The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1908-11-07
HIS PERFECT ORGANIZATION. >

of the Republican county committee
that il was their perfect organization
which did the work, puts him in th'
list of sarcastic humorists. The bite,
irony involved in that remark recall,
the story OF an Indian agent in the
old Northwest. He was appointed from
little town and held the office OF
agent for four years, at salary o.
$4,000 a year. He came back az the
end of his torn worth 100000 clear
! although be had hvcd. aud habitually
lived, wasteful, e1travagnt life, Ar
sdmiring and awe stricken friend asked
him how he managed to accumulate such
fortune on such comparativ ely
small salary. His reply was, "By the
enforcement of tho strictest economy.
That economy was a good deal of the
samo character as the organization that
Mr. Eldredge urges as the reason for
the success of the church Republican
party. The fact is that there was no
organization il that party that
amounted 10 anything So dazed,
ratified, and uncertain, was be (and
the other Republican managers wore
in the same fx) that on the night be
fore election they did not dare to take
bets that were offered them which, if
they had had any idea of where they
stood in the election, if they had had
any organization that gave them an
idea of what the result would be. they
would have snapped at those bets like
tho hungry trout at tly.
It was not organization, but the
turning over OF the campaign to the
church officials that did the work. When
those officials detached from their party
membership the Democratic voters in
the church and threw them into the
- Republican - column, that was worth
TO the church politicians something
close to four thousand votes. Then the
desire of large number of Republican
Americans TO vote for Taft, this de
sire outweighing their concern for their
local ticket, and their unfamiliarity
with the voting machine, their uncer.
tainty as 10 their ability TO vote for
Taft and also vote for the American
local ticket. combined with their de-
sire TO make no mistake iu having their
ballot count for Taft, was worth at
least two thousand votes to the Re-
publican management. And then there
was another proposition that a wide
awake chairman would have been able
TO work aud which would 30 entirely
with methods adopted here.
toTore, and 80 some extent were known
To have been adopted at the recent
election
There is system OF mission work
in the Mormon church and the calling
OF missionaries which covers petty
much everything that may be desired.
Suppose that & wIQe.awake chairman
of the Republican county committee
had scanned the field as did the Arab
waudeTer, 'EFrom Bah el Mandeb
TO Shiraz,' and had taken in picture
of the State Of Utah from the Idaho
border TO the Arizona line, and had
noted the multitude Of Mormon settle.
nents therein, each one of which could
easily have spared from half q dozcu
% two dozen missionaries 10 do work,
n Salt Lake for q few days, q week,
,r q month, prior to and inclndiug clcc-
ion day, these missionaries coming in
IN tickets furnished and lodging here
With friendly families where they could
stay aud be fed without cost; those mig
'ionaries would not be missed in the set
t1nt nnie
aggregate of them on their arrival in
Salt Lake would easily run into the
and perhaps into the thou.
lands without ANYBODY taking special
lotice Of what was going on, When to
hose missionary irruptiops Is added
he possibility Of keeping the registrsr
ion lists open illegally right along up
o aud including election day: the pos.
ability, further, of appointing election
ndges who would refuse TO listen TO
.hallenges and would insist upon any
nc OF those Offering 10 vote being al |
owed TO vote without inquiry or e1-
,lanation, then the results could be
obtained by the help OF the church |
without much need OF any party organ
cation at all, The missionary work OF !
he church is generally of the most !
ealous character, And when the work /
depends exclusively upon the personal |
.ct of the one called upon the mission,
hen the result is absolutely sure,
One of the old stories of the Cleve. |
and Presidential days was where Tim |
sullivan, Of New York, undertook to |
'erSuade Mr., Cleveland to do q certain |
hing. and Mr.. Cleveland said that ne |
ould not Go it, that il would be against !
ne Coustitution, Mr.. sullivan S reply |
vas: "Ah, Mr. President. what is the |
between frieuds9' Like |
wise in the cnsc here supposed, the OBJ
eetion might be made that that would /
,e against the law and would subject |
III concerned TO prosecution, and Oh
onviction TO incarceration in Jail. To
which the reply. absolute and coucius-
We, could be made: What does the |
aw amount TO as opposed 20 the priestly /
Will. and how are you going 10 punish |