The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-09-01
AN EARNEST REBUKE.

| 1t has been out of q wonderful maze of
| entanglements that Utah has issued. and
from which, having shaken herself free of
them, she stand to-day asking to be ad-
mitted to the sisterhood of States. The
| internal problems which she has been
called upon to solve were intricate and
difficult, and had it not been that the Pc
culiar character of her aff1iction appealed
to the chlvalrous interference of the warm
American heart which beat beyond her
borders, and had not the splendid wealth
which lay in her soil and rocks invited the
enterprise of courageous men, we may inn
agine the desolation that would have been
investing her TO this day.
Among the hardy men who upon their
own account thrust themselves into the
struggle which was overwhelming the bet
ter element of the Territory was Colonel
Isaac Trumbo. He had first tried his
strength in California, and having found
it sufficient here he sought the more diff
cult field of Utah. There he cast his for.
tunes, made his home, became one of the
people, developed great enterprises which
spread the fame of the region and simpli-
fed the task of its assimilation with the
spirits to lead the ostracized Territory into
the community OF States.
The Oakland Tribune, after recounting
these facts, deplores that form of politics
which the Salt Lake Tribune expounds and
which adopts for its moving principle a
standard which ignores individual worth.
Because Colonel Trumbo is candidate for
the United States Senate from Utah, and
because, according to the Oakland Tribune,
he is not member of a political combina-
ton which is represented by the Salt Lake
Tribune, the latter paper is demanding his
defeat. 1t is not likely that this will re-
suit, but the attempt to accomplish it
might be none the less discouraging to
men who would be proud to receive politi-
cal recognition of their worth as private
citizens.
The Oakland Tribune declares that the
opponents of Colonel Trumbo do not want
him elected, because be is mot their man"
This eloquent phrase expresses the most
degraded phase of American politics. To
be mot their man" has meaning which
all selfish, narrow, pl3ce-hunting poll
ticians understand. To be mot their
man" is often distinction coveted by
men OF strong mind and Independent
character. The people of this country
have not yet emerged completely from
beneath the domination of corrupt bosses,
who are always sure that candidate sis
their man. before they will support him,
but they are steadily advancing toward
the light. They are learning that can
didate who is any mans man is not the
peoples man, and that one strong, fear
less candidate is stronger than all the
power of selfish bosses and manipulators.
1t would be hard to imagine Colonel
Trumbo as any mans man. He has been
his own man so long that the habit has
become fixed and irremedioble. 1t was
because he was his own man that he went
forth to fight the battle tor Utah, and like
a man won it. 1t is likely that he will re-
tain his manhood and the self-respect that
appertains thereto and that the wise and
patriotic people would prefer him as their
representative in the United States Senate
to some man who is not his own man, but
has to draw all that makes him from those
shadowy powers which own men ana
thrust them to the front.