The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-04-14

lOWS.
The periodicity of the anti-Mormon
| outDurst on the part of the local poll
tlclans and preachers cannot be quite
SO regularly and accurately calculated
as the invasion of seven-year locusts.
out 1t Is considera ably more frequent,
more absolutely certain and Just about
equally mysterious as to its causes and
eHects. Just now the bubbling-oyer
grows out of the pique and disappoint-
ment OF few parties with reference to
the work of the late legislature upon
certain proposed bills. For some DAYS
before the end of the session dark hints
ana suspicious were given forth by one
OF two members that malign and
dreadful influence was being used to
compass the defeat or postponement
or certain measures. This influence"
was claimed to be nothing more nor
less than the mailed and heavy hand
OF the Mormon church, which was al
leged TO have selected S.n industrious
lobby with the special business of COM
| mand1ng legislators to vote down. or
the governor to veto, every bill that
the said lobby had not passed upon
approvingly. AS stated, these insinua-
lions were only whispered or limited
at during the session itself But when
at the recent general conference of the
ulSClDllUS
| and conduct as applied to high posi-
lions in the priesthood was reasserted,
explained and accepted by the people,
| the mutteringS OF the malcontents grew
| louder, and at last one of them, Repre-
| sentative Critchlow, has come out
with letter in which he make a spe-
/ chic charge as to the existence and
labors of Mormon committee or
Junta' to pass upon and approve or
! rHrn -:,-1.o
ed one paper into sounding call upon
young Utah to come out and assert its
freedom from ecclesiastical domination,
and has with ineXplicable ease caused
! quite number of nervous people to
think there is a burning need for a
new declaration of political independ-
ence
There is hardly anything serious
J enough in all this to deserve eXplana-
ton. And yet the News feels anxious
at all times to do it's part toward re-
moving fear, promoting confidence and
! correcting misunderstanding. In this
! instance the matter ought to be easy
for very plain tale can put the whole
hideous, fearful nightmare to flight.
Here are the facts: Legislators,
business men, lawyers, editors, mining
men, all classes of the community in
fact, felt that there was danger of the
! cover too much ground. Most of it's
members were untried in law-making,
yet all were jealous and patriotic. But
new conditions existed; new burdens
had come upon the people; new laws
/ and methods of procedure were a nee
essity-and there was an almost uni
versal feeling that the danger was not
| in doing too little, but in experimenting
with too much The News took this
Wv ha nj q
constitutional convention a year ago,
and never ceased to argue and defend
! it up to the very close of the recent
| legislative session. We do not hest
| tate to say further that not only have
we in these columns antagonized many
| proposed laws because of the reasons
| above given, but the present writer
| has repeatedly used personal persua-
| sion or influence in the same direction.
! Others have chosen to do likewise, by
resolution, by petition, by employed
advocates before committees, by per-
sonal effort. Anything un-American,
servile, improper in all this?
Now, it happens that some of the
! oldest and best-known citizens of the
state, men whose whole lives have been
spent in the interest and welfare of
! the people, and who have their present
and future prosperity and welfare as
| closely at heart as any men possibly
can have. have been asked to give their
views upon or use their influence for
or against particular bills which
| seemed to be in the nature of an UNI
necessary or inopportune innovation.
| This request, we repeat, came not only
! from legislators themselves, but from
! others of different parties and of diff
ferent forms of religious belief. As
! citizens they had the right to comply
with such request. As tried and hon
! ored members of the community it was
perhaps their duty to take a personal
! interest in it. But they were busy
men, occupied from early morning till
! late at night with labors of another
! character. They were also leading
! Mormons. and they might have known,
! and did know, what a furore would be
raised if anybody dared to ask them
! to say a word for or against any
! body's pet bill So, when asked to
bestow attention upon matters with
which they were unfamiliar. ano
which they had no time to inform
themselves upon, they invariably re-
piled that there were in the COM
munity many men of experience in
| legislation who knew the needs and
the financial condition of the people;
and that if suggestions upon any par
ticular point were needed, such men
would be in better position to offer
them. In this there was no more
| thought of debating or coercing or
dominating than this paper has of
terrifying the car of Russia; they
merely desired that they themselves
be let alone on subjects which they
had no time to consider.
Behold. out of this suggestion has
grown the idea that they had appoint
| ed and set apart a special committee
to scrutinize. amend, approve or con-
denim every bill, and that any Mormon
legislator who disregarded their
dictum would be dealt with ecclesiasti-
cally-that in short the church was in
J the saddle and was using its lash with
the most alarming vigor This is what
the News is happy to pronounce bosh,
nonsense and false. No threats were
or could be made by anybody who had
any right to make them, or at least
any power to enforce them; no bill was
sought for to take particular care OF
Mormon interests; no measure was OPP
posed because it might hurt Mormons,
no coercion was used or attempted in
any way and nothing more was tried
or accomplished than any citizen in
the exercise or his rights as an Ameri-
can could with perfect propriety try.
Sometimes one or two, sometimes three
or four, sometimes this man, some
times some other man, would be willing
to examine and give their or his
opinion of bills proposed; many we're
invited to do so or to attend meetings
of legislative committees who had to
! CONTINUED on Page 81