The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-06-01

have filed the mining districts of
Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois and prob
ably other states, as well as our large
cities. They work for wages upon
which an American family would
starve. They have driven our people
out of what was to them profitable en-
ployment. They spend little for liv-
ing and send the most of what they
earn back TO Europe. To these the
American ballot has been given.
Think of such a thing.
/ maintain that a party not only has
the same right of self-defense as an in
dividual, but that it is a duty to eXer-
else it. Suppose an army should be
sent against, US from Europe with guns,
whose purpose it is to conquer and
subvert our government, and thus de-
stroy our liberties. Would we not as
one man rise UP in an effort to drive
them back? If this same army shall
come without guns shall we allow them
by the use of the ballot to corrupt our
government and subvert our liberties?
The later is more difficult to defend
against than the former. In the one
case we can meet force with force; but
in the other the evil results to us are
accomplished by stealth under the
forms of law.
The tendency of the times is, as it Is
with all countries as they grow older,
to q constantly charging urban popu-
lation, which in it's turn is transferring
the balance of political power from the
rural districts to the cities. This is in
its turn giving TO our cities an undue
influence in elections. When we come
to remember that presidential elections
have been in the past and may be in
the future, absolutely decided by
af4x o,,d
member that from to 40 and some
times so per cent. of the vote of such
city is made up of the ignorant and in
different people of Europe, it requires
no prophet to predict the direful re-
suits of such venality unless it is
stopped and the purity of the Ameri-
can ballot preserved.
In the fall of 1893 l was requested by
the faculty of the Deseret university
to lecture TO the school on the subject
of ballot reform, and in that lecture L
made some observations on the subject
Of the foreign vote in America, which
my friends, the Republicans, moved by
patriotism CD no 2doubt sought to
make political capital out OF. In the
campaign of 1894, by their campaign
committee. they had excerpts from my
lecture printed on large and small
dodgers, which they mailed and posted
to all parts Of the territory as CAM
paign matter against the candidates of
the party TO which l belong. Some of
my party friends complained to me
that my speech had been so used as to
hurt the party, and that 1 ought to
have been more careful in what l had
to say on the subject of the foreign
vote. My reply was two-fold. First; l
was not and did not expect to be
candidate for office; and second; but if
l were. 1 believed it to be the duty Of
every man when called on to speak. to
speak the truth as he understood it to
exist. That while I was a Democrat
in whom there was no guile or mix
ture of any kind, l was an American
citizen and that my Democracy taught
me that my highest duty was to my
country; that if the time had come
when in these United States citizen
could not raise his voice against the
subversion OF our government by in
Discriminatory comforting the Ameri-
can ballot upon the ignorant and Grim
inal class of Europe for feac of injur-
ing the prospects of his political party
il an election, then so much the worse
for the party. That some man ought
to have courage enough to point the
way out from the threatened danger;
that l had been called upon to speak
to the American youth in a school and
felt it my duty TO give them the truth
and guide their minds in the paths of
true American citizenship. l repeat
here tonight the warning to the young
people Of this school, and hope a deep
and lasting impression may be made on
your minds. But the question natur-
ally suggests itself, why should the ad-
Vocacy of such a position as mine be
unpopular and hurt my political party
in an election? Am l wrong? Do the
American people believe it to be right
to invite a hungry horde from the
slumS Of continental Europe to come
here and drive our people out of the
employment that feeds their wives and
children? Give them our lands for
homes and confer upon such the Ameri-
can ballot? What do they know about
our government and institutions? Have
they or their ancestors for centuries
past ever had any conception of self
government? l repeat, am | wrong? If
l am why not attack my position by
intelligent discussion and expose its
/ falacy instead of a vulgar appeal to
the ignorant by political campaign
methods which would hardly dignity
the back room of a saloon?
No, my friends; the objection to my
position only emphasizes its correct
ness. But in plain words the objection
| foreign vote and you must not say any,
thing against it. II you do your party
will lose votes and your candidate be
defeated. AS an American citizen
confess to a contempt. for such OBJ
Sequious trucking as this in politics,
and this for two manifest reasons.
First; every foreign born citizen who
has come here and accepted our hos
pitality and citizenship is as much in
terested in protecting the American
ballot, and through it, our government,
as are our native born citizens; and,
second; if he be not, then he is not fit
to be an American citizen, much less
be entrusted with the ballot, which is
the life-blood of our institutions. The
subject of foreign immigration has at
| last reached the halls of the American
congress, and let US hope that he agi-
tation and discussion in that body will
lead to such measures as will protect
both the laboring classes of America
and the American ballot.
My friends, as l have said, as a
nation we have reached mile post in
our history and we must pause suf-
ficiently long to decide whether we will
preserve our constitution and with it
our liberties. or whether we will drift
and depend for the future on accident
and force AS before remarked our
nation has gone with one bound from
infancy to manhood in proportions,
and along with this have come con-
ditions which must be attended to
The rapid development of our countr.
by the use Of forces both eff natur
and invention has not operated il
many respects to our good, either a
individuals or as a nation. l shall
not enter upon political discussion
but beg pardon for saying that neithe
free silver nor protective tariffs, no
both together, are remedy for tn
troubles which beset us. Our trouble