The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-04-27
CHURCH INFLUENCE AGAIN.
II. j. DUMMY ANNOUNCES HIMSEL r
ON THAT QUESTION.
Much Suspicion But No Proof is Of
fered by the Gentleman for His
Conclusions.
To the Editor of The Herald.

! To the Editor of The Herald.
In your editorial of the 18th instant,
which is repetition of what you have
written ever since the election last fall,
| you seek to show that the vast Republi-
can gain in this territory in the last three
years. has been natural. and not the re-
suit of church influence" In the opinion
of a good many who are as familiar with
the figures as you are, and more familiar
with the facts than you pretend to be.
you signally fail Of course do not find
any fault with your standing up for your
church and it's leaders, for you were a
member of the church long before you
were of the Democratic party, and your
connection with the latter is so recent
and with the former SO long, no one could
expect you to champion the political party
when it would conflict or tend to bring
into disrepute your church or its leaders.
One thing I notice in all your articles
on this subject is, you always start at
1892, instead of going back a year or
two, and I invite your attention to the
years 1890 and 1891, as a proper starting
point to discuss this matter, and we will
find that then the Mormon people were
loud in their insistance that Utah was
Democratic by great majority, two to
one were the figures used, and it was
agreed by all parties that Utah was
Democratic by an overwhelming majority
The Mormon people were very anxious to
divide on national party lines, and to in
duce the Democrats to do SO, talked
about the vast Democratic majority in
the territory, and called their attention
to the significant fact, that none but
pronounced and prominent Democrat had
ever represented this territory in Con-
gress, and the fact that Brigham Young
some time before his death had said that
there was but one Republican Mormon in
the territor. and that was Daniel H
Wells. These would-be divisionists, also
said t..at the church would keep its hands
off, and out of politics, and not seek to
influence its members politically, and
that so far as the church and its lead
ers were concerned, the people should
vote according TO their convictions AS
you know. this kind of talk and this
agreement resulted in the Democrats
first inviting the Mormon people To Join
their party. 1t is now said. that there
was another kind of agreement made
with the Republicans, which was, If Mr..
Joseph Z. Smith was pardoned the terri
tory should be turned over to them.
Recent events would seem to indicate
that the a~reement with the Republic
cans, is being better kept than the one
made with the Democrats.
1t is fair to assume. that in 1891 all
Liberals were Gentiles. At the legislative
election in that year there were 2S115
votes cast in the territory, and were
divided as follows: Democratic 14116.
Republican 6,613 Liberal 1885, the Liberal
vote that year being larger than ever be-
fore or since This vote of 1891 shows q
clear Democratic majority of III over the
combined Republican and Liberal vote,
so-Sbat ifSall Liberal voters went over to
the Republican party (Which of course
they did mott the Democrats would have
q majSrity of H.
shows Democrats 1921, Rel
pubIicarA 1880, Liberal 6.9S7, a Demo-