The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-10-07

This is a Democratic year.
Republicans are suffering most be-
cause they have had their idols bro
ken. They nave a great deal to con-
tend with this year. Calamity bowls
are stilled by the rising tide of in
dustry Cries about free silver are
stilled by the undoubted and undisput-
able fact that the Democrats are do
hing the most for silver. Cries about
local issues are sulled by the record
of the Republican legislature, the Re
publican majority in the constitutional
convention, the record Of the reform
county court here and many other
things that have arisen.
But the breaking of their idols has
been terrible. John Henry Smith star
ted on this line. Before he entered the
constitutional convention he was con-
sidered a great man. He was the most
prominent Republican gubernatorial
possibility. He could have had almost
anything he wanted from his party.
But after the second day in the con-
vention he mounted the toboggan slide
and hit the bottom before the session
was over.
c. c. Goodwin was a close second.
Before he went into the convention and
was placed in a position where he
would have to show that he possessed
unusual ability he was placed on a
high pedestal. When he developed as
the chief buffOon of the convention he
went down hill and was shattered a
the bottom.
". F. James was another who was
killed off by the constitutional conven-
ton He went in with good record
and was regarded as a gubernatOrial
possibility. He killed himself with his
own speeches. They were especially
refreshing. The eastern press. with a
great deal of JUNCTION, is printing the
following extract from one of them:
There is an insurance company do
ing business here that has a building
that cost more than three millions of
dollars, and has that much more in
assets. And there is a man in this
town that paid that company over five
thousand dollars, who has been dead
TOR more than two years, and that man
isn't able 20 collect the insurance" He
is heard Of no more.
Crane Is Smashed.
Just after the Republican victory last
\ fall Charlie Crane and Frank Cannon
I were the two idols of the party. Crane
was regarded as the best campaign
Ill he undertook to manage his own
campaign for the governorship. Then
he made some monumental mistakes
and was defeated by his own party.
That idol was smashed by the con-
Nention.
Even Frank J. Cannon has been
smashed this year. From all over the
north comes the intelligence that his
speeches are disappointing. Last year
he seemed fresh and eager for the
fray. This year he seems tagged out
and able TO speak only as he forces
himself. He gives an impression of
dnsincerity, and this impression is
greatly helped by the fact that he has
turned on the men that made him and
has successfully defeated Charlie
Crane and William Glasmann. Re
4 pubhcans who We're shouting for him
last year, who idolized him, are look
ing askance at him this year and de-
claTing that he is not a great man.
They say he is not sincere. that he is
studied and all on the surface
George NJ Cannon has been effect
ualy smashed. When he succeeded
Charles Crane as chairman of the ter
ritorial committee he had a. brilliant
career before him. He was put in to
reconcile differences. Ali the factions
OF the party were ready to stand be
hind him and put the party on win
ming basis. Every Republican paper
IN this vicinity endorsed him. But he
was not large enough mentally to meet
the conditions. He was not broad
enough TO calculate on all the fac
tions and bring them together. He
mas put the party in worse shape than
1t was when he took hold. He has
wldened the breaches He is not sup
ported now by one of the able poll
eleians who have won Republican vic
tories in the past. He, too. has gone
down the toboggan slide He has
made more mistakes in three months
than Charlie Crane made in three years
and that is saying a great deal
Wells a Disappointment
But Heber NJ. Wells has been the
worst ppointment On the day of
his nomination he was regarded as
one of the strongest men in the Re
publican party. II was thought he
would sweep everything in sight. The
day after his nomination Republicans
began to think. They began to see
: that he was lamentably weak: that
ne lacked experience and training, and
even the habit of thought that would
1T him for the governorship. When he
took the stump his unreadiness, his
lack of clear thought on governmental
problems, his lack of magnetism, his
lack of executive ability were all en-
phasized. From the time he started
reports of the bad impression he made
have been coming in. Everywhere in
the north he has been watched for
with q great deal of interest
He has been a Disappointment 1t
Is perfectly right for a young man to
aspire to any high Office in the gift of
the people. Youth should not count
against a man when he possesses the
necessary qualifications. But when a