Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1908-04-28
WORDS or WARNING.

The maladmnistration of the affairs
OF this city has continued so long and
become so lagrant that ministers of the
gospel have felt constrained to call at
tention to it in their sermons and utter
solemn words of warning.
Rev. Elmer I. Goshen declared last
Sunday that there are men In the City
service who are abasing themselves for
petty gain. and who are not faithful 20
their oath, nor to their manhood, or
their God. He prophesied that they
would reap retributIon in their own
lives, the Dead Sea fruit of their per-
fidy. the curse Of ruined sons, and the
lasting condemnation OF their fellow
men
Rev. Francis Burgette Short spoke
more particularly of the duplicity of
the party nanipulators who permit the
running of slot machines. I'm defiance
of the City ordinances. because they
need the money they levy on them in
tho form of fines. II follows. he said,
that If the 50. 90 n month is not license.
1t is graft, the same as the $1,000 paid
OF the 18th of each month by the unfor-
Inmates of the demi-monde.
Every decent citizen in this conf
munity viii cordially approve the stand
taken by the clergymen. The manage
ment of public affairs is so utterly
scandalous, both from the moral and
the financial point of ylew.that 1t seems
that III these should hold their peace
the stones would Immediately cry out"
Once before our beautiful City was In
the hands of grafters who plunged 1t
into the abyss OF debt, after having ex-
hausted its we'll filled treasury, and
who looked upon saloons. gambling
houses. and hrothels as effective anti
Mormon. agencies, that were to be
encouraged rather than suppressed.
The situation then became so desperate
that the citizens found IL necessary to
call mass meetings to protest against
the rule of sin and ruin. In that re-
form movement all decent citizens, re-
gardless of creed, took part and a bet
ter era was the result. Some similar
movement would seem to be called for
now.
The trouble however. is constitution
al and not merely accidental. The rem
edy must be radical
The party in power was formed, pri-
marily. for the purpose of serving as
u stepping-stone for disappointed po-
liticIans. upon which to climb toward
the paradise OF their ambition. 1t at
tracted a number OF persons who saw
In tho no1v ,,,avapant an onnprtipftv
of furthering their own selfish inter-
nsts. And in order to win popular
support the leaders promised reforms
hey never intended to carry out They
made promises they never intended to
keep. They appealed to popular pre-
iudices by telling the most infamous
falsehoods about the Church meddling
in politics and re-establishing polyga-
my. They broke the understanding
not to say pledges, upon which the era
OF peace and good feelings was in
augurated, by the issuance of the Mani
festo, which has been unscrupulously
observed by the Church, both in letter
and in spirit. They constructed par
" upon the m-Amcrican principle OF
making political issue of what is, and
should never be anything but, a re-
ligious controversy. That is the real
cause of all the trouble.
Let the citizens demand that the
city officials emancipatc themselves
from the tyranny of the party bosses
ana become, what they ouht to be by
virtue of their election, the servants of
the people; let them strive to- do right
by the people; let them tackle the I'm
ancial and moral problems before them
as honest business men and not as SER
wants of political machine invented
for the benefit of political aspIrants
and hungry tax-eaters; let them APP
ply themselves TO their duties and leave
the churches free to discuss their theo-
loical and ethical differences in tho
proper forum; that Is what is needed
II Is pretty clear now to impartial
onlookers, that the leaders of the false
ly so-called American party started the
anti Mormon" hubbub in order to pick
the pockets, speaking metaphorical-
~ of the people in the con-
fusion that ensued This is evidenced
by the empty treasury, the big deficit,
the neglect OF giving the financial ro-
port the law requires Of the city auditor
and the request for more millions TO
squandor, But people arc being aroused
to a realization of the situation. II
comes late, but not TOO late to save the
City for purity honesty ana material
and spiritual progress.