The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1891-02-11
OUR MILD CRITICISMS.

The senior and junior Liberal apollo
gists continue to whine about our criticism
of the city government They have here
tofore been declaring that anything this
paper said did not count; but they !
seem to have changed their minds on that
point.
We have only one reply to make, only
one defense to offer: we once more invite
our friends to defy our critics TO point out
a single criticism of the present city gov
eminent, made by this paper, that is not
strictly correct and easy of verifcation
from the public records.
We were perfectly well aware, for ex
ample, that the Liberal officials would not
like to have the amount raised by the gen.
eral tax in 1889 placed beside the amount
raised in 1880, for the latter amount
was nearly three times as great as
the former; but we knew the people
at large desired information about the re-
spective amounts raised in those two years
by general taxation. We simply gave the
amounts, remarking that the latter was
nearly three times as great as the former.
There need be no quarrel with this paper
on those points; for it is purely question
of the correctness of the figures we quoted,
and merely school problem in division as
to whether one was three times as great
as the other.
When we quoted the figures that the
marshal had failed to quote in his report,
and placed those furnished by the report of
the city marshal of the previous year be-
LII t,,,p nod out hot no
sum was Just double the latter 1t was a
mere coincidence in figures, and we should
not be held responsible for that. Our
readers found diversion and instruction in
comparing the figures, and beyond that
fact we had no particular interest in them.
We urged the adoption of a policy that
would first of all increase the water supply
of the city, as against the policy of the
council in expanding money il laying miles
of pipes without materially increasing the
supply. 1t gratifies US to observe that sub
scribers to the Liberal organs have
adopted our view and have effectualll
whipped both editors into line on this ques
ton. Otherwise both these genial apologist
would still have been urging the expendi
ture Of Sl50, 900 for what they were unite,
in declaring to be only a temporary expe
dent.
And on all other points, our criticism
have consisted merely of making compari
. sons of the present government, its method
, and figures, with those gifts predecessors
, That the result was unfavorable to tn
3 Liberal government, was the fault, not @
, this paper, but of the figures presented b.
the Liberal officials. We can not chang
these figures, and we are panied to lear
that they have hurt in certain quarters.
3 Our readers will therefore be amused t
4 read from the senior organ that "Hones
e criticism is always legitimate on the PAL
, of a newspaper, but THE HERALD ha
never been guilty of that. 1t has simpl
condemned and lied. That is what we OF
iect to. 1t has carried the idea that every
thing that was not incompetent has bee
e dishonest, and that only ruin could be eS
pected for the future
= Inasmuch as no 'lie'' is pointed out
8 even referred to by this bubbling critic, /
n needs no further attention here.
& But the limit of absurdity is reached /
\ the junior organ, which says our criticism
, speak of Liberals 'as an organized band
e looters and carpet baggers and criminal
s and what must be the impression pc
petual advertisement Of that kind Great
: among would-be investors at large!n
: And this blood curdling accusation VIZ
n made in response to our challenge to the
o critics to name single criticism we b;
9 made upon the city government that w
8 not as accurate as any demonstration
|, geometry; opoint out single instance
), which we had referred to any city offici
It in other than the most courteous terri
70 that politenesS could suggest.
i, We begin to fear we have been too XII,
/ in our references to city officials, when O.
e very leniency is talked of by these har
IS hearted critics as though this honeyed cri
> cism of ours, which has at times been so mi
/; that we felt almost like apologizing for
suavity. had been distilled from the bitt
N flowers Of political aloes. Nevertheless
IS we prefer to err rather on the side of lie
IN iency than of harshness, and we trust th
D. our future structures on Liberal metho
e will be characterized by similar chart
ID towards faults that might otherwise a
in pear large as mountains.
A
e, In THAT bright weekly, the San Fra
cisco Star, we find the following that W