The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1894-09-02

last Tuesday does not controvert a
single principle of my letter of last
Sunday, but rather borrows trouble
about something which someone else
has said
did not say there was any demagog-
ism in the demand for legislative rep
resentation from residents of local dis
tricts. What I did say was that dem
agogues would make such demand at
time when it ought not to be made.
Neither did 1 say that there was any
part of Utah where the people are
so ignorant that no suitable representa-
tive can be found. 1 did say that a
case might arise in which a man of
greater ability might be found among
the non-residentS than among the resi-
dents of a district, and that in such
an event, if both represent equally we'll
the political opinions of the voter,
then the one with greater ability should
be chosen. Mr.. F. has not denied this.
I did not say that any Scandinavian
had been proposed for office who could
not read nor write.
What I did say was, that no man
should ever be nominated because he
was Scandinavian. but solely because
the particular man is the ablest de-
fender of the political views of the
voter.
The fact of his being a Scandinavian
should neither help nor injure his
chances for nomination or election, and
in this, Mr.. F. evidently agrees with
me.
1t is perhaps true that the whole
Scandinavian people have never deman-
ded that a man be nominated because
he was a Scandinavian. 1t is equally
true that at almost every convention
the friends of some candidate have
urged his claims, not upon the ground
Of his having greater ability than
other candidates, but upon the ground
that his nomination was being demand
ed by his clan. Mr.. F. should know
that not many years ago certain Scan
dinavians organized an independent po-
litical club which had for it's purpose
TO compel the nomination of Scandina-
VANS by all parties. If / remember
rightly NRr. F. then joined with
MI. Nelson, myself and others
in condemning that organization.
1 did not say that business men and
lawyers should make all the laws l
did say that usually the political
opinion of laboring men could be as
well represented and better defended
by business man or lawyer than by
a hod-carrier When this is true the
la boring men owe it to themselves to
elect him. All of this only means again
that ability and opinions should count
and nothing else. None of these things
are denied neither is there any abuse
contained in these statements.
Mr.. F. does not deny that it is politi-
CALI opinions of the inhabitants and not
geogra phical districts that are the basis
of representation. Neither does he give
any reason why the people of Davis
county should be deprived of the lib
erty of selecting the ablest man in
Utah to represent them in the legisla-
ture of Utah if they desire to do so.
1 fear that the natural enthusiasm
of my friend Fernstrom for his Scan
dinavian friends, together with an over
sensitive disposition, has led him to
assume that l was asking discrimina-
ton against Scandinavians, etc, when
was only contending against discrim-
nations in their favor. Let us always
have the ablest man regardless of the
accident of birthplace or residence,