The Salt Lake herald-Republican. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1909-1918, 1909-12-29
IN CIVILIZATIONS CENTER.


article from the Newark CN. j. News
and give it place in another column on
this page. 1t tells OF the discovery of
four boys within six miles of the cen
ter of Newark-found Ia a condition
Of savagery and barbarism that we be-
lieve viii astound every western read
er Just look over the article. It need
not be repeated here
And now, having read it, get the pic
ture firmly fastened in your mind.
Note the place where those boys were
found-within twenty minutes of the
ferry to New York. in the most popu-
lous country of the nation. In the very
heart of one of the richest states of the
Union. At the door of all the wealth
and culture and refinement and pre-.
tense and display and arrogance and
phariseeism that can be assembled on
the continent.
Right there they found four boys,
from three to eleven years Of age, who
had never seen a stairway; who had
never heard Of a school; who didn't
know about Santa Claus. If ever
barbarism had footing on earth it is
found expressed in that New Jersey
condition.
We speak Of this matter with some
feeling because there is now in Utah
a company of travelling missionaries
who come to the state every year and
take pictures of the least pTetentiOus
Of houses, and send them back east
with the statement that they are rep
resentative of Utah homes. Because
thousands Of people in the east are con-
ddent there are no school houses out
side the biggest cities in this state.
Because it is the idea Of the New Jer-
sey people that Utah is a land Of un-
lettered and ul-bred folk, with the ira
ditions and manners Of the cave man,
and the aspirations Of the Hun.
Furthermore, the condition discov-
cred there near Newark can be dupI-
Gated in a thousand cases within that
state. Back Of that mountain and
other mountains, and precisely the
same conditions that produced these
four barbarian boys have produced
other barbarian boys without con-
venieat number. OF course, the coun-
try win not be told Of that The east
win be startled at first on reading Of
this Christmas find. And then, with
the publication Of it New Jersey win
realize that it is not entirely credita-
bic to that pharisee Of states; and no
more such finds viii be welcomed. But
the barbarians are there.
And what is true Of New Jersey is
true of every other state east Of the
Allegheny mountains. There is the
backwoods Of the nation. There are
the untaught, the cave men, the root
eaters, the savages.
Living out here where there are
churches and schools in every town,
where the lecture and the concert and
the amateur play and the fair and the
newspaper and the blessings of all the
worlds thought are the common and
certain heritage Of every .child-where
there absolutely is no duplicate Of such
a condition as that described in New
Jersey-in this state, we are a little en-
tertained by that confession Of condi-
ton in the east.
And it is our good pleasure to sug-
gest TO the people who have been re-
forming Utah, who have been examin-
ing Utah through their smoked glasses,
that they would be doing themselves a
service. and the nation a benefit, if
they would attend to their own bust
ness-which will include a correcting
of evils of their own before they pa
tronizingly pretend 10 uplift the people
of Utah
These four boys win never again be
so hopeless as they have been. They
have seen through the open door. They
will never again be the same barbarians
they were before their rich discovery
But, even with them removed, there is
a very big beam in the eastern eye
which should be removed before any
attempt is made to take the mote
from the eye Of any other community
however it may be named.