The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1906-11-20
PROPHET SUTHERLAND.

Hon. George Sutherland announces,
through the dispatches from Washing
ton, thnt Apostle Reed Smoot will not
be excluded from his seat in the Sen,
ate.
That depends. The Republican party
OF tie United States does not commit
many blunders Of political character.
Occasionally it errs, but it is quick TO
note the mistake and to apply the
remedy The retention Of Reed smoot
can only be achieved by an assumption
on the part Of the Republican party of
the responsibility for his continued
presence in the Senate as the embassa-
dor from his church. The burden has
! been shifted from Utah, upon which
! commonwealth he was imposed by the
| hierarchs, and il now rests upon the
| Republican majority Of the Senate. If
that body, dominated by Republicans
and Influenced by the party organiza-
ton, shall choose 10 override the con
elusive report of the Committee on
Privileges and Elections and shall
choose to accept the special pleadipgs
of the minority Of that committee, the
responsibility for Smootism will be
long inescapably to the party of "great
moral ideas.
The Senate itself has not yet consid
cred the testimony upon which the ma.
jority Of the committee based their
irrefragable report. Notwithstanding
the ipse dixit Of Mr., Sutherland it re.
mains TO be seen whether the Republi-
can party of the United States, after
due consideration OF the evidence which
was afforded, IS willing to carry Smoot-
ism before the Nation. When the
party leaders weigh the argument for
and against, they may conclude that
they do not propose to commit the
political blunder Of making Smootism
an issue in the National campaign of
1908 with the Republican party on the
defensive and the citizenship Of the
United States taking the offensive.
1t is true that question Of such
gravity should not be determined by
political expediency or partisan inter.
est; but it is equally true that Smoot-
ism has depended upon politics for its
maintenance. The sole hope Of Smoot.
ism has been in the willingness of Re.
publicans politicians In the country to
protect Smoot because Of political CO.
operation by the Mormon hierarchy
with Republicans in the intermountain
country. Having invoked partisanship
TO guard his seat, Apostle Smoot and
his local allies can have no just COM
plant if political considerations shall
also weigh with his party when it
shall come to. a. formal decision a5 to
whether it is willing to stand before
the Nation in q Presidential election
as the sponsor for Smootism in the law
making branch of the Government of
the United States.
The Tribune will not attempt to vie
with the junior Senator from this State
in making prediction concerning the
vote of the majority of Republican
Senators at Washington on this great
question. But this paper will venture
to express the opinion that when Sen
ator Burrows gets through with the
presentation of the committee report
and his showing in support of the COM
mittee g conclusion, there will be some
Republican Senators now counted on
the side. of Snoot who will either vote
against the Mormon apostle or they will
be compelled to belle the record Of their
lives.
The Senate Committee on Privileges
and Elections reported, as its conclu.
sion, that Reed Smoot was not entitled
TO his seat as Senator. That ,conclu-
sion was substantiated by an exposure
so complete that the people Of the
United States will be made TO under.
stand what Smootism means: 1t rep.
resents, as the committee shows, a po-
lygamous and reasonable hierarchy
dominating in politics and using poll
tical machinery for their own selfish
law breaking and un-American purposes
1t represents union Of church and
state, with the church dominating the
state. 1t represents conditions so un-
bearable that all Americans, sensitive
Of their rights, who come under the
sway of the church rule here, arc rising
in rebellion. 1t cannot endure; and
the party which protects it now must
some time cast it of. In this view
it is not unreasonable to believe that
the Junior Senator has spoken without
warrant and that the Republican ma
Jority In the Senate will decline to take
the responsibility of serving the Nor
mon church by retaining its cmbassa-
dor as maker at Washington.
By the way, what kind of speech
will Senator Sutherland make on this
question: Will he occupy the attitude
which he held when he was opposing