The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1906-12-03
COVERS WITH OBLOQUY.

Not all of President Joseph +.
Smith S paths will be paths of political
pleasantness He may for little time
longer dance along the primrose
way because his power in this inter
mountain country is highly esteemed by
certain practical gentlemen who desire
TO hold Office for themselves, or TO aid
their friends, or TO minister TO the
financial concerns in which they are in
tercsted, or to maintain an exchange
by which they pretendedly offer politi
cal and administrative protection in re-
turn for wholesale delivery of votes.
But segregated from these material
things is the public conscience: and in
the long accounting ~ the United States
that is the most powerful influence that
has ever swayed or can sway the atti-
tude of parties and the affiliations of
partisans. Thus, despite his worth as
wholesale and retail dealer in political
pelf in the intermountain region--to
the party which happens at the present
moment to be in his favor, President
Joseph F. Smith is under the condemna-
tion of the public conscience of the
United States, and that condemnation
finds its expression in certain eminent
Republican newspapers with more force
than even the Democratic press ex-
hibits.
The Indianapolis Star is the greatest
newspaper in the State Of Indiana, and
one of the most influential Republican
journals of the Middle West 1t is
understood to be controlled by Vice
President Charles Warren Fairbanks, or
by men who are devoted TO him po-
litically and personally. and who ad
wise with him upon public questions.
The Star is not awed by any fear Of
Joseph F. Smiths political vengeance.
1t dares to speak Of him and of the
Utah situation intelligenJly and fear
lessly. Under the title. ga Cheerful
LIAR it prints an editorial article
which is reproduced in this issue
of The Tribune. The view which
the Star expresses may not be CRATE
fully received by the hierarchy of the
Mormon church, but it should serve as
a warning, for it is the premonitory
utterance of the public conscience of
the United States.
While the Indianapolis Star is evi-
IDENTIFY speaking of the Utah case with
out any regard to the political effect
which Republican antagonism may
have upon Joseph +. Smith's political
ipulations-the Star may be even
conscious of his power and his dis"
position for vengeance and may be de-
flying both in it's performance of an
apparent public duty-yet il should be
made aware that in the eventuality
its utterance and its labor must
surely inure 70 Republican benefit. Jo-
seph f. Smith is using the Republi
can party of the Nation as a shield
TO his improper proceedings in Utah
and surrounding country with an
organization which is miscalled Repub-
lican. There is nothing in the Smoot
machine, which is Smith g Re
publican party, that gives TO 1t
any consonance with National Re-
publicanism. Its whole spirit is
antagonistic to the ideals of the
National organization. Its pretended
service is for a price 1t may be that
not all of the National leaders are yet
aware of the fact, but it is true that
the Mormon church would renounce de-
votion to Republcanism in an Instant
and give equal devotion and an equal
prcponderauce of votes to Democracy
if the selfish interests of the church
could thereby be suhserved. 1t is
not conviction upon National questions
which lends Joseph +, Smith and his
following into Republican ranks
Smith himself could not give an in
telligent National reason for his pre-.
tended partisauship. The motive
for him aud his satellites is to Sc
cure the protecting care of the party |
in power. The motive would be as
strong if by. any chance the Democracy q