The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1906-10-12
TIE WILL WAS OBEYED.

The Democratic convention
obeyed the Smoot dictation in obsequi
Gus form. 1t put up ticket that car
either be supported or dropped, or sup
ported IN part and dropped in part
It is emphatically a trading ticket.
which at the last can be dealt with
if thought necessary, by the usual Sun
day evening Signals from the ward
meeting houses; the Sunday evening
lust prior to the Tuesday election. AT
that time the mind of the hierarchy
will be made up, II will have been
conveyed TO the "whisperers, and the
ward mapipulators can give the
key of the situation to all the faith
ful, so that the controlled church vote
can be cast FOR brothers so-and~so on
the "Republican ticket, and for
brothers so-and-so on the Democrat"
ic'' ticket, making neat combine to
the end that the selected and preferred
brethren of each ticket Will receive
that controlled vote, in order that the
Kingdom OF God - may be magni6ed
and its votaries not waste their
strength in a vain conflict between the
faithful ones of Israel.
The platform is a curious medley. 1t
carries the usual courtesies and platl-
tudes; recalls the former county Dem"
ocratic administration which 1t re-
quired q series of decisions Of the Ter
rltorial Supreme Court to compel to
put the county finances in order and
prevent from repudiatlng the county S
obligations; "points with pride to
the imbecile and ridiculous admins
tration of Mayor Morris, and apparent
ly regrets Morris's defeat last year,
he being Smoot S candidate. 1t insists
that to that administration is due the
conception of the additional water
supply, the new sewer. etc, which is
about as correct a claim as 1t would
be TO say that a scbool-boy's s slate
drawing of an 'ellifunt' is the germ
of master painter of that animal.
The Morris conception was crude, Ill
cor nsidered, impracticable. and IN so
far as the Morris administration be"
gan to carry it cut, the work was
incompetent, unfit, and all had TO be
remodeled, strengthened, protected and
made practically usable, The conduit
had to be thus dealt with, and the
sewer had to be rcsurveyed and put
at a depth which IL was possible TO
dig, and not at depth which was
utterly out of practicability.
On the question of interest on the
public funds, the same confusion Of
mind exists in this platform; the
writer of II evidently did not compre'
hend the fact that interest balances
interest. and that what might be re-
ceived on one fund would have TO be
paid out on another.
The declaration IN favor of can
equal and Just assessment OF all prop
erty for taxation is excellent; but it
is probable that the man who put that
in the platform did not know just
what he was up against. He stated
frst-class American doctrine II this,
but it is not doctrine that either Of
the church parties can adopt IN fact,
10 matter what either may say. spe.
cial privileges for the faithful, and
special burdens on the outsider" is
the church doctrine, and always has
been. And this has been source of
Indignation ard protest for all the
time that the outsider has been
in Utah.
Where this Democratic platform
derources the present Republican -
administration for incompetence, "as
demonstrated by the recent bond sale
and by the management of the county
inirmary," it is on solid ground; the
evils here denounced have been the
subject Of exposure and just excoria-
ton by The Tribune from time to time.
And the further maladministration, N
extravaganza in the multiplication Of
deputies and other employees, is no
doubt correctly charged.
AL IN all, the work of this county
Democratic convention was neither
worse nor better than had been eE-
pected II did the work of the church
bosses, and left the grooves to be 6t-
ted In as between its nominations and
the nominees of the church Repuhli-
can. convention, as the ecclesiastical
magpates think best or get the
heavenly bunch. And what more or
what else could possibly have been
expected from the church controlled
convention9 It did what it was told
to do, and what else is there for sub
servience to accomplish?