The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-09-05
A NoN-PART1sAN ADDRESS.

The public is told that a special COM
mittee of those interested in the nom
partisan movement is to issue an ad-
dress to the people of this city. It viii
certainly be awaited with interest if
not received with gratitude. The names
OF those who are. TO formulate the ad-
dress are not divulged.
In a way the bipartisan movement
is good thing; it appears to have in
terested some in the affairs of the city
who have been very Indifferent to them
in the past; and anything that arouses
an interest in public matters in those
citizens in whom apathy has prevailed
in the past, is good thing. 1t is much
to be hoped that their present inter
est viii prove to be perennial
TIE Deseret News is greatly in favor
of the non-partisan movement, but it
IS somewhat too willing to credit all the
good motives to itself and those who see
eye to eye with it and to ascribe i'm
proper. ones to those who differ from it
and oppose the non-partisan movement.
In its issue of last night it said:
This is an earnest, honest effort to
correct at least some of the evils under
which the tax-ridden people of our de-
voted city are suffering. Not a man en-
gagged in the enterprise has a motive
in The movement that by the most sus-
picious could be deemed unworthy of
hin-not one Of them seeks or would
under any persuasion accept an office
or nomination therefor. In every at
tempt to correct abuses it must needs
be that some one or some number move
out as leaders. Their success depends
upon the righteousness of their cause,
the unselhshness of their own intentions
and the support they receive from the
honorable and the Independent among
their fellow men. The necessity for a
mighty unheaval in the prevailing Gus
tom of partisan city government is too
palpable to require argument. The
folly of assuming that such reform can
be sought and obtained within party
lines is no less absurd-one party's
methods and nominating machinery
and subsequent results are about as
bad as those of the other party, if not
a little worse. The comparison between
the character and aims of those who
! announce themselves as out for the
loaVes and fishes, and of those whose
every act and expression prove them to
be above the suspicion of seifshness
save as the benefits derived by them
shall also be shared in by all their fell
low citiZens-such comparison, we say,
cannot fail to be impressive to those
/ who look at it. And when to all this
is added the groWls of the Would-be
Office holders and the political heelers,
in contradistinction TO the groans and
struggles of a patient but over-buT-
dened people who are crying for relief
from their oppression, we imagine there
z.-fn lao in,
/ ing which appeal should receive con-
sideration.
We have had more than enough of
the politics of the sort which this city
! has lately been receiving. The COM
nlunity know it. and when once the
opportunity is given for them to prov>
their belief by their works, we fancy
they viii give forth such an expression
as will make the bones of every wire
worker, place seeker and political hack
rattle under him like a double dose of
ST. Vitus and ague.
The News says that not man en-
gagged in the enterprise seeks or would
under any persuasion accept an office
or a nomination therefor If this is so
they are lacking in one essential of
truly good citizenship-that of a will
lingness to serve the public when the
public calls upon them. a citizen
should be as willing to serve the public
by accepting an office in a city gov
eminent as to go to the defense of his
country in the hour of danger. The
News says that not one of those en-
gagged in the enterprise would under
any persuasion accept an Office or
nomination. Then where viii the non
partisan party get candidates? for
all who join the movement viii be in
( terested in the enterprise.
The News says the folly of assum-
ing that the reform required III this
city can be sought and obtained within
party lines is absurd. DO not those
who are engaged in the new enterprise,
! and whose cause the News champions,
! propose to obtain the desired reform
/ through party lines, a new party to
( be formed for that very purpose? Is
/ It not probable that large majority
OF those who viii support the new party
will be cid adherents of the party
whose administration of .he affairs Of
this city for the past two years has
! been so scandalously bad that the cry
/ for the new party has been raised?
Those who are in favor of maintain
/ ing party lines in the coming city cleo
ton are quite as patriotic, their mo-
tives quite as pure as those who are
not. while the latter will by no means
refuse the loaves and fishes, All the
civic virtue in the city is not lodged in
the nom partisan partisans, while all
the vice doesn't inhere in those who
are not enrolled in the ranks Of the
non-partisans If there is one thing
more distasteful to American citizens
than another it is the assumption Of
superiority in virtue. patriotism and
ability by those who set themselves up
as being better than the common peo-
I pie They may be better than some Of
the common people. but they are not
better than all the common people.
We should be glad to have some one
tell us whether there are any people in
this city who are not either partisans
or non partisans. Are there not as
lmany partisans among the "aver- bur-