The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1891-02-07
OUR DUTY TO THE PEOPLE.

OUR DUTY TO THE PEOPLE
| Probably the most ridiculous late devel
| opment hereabouts is the talk of the junior
and senior Liberal organs that The
HERALD is retarding the prosperity of this
city by criticising the actions of the Liberal
city government.
The senior organ even urges that our
criticism OF the city council iustifies its en-
dorsement of the grotesque eastern sensa-
ton, that there is imminent danger of an
uprising" of the Mormons in Utah.
What the Mormons are going to ''uprise''
about is not quite clear, as the only persons
to any extent engaged in breaking the laws
of the country or territory or city at the
present time are the non-Mormons of
Utah, who are being sent to the Jail and the
penitentiary with alarming frequency by
non-NIormon courts, non Mormon juries,
nom Mormon officials, etc. Clearly the
Mormons are not about to ''uprise,' for
there is nothing for them to rise against:
but because we denounc the author of
this hurtfui SANDER, the local apologist and
real author of it, cries out that our crit
icism of the Liberal administration is lust
as heinous and harmful as it's talk of an
outbreak is.
The junior organ, too, in its endeavor to
cover up the shortcomings of the municipal
government, is foolish enough to insinuate
that in other cities the newspapers are ex-
tremely careful not to criticise the city ad-
ministration, as that tends to drive capital
away 1t is unnecessary to reply to this
soft asseveration further than to remark
that in every city in the United States the
city administration is attacked with such
persistent, fearless and bitter warfare bv
the press, upon the slightest provocation,
that our gentle structures on the Liberal
officials are the milk of human kindness in
comparison.
1t would be pleasant thing for the
Liberal ring and their subsidized organs if
this paper would only abstain from any
criticism of their incompetent administra-
ton. But it would be bad thing for the
prosperity and growth of this city were we
to keep silent. Once let the suspicion get
abroad that the public press is afraid or
unwilling to expose the weakness or in
efficiency of the official government of
city and business men, capital, and desir-
able acquisitions in the shape of inhabitants
and business affairs generally, will shuu
that city, while the rough and undesirable
criminal elements will flock into it instead
Who knows the length to which gam
bling might have run in this city, had not
this paper exposed and held up to public
indignation this very evil for the sake of
its cessation Who dares say what limit
there would have been to the Sunday
saloons but for our stand against them q
Who can say that the city council would
have suddenly bestirred itself to secure
a greater supply of water for this CITY had
we remained silents What security. in
short, would the people have against the
maladministration of city affairs if the
press did not keep up a running common
tary, and, if necessary, criticism of the
the acts of public officials!
No; there is, as old HORACE GREELEY
was won't to say, different and a sterner
path for the public newspaper than that of
aequiescence or silence when the in
terest of the people is in danger
through the incompetence or dis
honesty OF public officials; the cause
of the oppressed and the poor must be
plead, even though it can never repay ad
vocacy; the interests of the people must be
guarded though those who mainly support
newspapers and those who have the dis
pensing Of public patronage in their hands.
are offended and antagonized by such in
Of bo
continue to be the course of this paper.
no matter what may be the snarls of sub.
sidized rivals, the petulance of officials. Or
the evaporation of criminal refugees. be
they gamblers, drunkards, foot-pads or
what not. For we know, no matter what
the ignorant may think about the matter
that capital and men are attracted to those
localities where the freest discussion. api
tation ana criticism of the city governments
prevail, this being the surest guarantee of
safe and good government; while the quiet
acquiescence of g muzzled press does more
to inlure the growth of a city than the
hottest criticism OF it's official management
can possibly do.
At the same time we invite our friends
and defy our critics to point out single
criticism that has not been strictly verified
in every particular, or that is less &C
curate than any demonstration in geome
try. Nine-tenths of our so-called
'denunciations' of city officials have con.
sisted merely in publishing their own words
or reports with such comment or COMPARE
son as seemed obviously called for; and in
no case have we ever "denouncedn the
action OF any present official or called in
question his honesty. Can our critics say
as much?
We have studiously avoided giving un-
necessary offense and have kept strictly
from speaking of merely private differ
ences between citizens and officials. sthough
we have often been solicited to do so; at
the same time we should haYe been false to