The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1890-06-14
CONSIDER.

We imagine the knowledge that two
such bills as the BAsKIN-CULLoM and the
THOMAS EDMUNDs measures are pending In
Congress will not have tendency to in
duce people to come to this afflicted terri
tory either to reside or to invest their CAPT
tai. What has helped the country lately
more than anything else was the popular
belief that the contest which had been
wageG here with so much determination
and earnestness for so many years had
almost come to an end, and this community
would hereafter be like others in the re-
public as regards social and political
affairs. The impression went abroad that
all classes, however widely they might dis
agree as to religion, were at last united
in pulling for Utah. Mormons and
Gentiles were associated in public
and private enterprises, were together in
business, were working side by side in the
chambers OF commerce, were laborlng
tremendously in undertakings which had
for their object the development and pro-
gress of the territory, and were alike con-
tributing of their time and money to
advertise this country and induce men and
money to come hither Within the past
few months wonderful revolution in out
side public opinion regarding Utah has
taken place, and this has been brought
about as much by the Mormons as by the
Gentiles. There were good reasons for
believing that this revolution would be
followed by great influx of people and
capital, and that the development of our
resources would hereafter be rapid
nd the increase of population great.
Just at the time when all were
looking for the harvest from the good seed
that has been sown, there comes along that
which will certainly blight the crop. We
can hardly say which of the bills referred
to is the more infamous in its provisions,
or which would work greater disaster to
long-disturbed and distressed Utah. One
proposes to disfranchise, and make politi-
cal eunuchs of, four-ifths of the people,
depriving them of the rights to vote, to
hold Office. to sit on juries, or to be any
thing more influential or dignifed in the
political world than an equal number of
Chinese or Hottentots. They can work
and pay taxes, but will have no voice in the
direction of public affairs, will have moth
ing to say as to the rate of taxation, moth
ing as to how the money shall be
expended. Can community be
happy, prosperous and progressive under
such circumstances! With such conditions
will the people have the energy, the enter
prise, the desire to advance that are es-
sential to advance and SUGGEST Rather,
will not the people lose heart and spirit
and take little interest in affairs or in life
itself! Will rlen be eager to come here
and live in community where four out of
five persons they meet are political out
casts, denied all rights save those to air
and water, the latter to be paid for at ex-
orbitant rates, and deprived of all incen-
tive to be ambitious, progressive and en-
terprising2 Men of intelligence are not
seeking such communities in which to re-
side, to rear families and invest their
money. They would avoid the place as they
would plague spot, and go where they
could be Americans, could associate with
privileges of republican government, in
which all participate on terms of equality
The other bill is scarcely less vicious
and forbidding. Instead of DISTINGUISHING
class, it practically deprives all OF citi-
zenship, save only six men who are eleva-
ted to the position of autocrats. One OF
these six, with the consent of the five, APP.
points all the local officers, he and his cab
met having been appointed and sent here
from abroad, none of them having the
lightest material interest in the territory
and all having been carefully selected on
account of their pronounced hatred of the
community. From making the laws te
enforcing them, one man would be abso
lutte and supreme, recognizing and
apprehensive of no power save the
man in the White House who cannot be
reached by the aggrieved public.
Would a community thus rnled be de
sirable one in which to livea Would free
born American citizens leave states where
republican laws prevail and democratic
theories are triumphant, and voluntarily
place themselves under an autocracy more
intolerant, more illiberal and more oppres
sive than that of the Cara
The HERALD does not believe that eithe,
bill will become law, but it does believe
that in the event of the passage of eithe,
instant and lasting disaster will overtake
Utah. All the good work that has been
done here will be undone; the
wheels of progress will be turned
back many, many years-so fan
back that this generation will not see the
recovery of the lost ground; instead of i'm
migration there will be emigration; instead
of an inflow of capital there will be ar
outgo of wealth already here; instead OF
progress and development there will be 6
going backward and decay. The blight will
ln nvarrl0rvarinu apd oon~p,,o:nr