The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-09-21
DEGREES RELIGIOUS ISSUE

AZ the Central Christian church yester-
day morning Rev. Albert Buxton preached
or Fair Play" DR.. Buxton said in
Dart:
Tho poets may sing Of Justice and ora
tors may declaim, Let justice be done
though the heavens fall: vet strict JUS
lice is the hardest virtue to maintain.
we don't want the other fellow to have
fair half; We want the bigger half our
selves. Selfishness will always be the
ruling passion in self-and the chief
wrong for the moral self to fight
But there is a subtler foe to fair play
tndn open SelflShneSS. and that is parti-
sanship. Party spirit always seeks a VIC
tory by any means-fair or FOUL just or
unjust.
Il shall apply the balances this morn
issue may be fairly fought that brings
p1 e1udice in other issues to its aid No
free-trader is fair. if he attempt to down
a Catholic candidate by an appeal to
Presbyterian bigotry: no gold standard or
silver coinage argument is untainted If
the appeal be a hidden attack on per-
sonal character or religious affiliations.
Fair play fights a clear issue in a clean
battlefield.
1T Is not American fair play. nor even
human equity, to fight issues by an un-
just personal attack on the candidate.
American fair play demands that old
issues be buried and old mistakes out
lived.
The north fought. brave and stubborn,
to finish. Southern chivalry fought like
men TO the last ditch. and then. like men,
laid down their arms in honest surren-
der. Yet for twenty years northern poll
ticians went to the polls with the taunt
of rebels on their tongue. Thank God,
nave seen that pass, and today the very
party that sought and secured the doml-
nance Tor twenty years by keeping up
sectional animOsity have placed a rebel
officer in the cabnet-authority
Il care not what the responsibility for
the starvation in Libby prison forty years
ago, nor for the Mountain Meadow mas
sacre fifty years ago. 1t is unclean lack
of manhood that will forever taunt wor-
thy descendants for the sins of unworthy
ancestors. If | were allowed TO adopt a
little unique language of the SCHOOLGIRLS
l would cry to the politicians:
Forget IT." Don't scare the present
generation with mouldy skulls: let them
molder with John Browns body In the
grave
American fair play, as well as the
American constitution. allows religious
freedom of person al belief; and religious
views. however grotesque they seem to
one. are theme for the pulpit. not for
under false pretenses to gain my vote
for the tariff through my dislike for the
Roman Catholic church
Il believe that the brave pioneers who
wrenched from Utah sand a productive
soil. and by AK and chisel conquered her
granite and her forests. have the right to
a theology-to me unique as il is gro
tesque.
IF 1 could find any polygamists |
would tell the police: but | have never
seen a plural wife-though | understand
that there are few such curiosities rap
idly dying off. But l would not seek aid
from any officialdom that l had to sober
up--or down-before the warrant could be
legibly written. 1t Is not fair play to
cover two thousand nightly brothel WISH
tations, open and legalized, with ten cases
OF Illegal cohabitation.
Whatever the political victory / say
to the politicians: Keep the hands of
religious bigotry. whether Gentle or Nor
mon, off from the hottest of holies-our
schools and our courts.
american fair play repudiates the
spoils system. Civil service reform is
here to stay. We want the best schools,
the best postmasters, the most efficient
firemen-and the only question of an
honest man. for the clean control that
will not take a perjured OATH is eff
cheney. efficiency, efficiency. The only
question of appointment for an intelligent
is the question of merit not
graft. The challenge to each applicant
and the only challenge-is not who is
your ward heller. and what Is your vote;
but the sure test of school efficiency Is
child training. or the ability to give us
the surest and quickest mail delivery, or
the certainty that our fires will be in
-to f@k1