The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1902-11-08
This Is For Frank Cannon.

ELECTION is over and we are re-
luctant to call attention to any
feature of the campaign in Utah
which should have been outside the
domain of politics. However, an Incl
dent of Monday nights Democratic
rally at the Salt Lake theatre cannot
pass unnoticed by Catholics, because
silence would argue acquiescence in
the truth of the implied charge made
by one of the speakers. He made it
in a roundabout way, concealing the
poison in honeyed words and winsome
speech, all the more dangerous be-
cause of such subtle means to mislead
an audience. The speaker was Frank
Cannon, ex- United States senator, and
chairman of the Democratic state COM
mittee. What he said is tantamount
to charge that the Catholic church
of Utah was party to a bargain MADE
between one of it's members and the
officials of the Mormon church, where
by the Catholic was elected a United
States senator two years ago. In re-
turn for such an unprecedented favor,
the Catholic church in Utah was to
help this Catholic senator keep his
pledge with the dominant church and
work for the election of a Mormon to
succeed Senator Rawlins. Of course
Frank Cannon did not use the above
language. 1t is too plain for the po-
litical orator. What he did say was
this
1T was a splendid day for Utah
when the dominant church here said
that it would not seek to control the
votes of its members; there was no
man or woman of intelligence in Utah
who did not echo the mighty cry.
Every churchman says the state shall
never lay its hands upon the religion
of any adherent of any creed, and in
the same breath these state that no
church shall lay its hands upon the
civil rights of any man or woman in
the United States
1T is not that influence, the infiu-
ence of churches, that 1 fear; it is
the influence of that attempt to put
two churches in the pockets of two
men, to make of Utah a pocket Dor
ough. You have heard the statement
of robbing Peter to pay Paul, and Paul
to pay Peter. This is the scheme
that is being tried in Utah, and it
dates with the giving of one senator
ship, two years ago, to be followed
by the giving of the senatorship to
another from this time on as long as
you shall see fit.
This thing was taking from Paul
to give to Peter, or from Peter to give
to Paul, but the trouble was that it
was not robbing Peter to pay Paul,
but it was robbing the people, and this
is what l call the pocket borough.
have a fond regard for both of the
gentlemen under consideration. 1 do
not need to name them. They are
both Republicans, but they are neither
Devine nor Sutherland, neither Lannan
nor Lawrence, nor Goodwin nor Allen,
nor any of the men whom the Re-
publicans used to follow, for they have
been relegated to the rear.
Il have a fond regard for them both
and reverence for their views. They
have the same right to hold their con-
scientious convictions that you and
have. But thAre IRE many people who
think too much of the splendid creeds
of both churches to drag them through
the highways and byways. that some
man may have a senatorship as a re-
ward for doing it,
The person who puts any other con-
struction to such language than the
we have given it, does not
read Alright. Now. Frank Cannon, if
you have any proofs that Bishop Scan
Ian was behind any bargain made by
Kearns with the dominant
produce those proofs for the
of Catholics, of Cath
Ollie Democrats who embrace 20 per
cent of the voting population of that
faith. What you know about the Nor
mon end of this alleged deal does not
concern us. What you know about
Thomas Kearns' connection with it
does not concern us. 1t is a matter,
after all, between Kearns and his
and wealth in this western
country, struggling for political hon
or, is not much troubled by conscience. |
But the false, misleading position
in which Frank Cannon's speech places
Catholics in the eyes of their fellow
citizens does concern us. 1t is an in
suit to their intelligence, to their faith |
and to their manhood.
1t is not necessary to defend Bishop |
Seaman from such false imputation, |