The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1906-08-11
pLUNDER UPON BLUNDER.


know where they are at. Some Of their
hired insultcrs OF courts and assassins
| of character have been throwing bombs
| unfortunately, have been firing their
shotguns into crowds without any re-
gard for the personnel and the horr1-
| flying result is now observed that
| while-they have merely insulted some
| Of the non-Smootlerites, including the
| Supreme Court of Uteh-they have
sctuallv slaughtered some Of their own
| pets and wounded so many others of
| their own that the bosses are In de-
spair, and the followers are in disgust.
Nor is this all the trouble. Those
| sly efforts which were being made by
concert Of the autocrats Of the Smoot-
lerte crowd to gain political advan-
| tage have resulted in trying complexi-
| ties and in the alienation Of sentiment.
Taken in its entirety, with the cum
ming schemes gone awry, with the
sandbaggers of the party mauling each
other and with the shotgun brigade
peppering their own friends, it is evil
| dent that the whole crowd Is thorough
| ly demoralized.
The Smootites thought to get a spe.
cial session Of the Legislature for base
| partisan purposes, but with the avowed
motive of a consolidation Of the two
big State schools. In this work they
had the highminded help Of some Of
the important people Of the State, and
for little time they thought the pro-
! ject would go through under cover of
the disinterested movement to simplify
and improve the educational system;
| but the exposure Of the under purpose
was too much for them, and the only
result was to antagonize the interests
which they had hoped to gain and to
so entangle Congressman Howell that
his own homo paper-a friend Of the
Agricultural College-charged him with
perfdy, The thing had to be aban-
doned in wreck.
The Smootites sought to protect their
machine at Ogden by coercing the Dis
trict Court; and today the Judge Of
that court, a nephew of Congressman
Joseph Howell, is expected by the pub
lic-in fulhllment of his own intima-
tion--to cite before him two of the
| chief Smootites Of the State, the At
| torney- General and the United States
Marshal, to answer to charge Of con-
tempt which is fully proved by their
own confession. That is a second nice
mess of the general Generalization.
Then TO shield themselves from pub
lie odium the Smootite agencies here
brought charges against members of the
City Council and sought to especially
designate two American party mem
bers as having received money from
the city treasury without warrant of
law. A gross criminal libel was per-
petrated by the Smoot agencies stating
that the case Of the Salt Lake Council
men was the same as that of the Ogden
Councilmen; when in reality there
could not be wider difference. In the
Ogden case the money was appropri-
ated for no service performed and
against the distinct letter of the stat
ute in the Salt Lake case the money
was appropriated for actual service
performed and in exact accord with
the statute and the ordinance. Not
only did the Smootites blunder in this
particular, but they entangled certain
Smootite Councilmen in the malicious
charges. More decentralization, moro
wrecking Of their party, more throwing
of bombs Unfortunately, more firing
OF shotguns into a crowd Of their own
henchmen.
Then to cover the outrageous offense
perpetrated upon q District Judge by
the Smootite favorites-the Attorney
General Of the State and the United
States Marshal-the Smootite agencies
| have lied about the Supreme Court
have laid themselves liable to arraign-
ment before that distinguished tribunal
Generalization, moro creation Of an
tagonisms, more desperation on the part
Of leaders and disgust on the part of
followers.
Smootism was 4 decaying force in
Utah up to the recent ebullition of rage
and folly. 1t needed only few more
blunders, such as have been committed,
to discredit the bosses completely and
to discourage the rank and file. Its
attempt to protect the guilty and its
vicious assaults on the innocent had
already driven away the decent element
Of the community, and now its wild,
harum-scarum attacks on some Of its
own people and its utter insecurity
of leadership are driving away its sell
q IL L. L.
with it in its triumph, but who have
no reason to remain with 1t in defeat.
|