The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-06-29
GAS TO POLITICAL PARTIES. ?

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viii pay little or no attention to any
thing else. Hence when long article
on politics appears in a paper at this
time. people naturally wonder what the
object is, especially if it appears in
paper that never deals in politics, save
for purpose.
The Deseret News of last evening de-
voted nearly a column TO a discussion
of ''As To Political Parties" 1t is pre-
cisely such an article as our contem-
pcrary turned out day after day dur
ing the municipal campaign last fall,
wien it was advocating non-partisan-
ship.
Political parties are classified into
three kinds, two of which are condemn
ed out and out, and the third given
faint praise, because practically it
isn't a party. The News says:
There are not few, but the fewer
the better, in this and every other po-
litical division of the country who go so
zeal as to put loyalty TO their party
ahead of loyalty to their country. These
we perhaps will always have with US,
but it behooves all good citizens to see
to it that the number is kept as low as
possible by means of education and
example; coercion in all of IT'S
ferns is a thing to be Stunned and de-
spised. There is another class who are
Jealous in the maintenance of their
party's tenets and organization, but yet
take more rational view of its proper
place in the national structure; these,
too, however, are more or less
intolerant in individual cases, and
lcok upon withdrawal, or even
sharp opposition to the party mandates,
as a modified form of treason. This,
and all forms of conduct and control
looking to the subjugation of mental
independence, should also be frowned
down. Then, there is the other bet
ter, higher type of party man, he who
belongs to an organization in no sense
of ownership, and, to use the language
of Colonel Ingersoll, goes with his
party because his party happens to be
going the way he is going. That is, the
cart does not precede the horse, the
cGbal does not dominate the caput, but
vice versa Such a man may be and
often is as clear-cut in his views and
as determined in support of his party'S
tenetS as the most unprincipled and
mindless swashbuckler in the gang"
but the party is his means to certain
ends, not the ends themselves; it is
his creature, he is no creature to 1t.
When, by means of unfair practices,
improper methods or perversions of
conclusions properly expressed the
rOwdy, the tough the unrepresenta-
tive element obtain sway and the voice
of the better class is thereby stified,
such person does not, as in the other
two cases cited, give up supinely and
say that nothing more can properly be
done. because the majority have decided
the matter definitely; he first protests,
then warns then acts. He appeals to
the people, and if they are not swayed
by some extraneous influence, his ap-
peal is likely to be effective. In this
he holds the welfare of the great ma
jority to be superior to that of
minority, and it the worst of ala
minority which, after all, is not really
looking out or caring for the welfare of
the party as a whole, but for them
selves, and in doing so the party is
oftener than otherwise but their cats
paw.
What does all this mean? Doesn't it
mean: People Of Utah, let your party
ties sit so loosely upon you that the:r
can be thrown off whenever it shall be
deemed wise by those who are not
slaves to party. and who have the well
things to throw them off? 1t looks
very like a tentative move in the in
tcrest of that most supreme of all DO
litical humbugs-fusion, in which it is
desired to use the Democratic party
for the purpose of pulling the chestnuts
out OF the fire for those who are rot
of the party. The article is intended
n hA
The warrant for this statement is the
closing paragraph. 1t is as follows:
In a Democratic" territorial conven-
ton held at ogden several years ago,
all Mormon delegates were promptly
excluded by the majority" The chair
man took occs sion to deliver to these an
impressive lecture. saying, among other
things, that a mans first duty was to
his country, and his next to his party
Where does the Almighty come in on
that?" asked an out-of- order expelled
one. Nowhere" was the reply He
has nothing to do with a political
party" Did the chairman build wiser
than he knew, or WAS it merely lapsus
linguae?
The sole aim and purpose of that
paragraph is to arouse prejudice
against the Democratic party, and do
it injury. That convention was held,
not merely several years ago." but it
was held several years before what is
known IS the division movement. Less
than two months ago our contemporary
denounced as Bourbonism of the very
worst type, denounced as worse than
sin, any and all reference to
anything political that transpired pre-
vious to the division movement. The
1enunciation was nothing more than a
display of venom and i'll temper but if
1t was so malicious and wicked two
months ago to refer 70 anything that
in the political world of
Utah before the division movement
" by isn't it malicious and wicked to re-
fer to such matters today2 The ques-
ion is merely asked that there be light, !
and not that there may be wry faces.
The News article, unless all signs
iail and all experience goes for moth
ng, is nothing more nor less than a |
casting of bread upon the waters, in |
he hope that after not too many days |
[ will return in the shape of fusion |
and the obliteration of party lines. |
Adroit and covert as the entire article |
5, the last paragraph makes as plain /
as day the whole schame. Surely in
vain the net is spread in the sight of
my bird