The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-02-18
HE DEMOCRATIC PARTY WILL
PROTECT ITS OWN.


/ believe that the people can be trusted and
J that the people are honest enough. that
| they are intelligent enough, that they are
/ brave and strong enough to right al
! wrongs. The conditions which exist here
| in Utah are the result of many. many
! years of contention between two systems
| of religion and between two sets of ideas
! with regard to the analrS OF government.
| The ills from which we suffer cannot, in
the nature of things, be cured at once.
They must be worn away, little at a
time day by day, week by week and
year by year. ! was one wno felt when
the division was made on party lines,
that the division was made too soon- ]
thought that it would be better for all
concerned to wait little while. Possibly
l was right. But. the division having
| been made, ii was and it is now the duty
of each citizen to help to drive out the
bitterness of the past to advance the
great issues which divide the people
throughout the nation and to keep down
and under foot as much as possible the
local differences which create so much
that IS unpleasant.
1t has been suggested that if we are
ever again beset by such difficulties as
were met in the late senatorial struggle
that Republicans and Democrats will join
hands. That would mean the abandon
ment of the Democratic party. That
would mean the organization of a new
party. based upon the single idea of op-
position to church Interference in our
political affairs That would mean to
step backward and not to step forward.
That plan ! cannot endorse. l cannot
endorse any suggestion to abandon the
"rand old Democratic organization, which
has lived through good and evil reDute
and which is the hope of the people to-
day; The Democratic party has within
itself the power to right all wrongs. Its
principles are eternal; its mission is to
lift mankind up. 1t is powerful enough to
nrotect its own and it has been brave
enough, in Utah as well as elsewhere. to
declare that the political freedom of indi-
vidualS shall not be interfered with and
it will make that declaration good. To
il l have plighted my political faith. In it
l trust. With il l am willing to go down
TO defeat. l cannot accede to the suggeS-
ton thst circumstances may arise which
will justify its abandonment. Each DEM
ocrat should strive to make 1t stronger.
Each Democrat should seek TO make it
purer. Each Democrat shoGld sink his
own personality in the interest of the
his party to advance and not to drag it
backward.
THE CHURCH SHOULD KEEP OUT
OF POLITICS.
In making these suggestions I am not
palliating nor eXcusing the interference
of ecclesiastical organizations in our po-
litical affairs. l believe that those who
ing Christ and him crucified should
preach Christ and that they should not
drag the cross of Christ in the mire of
ward politics or the scarcely higher po-
through in the selection of United
States senator. Still we should not mag
Nifty our own troubles. Pastors and
priests have always had and probably al
ways will have an itching for political
management. But your priest is usually
a mighty poor politician and an unsafe
leader politically. Utah is not the only
state and the Mormon church is not the
onlye religious organization that may be
criticised. 1t can be truthfully said that
in nearly all the great churches of the
east in the late presidential campaign
there was direct interference by the
priests. The churches rang with de-
nunciations of Bryan. Those who sup
ported Bryan were denounced as anar-
chists and dishonest men, and beyond all
question the preachers defeated Bryan
and elected Mckinley. A change of 9s2
votes would have given Bryan electoral
votes in California: a change of .069 votes
would have given Bryan Oregon; change
of 142 votes would have given BRYAN
Kentucky; a change of 1902 votes would
have given Bryan Indiana; a change of
Dakota; thus. a change of a total of
given Bryan 40 more electoral votes than
he received. or a total of 225 electoral
votes and majority of three over Nc
Kinley. I do not excuse ecclesiastical in
reference here in Utah. but l call at
tention to the fact that such things some
times occur elsewhere. The Democratic
party has in the past and il will in the
future resent interference in our political
affairs by those who should keep hands
off.
,r,- D- ~