The record-union., 1893-05-01
THE OGDEN CONGRESS.

Our esteemed contemporary, the San
Francisco Bulletin, in discussing the
motleyeplatform of the Transmississippi
Congress, recently held in Ogden. Utah,
says: Evidently the congress is bar
gaining body'; and further declares: ''It
looks as though there were combina
tion of Mormon and Democratic influence
to work the delegations of the various
States.'
We can assure our contemporary that
the Transmississippi Congress has never
been a deliberative body. 1t is a mob
made up of the talking element from the
various States and Territories repre-
sented. The late congress comprised
about 500 delegates. These delegates
are selected by Governors, Mayors,
Boards of Trade, Chambers of Com
merce, corporations and other constitu-
ency. The men appointed as rule do
not attend. The first list made out by
the Governor of this State failed almos
entirely, and the substitutes or proxies
solicited their own appointment as rule.
Thus every man with fad and a queer
shaped head gets int the congress. This
structure is not applicable to large num-
ber OF able men who appear at the vari-
GUS. sessions of this Congress, but out of
the 800 there were from 450 to 475 who
really entertained the notion that the con-
clusions of the congress meant something;
that it was in fact a deliberative body;
that it had time to consider great ques-
tions adequately. None of these conclu-
sions are warranted by facts.
The congress meets, spends day and
half in getting. organized, appoints
committees, and then receives resolu-
tions. 1t is its sole aim and business to
express the opinion of the body and this
is expressed in the form of resolutions.
It is not in session long enough to con-
slider any matter or subject in commit
tee, to take testimony, and to receive the
report of the committee who has had the
subject under careful and thoughtful ex-
political convention, and whatever it
does, must be done not as having been
thoughtfully produced, or produced by
combinations or trade, nor as to the re-
suit of any intelligent notion as to the
effect what it says will have on the
country. Each man goes with some
rfi Low I'D in, nd mt
duces resolution upon it, a few of the
best takers get the floor and the many
ere not heard. Each man returns with
about the same opinions he entertained
when he left home.
The congress passed resolution in
favor of the Nicaragua Canal, but the Pop
ulist sentiment on the floor opposed the
very practicable suggestion that the
canal company, the only party ever
likely to build it, should be helped from
any source. 1t wanted the canal con-
structed by the Government. OF course,
all the enemies of the canal voted for this
resolution. 1t passed resolutions in
favor of improving the harbors on the
Pacific Coast. 1t would have passed
such resolution if it had related to a
hundred harbors specifically mentioned,
and because it had no opportunity of ex-
amining into the merits of any one of
them, it did not want to put itself into
the attitude of being opposed to any.
1t passed resolutions in favor of
river Improvement. 1t was scarcely
expected that it would do otherwise. It
would have passed q resolution in favor
of the reduction of freights and fares, or
against insect pests, or in favor of the
Kelley cure, or against hoop-skirts. 1t
would have passed a resolution denun-
ciatory of polygamy and in favor of the
admission of Utah. The congress met on
Utah soil, had local Utah influences sur
rounding it. and one young man asked
pathetically to be permitted to be citi-
zen of America. The common prevail
ing opinion of the whole country is that
polygamy is dead and that Utah ought to
be admitted into the Union. There is
also a very prevalent opinion at the East
that Nevada is not entitled to Statehood;