The Evening dispatch. [volume] (Provo, City, Utah) 1891-1895, 1894-05-11
PROVO CITY.

are now in the county and that they
will be in this city IN a day or so at
most, makes the above an appropriate
theme indeed. We have no desire to
wound or wrong anyone in the treat
ment of this subject, but we believe
that the time to drive right theories
home to the people.ls the moment when
certain principles are applied to the
circumstances of every day life. The
theory of this government, so far as
the powers of the people are concerned
in the government, is, ''the largest
measure of liberty to the Individual
citizen consistent with the safety Of the
whole" So far may he go but no
farther, and the sworn officers aided
and guided by the law, determine when
the safety limit has been reached. 1t
is q constitutional right TO petition
congress, the senate as well as the
president upon any question as to the
safety of the people or their interests,
or even their preferences or prejudices,
but in presenting these petitions the
petitioners are not allowed to distress
others, assemble in large bodies to the
distressing and alarming of the people
or the destruction, detention or the
ha zaEd Of the property of the citizens.
The claim that the industrial armies
have the right to appropriate the en-,
gines, trains and tracks of the rail-
roads, or that there is any justification
in their so doing, is a monstrous one.
It wont hold water for a moment.
We know that the panic so long pre-
vailing has worked infinite hardship
for the lsboring classes, but even this
does not warrant them in breaking the
law. Neither is it right for them to eX-
pect that in times of stress such as
now prevail, the government will
furnish them food or work, or rather
that it is a nursing mother for those
who, from any cause, fall by the way
side. This is republican government
before which one citizen is as good as
another, 80 long as he obeys the law,
He only loses caste, loses his rank in
the citizenshl p of the country, when
he infrscts the law.
The assembling of large masses of
the people together in implied threat
of the public tranquility is an offense,
and while the law is disposed to deal
leniently with such offenses as this,
vet there is line beyond which these
petitioners" will not be suffered to go
There seems to be revolution in the air,
The public mind is in state of chron-
ic irritation and surely now is not
fitting time for patriots and law-abiding
citizens to pursue a course which may
add to the unrest prevailing in the
public mind. Judged by this rule the
patriotism of these 'armies" is not
only questionable, but their respect
and reverence for the authority of law
is by the tact of their banding, alto
gether, questionable. Not all the un-
employed in the country can prevail,
or accomplish anything of consequence
for themselves or their fellows outside
the law. There are legal lines which
they cannot pass in safety. The
army" now here dares not maltreat,
threaten or abuse, in any way, the
people Of Utah county, and hope to go
scot free; neither will they be suffered
to put in jeopardy the property of the
railroads or the citizens.
1t is long weary way to Washing
ton, and few miles after leaving
this city on their way east, the "army'
will encounter the desert through
which they, without commissary
train, an excellent quartermaster'
outfit, cannot hope to make their way
This being true, they can only hope
either to steal train and 60 on, or to
quarter themselves upon this county.
They can do neither. The railroad is
resolved not to permit the first, and as
to the latter, the people have barely
enough for their own subsistence ard
will not give the food provided for
their helpless families to those as able
to work as they are, and who have no
sort of claim upon them or the COM
munity.