effect The
duties of the Mayor are defined by law. So
far as they are not purely ministerial, they
are confined to the power of appointment
where vacancies occur, to q general super
vision of the municipal government, and to
the creation of vacancies with the approval
s5A,f the Governor in case of malfeasance in
Noiice. The Mayor has no control over the
police force, so that your promise to regu-
late its members cannot be made good. He
has no power to order the Health Depart
ment to undertake specific works of rectif-
cation, so that your assurances that you
will clean the Streets purify the atmos-
phere, and improve the sanitary condition
of the tenement houses cannot be carried
into effect by you. The same difficulties
with the streets, the docks and the schools
In leading your followers to expect reforms
which you cannot execute, you have, to use
II homely but expressive phrase, "bitten of
more than you can chew"
Among your numerous claims for support
| have nowhere seen it asserted that you
have any patent or secret charm by which
you can change the nature of man or secure
for yourself'anY greater power or influence
for good than either of the other candidatei
possesses, or that they will be less con
scientious in the discharge of their duties
than you promise to be. How then, YOU
election will accomplish the reforms vol
desire passes my comprehension: but | car
clearly see how you will have to disappoint
40 many hopes and expectations raised by
your declarations that the present disoon
tent will be greatly increased, 60 the infinite
damage of confidence, order, enterprise, EN-
ployment and thrift.
While you are penning your letter. anothe
man who has risen from the ranks of labo
by the force of his character and his grea
practical sense, and who does not parade hi
poverty as his claim for the position whicl
he fills with such honor TO himself and bene
fit to the community, p. NJ. Arthur, wa
uttering to the Locomotive Engineers, OF
whom he is the trusted chief. some words o
wisdom which | commend to the delude(
members of the trades unions who haV
abandoned the principles on which the.