The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1910-09-03
1T IS A PUBLIC NUISANCE.

1T IS A PUBLIC NUISANCE.
The Smoot paper here appears to b'
taking action constantly to inJure th'
business interests Of this city and thu
interests of the community at large
1t is only few days ago that 1T made
a loud bid for the increase of fire in
surance rates here through q false an(
| malicious attack upon the fire depart
ment. Yesterday morning it got up
scare about a fake shortage in the sup
clared by the coal miners near KEN
ncrer and Diamondville, Wyoming
This WAS all the more inexcusable since
the news of the day showed that that
strike had been settled and that the
miners had gone to work.
The trouble with the Smoot paper
appears TO be that it has politics on the
brain so much that il is not able to
distinguish between satisfactory bust
ness conditions and unsatisfactory po.
litical conditions; that is, unsatisfac-
tory to it. AS long as Salt Lake City
is in the hands of the American party,
the Smoot paper appears to consider
1T to be its duty to find fault all along
the line, whether the fault is politi-
cal, business, economic, or social 1t
is an extremely bad policy. Any pa
per of intelligence ought to have sense
enough to know where politics ends
and business begins
AT the same time the Smoot paper
seizes upon every occasion. small or
great, to magnify Smoot. There was a
little item that came from Washington
which The Tribune had also, but did
not consider 1T of overruling import
ance, to the effect that the Interior De-
partment was disposed to make a broad
construction of the additional home
stead filing that the law now allows
The matter was before the Salt Lake
Land Office and was literally construed
here In favor of the homesteaders, as
was quite proper and as has been usual
until the Pinchot restrictive policies
began, Smoot being a special advocate
and champion of those restrictive poll
cies and having taken the privilege of
calling Governor Brady a liar on three
separate occasions during the Cover.
nors convention here, when Brady
TO show some abuses of the
Plnchot restrictive policies. It was per
haps natural to suppose that Smoot him.
self would be in opposition to the lib
eral construction of the law. Perhaps
he is so. And yet his paper, merely
because Smoot s name is connected
with the additional homestead law,
takes occasion to magnify Smoot s con-
nection with this case as decided by
some others, and to make a sensational
splurge about it, merely because OF the
Smoot connection with the passage of
the law. The case came up in due or
der as a matter of routine and was
decided IN accordance with the usual
precedents and the evident meaning of
the law, by the local land office here.
Now the Interior Department afirms
The ruling made by the local land of
icers and 10, the Smoot organ comes
'ut with a crimson yell to the effect
hat SmOot has done it all. 1t is
stupid act of spectacular folly for
Smoot to allow this sort of exultant
boost for him in his paper
IN account of the work done by others
And yet Smoot is just the lad to enjoy
hat sort Of thing, to take advantage of
{ through his paper to minimize what
else does and magnify him
elf as the real center of activity
throughout it all, no matter how small !
lis connection with the immediate case
n hand has been
These contrasting instances show to |
What length the stupid folly of the
'moot paper leads it in it's destructive |
actics against the business and com. |
nunlty interests on the one hand, and |
n extravagant eulogy of Smoot for DO |
itical purposes on the other With the |
me hand it wields weapon of destruc. |
ion unwarrantably and injuriously to
ii community interests concerned.
With the other it waves the exultant
'moot banner, trying to convey the idea
hat Smoot is the do-all and the be.all,
he one person whose beneficial work is
to the community and to
he State. The community stands all
his sort of thing, of course, but it is
either pleased with the mischief done
o business nor does it view otherwise
han with contemptuous scorn the pue.
lie effort to puff the Smoot bladder into
real, high-soaring balloon.
THE SORT OF REVELATION