The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1907-03-09
THE ORGAN EXPLAINS.

The church organ processes to eX-
pound to the public what is and has
always been and always will be the
City Council concerning the vice of
the city,
The News makes its presentation os-
! tcnsibly as an answer to The Tribune 8
! editorial on "That Gambling Charge
and with its usual facility in the avoid
ance of facts, the church organ entirely
misstates the case The News says
that, upon the suppression of gambling
by the American party administration,
"bunco steerers came here in droves "
that crime went on just the same. OF
course that is not true; and the char
acter of the opposition to the police de-
partment of this city is a demonstration
that the gentry of whom the Deseret
News is the especial protector, are
avenging themselves and incidentally
earning special rewards by coming back
to the city whence they were driven
by Chief Sheets to fulfill their threat
60 get even with him for being cast out
The man who does not know that
crime has decreased in Salt Lake, and
the man who will not admit it. is either
without information or honcsty-or
without both.
The church organ is slightly indefi-
mite when it says that "this" has al
ways been and always will be the posi-
tion of Mormon members of the CITY
Council.
But presuming that the News means
that the old policy is the present policy
and the present policy viii be the flu
ture policy-that in this respect eccle-
siastical rule has been Interchangeable;
let us see what it means for Salt Lake:
When none but Mormons were IN the
City Council and when the action Of
that body was controlled entirely from
church Headquarters, the vices Of the
city hourished and furnished a large
revenue from which the eccleslasts took
their toll by means Of large appropri-
ations for their own particular pur-
poses. There are men of fifty years of
age in this community who cannot re-
call the time, even under the strictcst
and most complete Mormon regime,
when tho vices did not flourish and
when they were not approved as
means of sanctifed revenue for the
sancti6ed ones. That is the position
which the News must mean when 1T
talks of the one attitude that was and
is and always will be; for such was the
definite purpose and action when Nor
mon control was so complete that not
a member of the City Council not
city official or employee of any degree,
not policeman or detective, but was
Mormon. and directly under ecclesiasti
cal guidance.
1t comes with i'll grace from the De
seret News to howl against the evils of
life after those evils have
been carefully fostered by the domi
nant church for half century.
The Tribune contends that the atti- |
tude OF the Mormon members and of |
the News itself now fully exposed is
that the vices of the city should be |
encouraged as means of revenue; and I
The Tribune insists that the American |
idea is opposed to this, and that the |
honest taxpayer would prefer TO bear
all the legitimate expenses OF govern
ment rather than to see the young peo
pie of the community dragged to their
ruin by fostered vice, as under the old |
church rule.
The people have spoken on this ques-
tion. They prefer to restrain rather
thar TO encourage vices. Sensible men
and women acquainted with the modern
life, recognize that certain evils are
inevitable TO some extent, but that ey
tent can be curtailsd instead of en-
larged, by wise municipal government.
There can be no question but that the
News prefers the other way, To use
sin as a source of revenue
is to encourage such vice. To repress
and to hold il within the strictest pos
sible bounds is to eliminate. in some
degree, the temptation and the opportu-
mites for wrongdoing with the young
people, whose method Of life fixes
standard for the city's future.