The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1906-02-14
BANQUET OR WAKE?

Some three hundred Republicans
gathered in the armory Monday night,
Ostensibly to celebrate the memory of
Lincoln. and really, as the event proved,
to cement the strength of that wing of
the party in Utah which follows the
fortunes Of Senator Smoot. Whether
the occasion was in reality a celebra.-
ton or a wake does not yet appear,
but it is an even bet the wake stands
to win before the year is out.
To begin with, there was one notable
omission, in that no reference was made
to the late unpleasantness of the city
election in which the Republican party
went down TO inglorious defeat and
managed to put in Office the "Ameri-
can" wing Of it's own party. AS the
most conspicuous fact in its recent
party history this ought to have been
given due attention; certainly there
should have been some bouquets of elO-
quence planted on the grave Of the city
ticket, some tears should have been
shed for the sad fate of a former chief
of police who fell outside the breast
works and turned up his political toes
to a duh, gray sky that fateful Novem-
Der day.
Again, although the governor and ex-
governor dwelt on the glories of Repub-
lean rule, the wonderful progress Utah
has made by the grace of the party,
and the magnificent influx of wealth
and population which has followed the
election Of SmOOt and Sutherland to the
senate, there was no word Of praise for
the prowess of the great and noble
hunters who have given the Republi-
can administration the record for boun-
~ payments on overdue hides and
sCalps. Not a word for Jones, the
mightiest hunter since Nimrod's day;
not a syllable for the Republican office
holders who helped Jones and his COM
patriots realize on their pelts and get
away with the proceeds.
To be sure, other states have been
prosperous in these years of RepubIi-
can rule in Utah. Even the southern
states which have CROPPED in darkness
so long under Democratic rule have
forged ahead In wealth and population.
Some Of them have even surpassed
Utah in progress in spite Of their po-
Htical ignorance and blindness; but
such facts are immaterial, not to say ir-
relevant and incompetent to a RepubIf-
can orator in a spenbinding spasm.
To hear these Smoot Republicans talk
one would think they built the San
Pedro railroad, projected and initiated
the Western Pacific. f1Oated the new
smelter undertakings and financed the
Bingham and Newhouse mining opera
tiOns. While they We're claiming credit
for all the kindness of a boutifuI Prov
idence, they might as well have claimed
the rest Of the beneficent things that
have happened to Utah in common with
the other states Of the Union.
The truth is, and these Republicans
know 1t, that they have disrupted their
party, helped discredit their state
abroad, furnished the only administra-
tive scandals the state has ever had.
and now face a future full of forebod-
ing for them and their organization. OF
course they blinked at the truth; of
course they felicitated one another on
the great things they have done and
are yet to do, but it was a swan song.
a tune whistled in sight of the grave
yard.
The Republican party of Utah is
booked for a long period of penance
and contrition, of reform and reorgan-
ization before it can lay any claim TO
the confidence or respect of the people.
Three banquets a day could not conceal
this fact; and the brethren might as
well save their Fluctuations for some
day, long way ahead, when they may
hope for forgiveness and ask once more
to be entrusted with the confidence of
the people.
Coming to national issues, former
Governor Wells furnished, a. small SEN
sation by nominating Roosevelt for a
third term in the presidency. Does he
expect Theodore to be. named by the
Democracy? With a programme bor-
rowed from the Democrats he couldn't
very we'll run again as a Republican;
and if he did he couldn't command a
corporaPs guard in convention except
from the officeholders he has appointed.
Two more years of such waning popu-
larity as the Strenuous One is earning