The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1892-05-19
AN UNEXPECTED EFFECT.

Inc Democrats had no sooner formulated
the Home Rule bill, by which they hoped
and still expect the people of this territorr
will be relieved of most of the govern
mental evils under which they have so
long suffered, than the Republicans
rushed to the front with a crude and
ill-digested measure to provide for state
hood. They then sent delegation to
Washington to urge the passage of the bill,
and their representatives appealed to and
pleaded with members of their party in
Congress to favor the bill for the good eff
feet it would have upon the voters here.
Those who framed the bin and those who
went TO the capital to advocate it before
the committees and in the Hobbies, didn't
expect to get statehood. We sometimes
doubt that they even want it. for
our knowledge of Republican char
acter is that the average member
Of that party prefers a government
administered direct from Washington
to home government controlled by the
Democrats. The logic of the opposition
was that if the Republicans in Congress
would declare themselv in favor of state
hood, good many voters in this territory
would fall into line with the Republican
party. The plan was laid well enough at
this end Of the line, and if the Republicans
at the other end could have been induced
to participate in the game, the trick would
really have resulted in some advantage to
the local Republican organization, for it can
not be denied that there are many people
here whe would gladly join hands with that
party which would lift them out of bond
age and strike the sheckles from their
limbs. The Republicans in Cong1 ess gave
the delegation and their statehood
scheme the cold shoulder, and after
listening to the arguments in favor of the
TELLER bill, the Republican members of
the House Committee on Territories united
IN report blasting the statehood bill and
casting discredit and SANDER upon. the peo-
pie Of Utah. On the other hand, all the
Democrats Of the committee joined in a re-
port declaring Utah was in every respect
entitled to and qualified for statehood, aud
should have the boon conferred. 1t was
the Republican report to which the Demo
cratic convention at Ogden last week re-
ferred in this resolution:
Ninth-That this convention unqualinedly
condemn the report of the minority OF the
House Committee on Territories made by the
Republican members of that committee for the
reason that the same is false so far as it pre-
tends to state facts. 1t is slanderous in so far
as it seeks to throw discredit on the people of
this territory. II is infamous in that it pro-
poses to continue the present system of mis-
government in this territory. It deserves only
the condemnation of all self-respecting citizens
of this territory.
And now we want to ask why the Re-
publican territorial convention at Provo
the other day did not say something
about their statehood scheme? Why did
| they not applaud the Repu blicans in Con-
gress Tor that minority report which it
was hoped and expected was going to do
so much for the Republican party in Utah
Were the members of the e. o. p. assembled
at Provo ashamed of their brethren in Con-
gress and did the former keep silent as TO
the bill and the minority report lest the
people should learn the truth, that the Re-
publican party is the same bitter enemy.
the same hater of Utah that it has been
for the thirty-siX years of its existencel
1t looks that way, and the people are so
reading the cowardly action of the
Provo convention. The "effect" which
the statehood bill is having upon the
citizens of the territory, by reason of the
minority report above mentioned, is the
bringing into the Democratic fold OF those
men who might otherwise have gone of
with the opposition if it had not appeared
that the Democracy at home, in Congress
and throughout the nation, are working for
the emancipation of the enslaved de-
tendency. Utah's redemption will come
through the labors of the Democracy, and
the people having been convinced of this
fact by the opposition which Republicans
in Congress have manifested to any sort OF
relief, are aligning themselves with the
party which has the interests of the masses
at heart. All the same, the Provo conyen.
ton should have bad courage to say some
thing regarding their chief fad