The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-08-01
REPUBLICANS AND BooDLING.

Some of the Chicago papers are
| speaking in terms of praise of the in
dependent course taken by the country
press of Illinois in excoriating the
boodlers of the Republican legislature
of that state. 1t appears they are
doing this irrespective of party. There
are few exceptions to this rule, and
they attempt to discourage the effort
! that has been made to investigate the
charges of bribery and corruption
which have become so great a public
scandal. The partisan spirit which
/ they manifest may give them some
applause from the lower class of poll
/ ticians, but the general public will no.:
approve of their utterances and the
benefit they will obtain will neither be
great nor lasting.
We believe that the majority of the
people of the United States are OPP
posed to political corruption We should
mourn indeed for the nation if we be-
lieved otherwise. The masses of the
people admire honor purity, honesty
and patriotism. They despise fraud
and chicanery. They will stand by
the press in its laudable efforts to
maintain integrity in public affairs
and put down venaHty and vice.
1t has been charged in this territory
that an effort is being made and will
be made to corrupt the legislature at
the very birth of the new state. The
charge comes from Republican sources
and is directed against Republican i'm
fluence and individuals, and it is ex-
pected that the effects will be felt
among people of the same party. The
g. o. p. has posed before the American
public as high morality party which
could not look upon any form of cor
ruption with the least degree of all
lowance. But recent events as we'll as
past history have shown to the public
that it is a party which exercises and
is subject to the money power in a
greater degree than any political party
which has figured in the history of the
United States.
We hope, for the fair fame of Utah,
that the charges which are being daily
preferred by the chief Republican pa
per in this territory are rather the eff
fusions of factional spleen and jeal-
ousy against individuals, who, in
their ambition to obtain high office,
refuse to bow to the dictates of that
paper, than to any well-authenticate
facts and knowledge of susceptible
ity to the influence of money on the
part of its fellow Republicans It would
indeed be disgrace to the new state
if its first legislature should be COM
posed of persons whose election was
brought about for the purpose of plac-
ing in the Senate of the United States
one whose chief qualification for that
high station was the ability to pay
handsomely for his elevation.
Of course Republicans who are IA
nliliar with the inner workings of their
own party affairs ought to know their
associates best. We can scarcely be-
lieve, notwithstanding all that has
been done here in the past in election
affairs, that there are sufficient num-
Der of men in Utah who can be bought
and sold in the way and manner which
has brought shame and reproach upon
so many Republican legislatures in the
United States.
The safest course for the people Of
Utah to take will be to repudiate en-
tirely a party which is in danger of
being tainted with the corruption at
tached to the boodling legislatures of
the east. By sending Democrats to
the first legislature of the new state
this danger will be avoided. At the
same time the ablest men of the ter
ritory will be secured. The people of
Utah should make no mistake in this
matter Honest men and wise men
should be sought for diligently and
good men and wise men should be up
held for public place. Whatsoever is
more or less than this cometh of evil
Beware of boodlers and boodling. All
that there is of this alleged in Utah is
to be found within the lines of the Re
nr.frr