The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1892-05-22
HOME RULE.

When the Home Rule bill was intro
duced into Congress and was known TO be
a Democratic measure for the immediate
relief of the people of Utah from the indig-
nation and Inconvenience enforced upon
them by the present form of territorial
government, the air was at once filled with
protests from political opponents. The
measure was unnecessary; 1t would delay
statehood. Some even went so far as to
charge that the Democratic measure cast
reflection upon the people OF
Utah by manifesting distrust of the
people. Democrats distrustful of the
people! What contradiction of
terms have we here And the statement
becomes all the more ridiculous when it is
remembered that it was made by Republi-
cans and by Liberals. LUCIFER preaching
morality and reproving sinners would not
be more surprising than Republicans and
Liberals posing as advocates of the doc
trine of trusting the people in the matter of
governing themselves. One can but re-
greet, for our fair Utah's sake that these
gentlemen long ago did not find out that
they had such implicit trust in the people.
and that they disliked so very much to
have it appear that the people of Utah
were not worthy to be endowed with
sovereignty in the management of
their local affairs. But these par
ties knew that the Democrats did not
distrust the people of Utah. They knew
that the chief corner stone of the Demo
cratic faith is trust in the people. But the
trainers of the Home Rule bill knew that
Utah's reputation was undone in the esti-
nation of the people of the United States.
and they also knew that however uniustly
that fact was accomplished it was never
theless fact, and they also knew how
hard thing 1T is to re-establish confidence
when once destroyed, especially in cases
where such intense prejudice enters into
the contest as in the case of the people
of Utah. The Mormon church has been
suspected of raising religion as weapon
against the government. The task before
the Mormon people, therefore. will be tc
gain the confidence Of the people of the
United States by continuous and sincere
support OF the republic. How long it will
require to accomplish that nobody knows
All opinions are mere conjectures. Ac-
cording to our special dispatches from
Washington yesterday, in the opinion Of
Judge HOLMAN it will take a long time
He puts it at ten, twelve or fifteen wear,
before that confidence can so be established
that Congress will be supportet
by the popular sentiment of tn,
country IN granting statehood I,
Utah. OF course we don't agree with
Judge HOLMAN. We don't think it will b
ten years before Utah will become state
We don't think it will be five or eve,
three years; but while we believe that tn
Judge is wrong in his computation of tn
time that statehood will be withheld from
Utah. still we cannot deny the possibilit
OF his estimate Of the time being right. |
may be so, though we don't believe il. !
was that possibility that the Democr
took account Of when they framed tn
Home Rule bill. If it will take ten o
twelve or fifteen years for the people @
Utah to SO far gain the confidence of tn
country that popular sentiment will ius.if
the national Congress in clothing Uta
with statehood, what an infamy it woul