The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1891-09-27
FOR PARTY DIVISION
Is There a Changed Condition of
Affairs in Utah?
A. T. HEST ANSWERS THE QUERY
He Brings to Light Liberal Evidence That the
Evolution Has Been Going on
for Some Time.
a. t. HEST ANSWERS THE QUERY


The Liberal and Peoples political parties
In Utah never should have existed. The
existence of one alike created the necessity
and only excuse for the existence of the
other
Likewise, the death of one party termi-
mated the excuse as well as the necessity
Tor the existence of the other.
1t is my purpose to answer concisely
every objection that has been urged against
the movement for division on national
party lines. The first objection was that
the Mormons were acting in bad faith, and
that the issue for or against division was
simply question of good or bad faith.
assert that with no rational man could it
be a question of good faith or bad motive.
Motive has nought to do with the right
or wrong of the act; motive is an ingredi-
ert only in the measuring of the ethical
standing of the moral agent The right thing
for the members of the Peoples and Liberal
parties to have done long ago would have
been to divide on questions of civil polity
The members of the Peoples party then
were doing the right thing when they dis
banded their party, and you Liberals, who
refused to meet them half way and insisted
on presenting a solid front antagonistic to
the church as a church organization, were
thereby using the strongest influence in
your power to force the former members
of the Peoples party back into single po-
ltlcal organization. In other words, you
were using the strongest influence in your
power to prevent the Mormon people from
doing the right thing: that which you have
been pretending to want them to do for
twenty years.
Would you prevent a man from paying
his debts because you thought there was
some sinister motive prompting him!
Would any of our good church men expel
member for suspected hypocricy or even
real hypocricy! Again it is urged that
continuance OF the Liberal party is neces-
sary for the purpose Of giving the Mormons
PERIOD OF PROBATION.
sincerity which can be made must be made
under reasonable circumstances. In other
words, you should do the right thing your
self before pretending TO judge the motives
of others. You should during the period
of probation at least desist from using your
strongest efforts to force those in probation
to DO that which they ought not Then
judge them fairly. Don't say if they are
evenly divioed that 1t is trick for state
hood, and because they do the sensible
thing of choosing between evils, that the
church dictated the course. Honest Judges
never say 'You are damned if you do and
damned if you don't" 1t is also urged that
the continuance of the Liberal party is
necessary as a bulwark against premature
statehood should this division movement
prove Mormon trick. This | also deny
You Liberals should have encouraged
your former political enemies in doing the
right thing by doing it yourselves. Then
If you really feared premature statehood
the rational thing for you to have done, or
yet to do, would be to keep up an anti
statehood organization which would have
for its sole object the prevention of an uu-
timely admission of Utah TO statehood. This
brings me TO the only question of fact in
volved, viz. SIS there changed and rap
idly changing condition.
The question, when did conditions
change" was hurled at US with self-as-
surapce which almost precluded an at
tempt to answer. | had been in the terri
tory but a few years and had to confess
that had seen no change. l had seen the
Mormons endorse on the labor ticket men
who were not of their church. had seen
strong minority CT Genties elected to the
city council by Mormon votes, when they
could have elected every man of their own
church. This convinced me that they were
but wanting an opportunity to lay down
their arms whenever they could without
DANGER OF DIsFRANCHIsEMENT
or kindred wrongs. 1 compared the acts of
the Mormons on voluntarily giving Gen
tiles minority representation with the
acts of Liberals, in voluntarily stealing
from the Mormons their legally elected
minority in the same council, and l became
convinced that the name Liberal when ap-
piled to the Liberal party was misn omer
After the election, when had recovered
from the effect Cf excessive invectives
heaped upon Democrats, began to look for
the time of the changed and rapidly
changing condition." and began my search
IN the Tribune files, as that is the only re-
liable authority on changed conditions. 1t
is said OF Mr. c. G. Goodwin in a Tribune
report of one of his speeches in the cam
paign 1890, that she dwelt on the changed
conditions" / therefore concluded the
change must be farther back and | was
somewhat surprised to learn that the Dem
ocrats were not the first to notice this
change
In the Tribune of January /, 1889. [
found these words: 1.-THE delusiou that
there is a class of men mere who are so
surrounded by divine protection as to
make them independent of the law has
altogether vanished. The other delusion
that certain few have been given divine
right to rule is swiftly vanishing"
The change was still further back and 10 /!
TO my surprise l find in the Tribune of
January l, 1855, these words
There is just one little cloud, not bigger than
mans hand, IN The horizon of Utah this bright
New Years morning. We believe that the
cloud VIII pass away before il expands and
takes on the look of a real storm.
On cloudless summer morning, before the
dawn fills all the sky. after the range to the
west OF us las grown radiant under the blended
beams of the day, the eastern slope of the
Wasatch range still lies under heavy shadows
il Utah lies under any shadow now, it is
such one, the shadow made by the swiftly
expanding dawn.
Things are not as they we're. The fact is not
vt admitted but nevertheless the thraldom
of the old days is breaking away and the
thought though unacknowl edged, is being i'm
pressed upon zen thousand hearts here that
only misfortune follows when creed assumes
the right TO conduct the government of, and to
do the thinking for the people. That thought.
once given life, is never strangled but rather
& continues TO expand even TO full fruition The
night has been long and dark and stormy and
cold, but the winds OF passion and the blast of
hate that swept that night are being laid and
the morning has been warming in the east The
song birds of hope are one by one taking ND
their morning songs, and so to Utah this New
Year is more flied with omens OF prosperity
and peace than any that ever preceded.
Truth when not sought after sometimes
cones to light"
Mr.. Goodwin, when did conditions
change, anyway
Yours for Democracy and consistency,
A. 7. HEST.