The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-09-18
SAUCE FOR THE GOOSE


imbecility would prompt fight of that
character in a state where three
fourths of the people are Mormons.
Besides. the Tribune has supported
Mormons of equal prominence for i'm
portant civil positions. Its indignation
is only aroused when such men are
nominated for Office by the Democrats.
There is more partisan intolerance than
principle in the Tribune's opposition to
the Democratic candidate for congress.
1t claims that he is a church candi-
date; that he was nominated by church
influence, upon his reputation as a
churchman and as a reward for his
obedience to church mandates"
The Tribune knows better. 1t knows
| that Roberts is not church candidate
in the sense that John Henry Smith
was candidate for the presidency of
the constitutional convention. Yet
the Tribune supported him. What
brought Alma Eldredge into promi-
nence as a Republican? Was it his
oratory, his mental attainments, his
record as a public man? Or was it his
position in the Summit stake?
The Republican organ has conceded
the superiority of Mr.. Roberts as a
debater, as a giant in the constitutional
convention, as IAN eagle at which the
davis are pecking" In 1885, when he
was candidate for congress, standing
upon the platform that he occupies to-
day, our Republican contemporary
conceded that he was not candidate
of any church, yet with the same cow
ardly hand that carries a knife for him
now it threw cold water upon his as
pirations then.
Whatever may have been the feeling
of men in regard to the candidacy of
B. H. Roberts for other reasons, no
man who went into the convention to
fight him can object to his nomination,
as the Tribune does, on the ground that
he is influential among the members
of the dominant church.
The influence that he possesses was
not borrowed from ecclesiastical pow
er, and our neighbor knows it. 1t is
| the tribute that people ever pay to
genius, in the church or out; and the
following B. H. Roberts has among the
| Mormon people, and especially among
the younger element, comes from his
ability, his aggressiveness, his charm
as an orator, his individual power to
sway the minds of men.
One has but to refer to the files of the
Tribune for testimonials in this con-
nection; and when the organ says that
church orator" it tries to conceal
in this admission the credit it has been
! forced to accord to him in times gone
by. AS debater, as an orator of rare
| attachments, as public man of high
abilities" the Tribune has lauded B.
H. Roberts AS a campaign speaker
it has devoted column after column to
him and to his speeches. 1t knows,
and the people of Utah know, that 3.
H. Roberts does not owe his position
in the Mormon church to the accident
of birth or the opportunities of fortune
He rose from the ranks with the SCOT
of the shop upon his hands. He won
his laurels as a speaker by the hardest
kind of work. He compelled recogni-
ton by his energy, his application and
| his force of mind.
| If in the Church of Latter-day Saints
! there is a self-made man upon whom
fortune never smiled, whose lot has
| been of constant toll and earnest work,
| that man is B. II. Roberts. Only
narrow partisan would deny the credit
due to him for rising to the place he
seems to occupy, either as a church.
man or as a man.
Whether his life has been well spent
in the work in which he has engaged
or not, is not for us to say. 1t is
matter of religious conviction, with
which The Herald will not concern it
self in this campaign. Mr.. Roberts
can fight his own church battles; that
! is in his line. But The Herald is ready
to defend his Democracy and the po-
litical rights of the people he repre-
sents.
The Republican organ claims that it
was church influence that nominated
Mr.. Roberts. 1t was the vote of church
members. without a doubt, but they
were also members of the Democratic
party duly elected delegates, and they
had right in that convention to vote
for whom they pleased. But it was
not church influence" as the term
IS understood in Utah; it was not the
peculiar power that our contemporary
aided and abetted in the campaign
Of 1895.
It's pathetic appeal to the men and
women of Utah is an exhibition of rank
hypocrisy and partisan cunning. 1t
sneered at such an appeal in 1895. 1t
cannot expect the people of Utah to