The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1910-10-26

What is it that really has kept Salt Lake
City and other busy centers of the state of Utah
from growing as have the other active centers
of the west?
Has it been the policy Of the Gentiles or
has it been the policy of the Mormons?
No state in the west is better located from
climatic standpoint, from the standpoint of
undeveloped resources, or from geographical
standpoint than is Utah. And yet, every state,
with the exception Of Wyoming and Nevada,
which are in large measure great desert wastes,
has increased in population far more swiftly
than has this.
Do the tens of thousands of homeseekers
and investors pass by Utah because few thou
sand non -Mormons have lived here? Or is it
because the ecclesiastical leaders of the dom
inant church have insisted on establishing
temporal kingdom here and have resisted every
effort that has been made to establish govern
ment that is free from the control of the priest
hood OF the church2 Answer this, men and
women of Utah. and when you have done so,
ask yourself whether or not you and your chill
dren can hope to benefit by the continuance of
present conditions.
Has it hurt Salt Lake City to have it
known throughout the land that Gentiles and
independent, lawabiding anG iberty-loving
members of the Mormon church have estab-
hshed firm footing here? Has not the city
grown faster during the past five years than
ever before in its history? Has Salt Lake City
not become a more desirable place to live than
ever before? Has there not been in truth and
in fact, an almost complete transformation?
And has not every measure proposed, whose
tendency was to the betterment Of the physical
conditions of the city, been stubbornly resisted
by the Deseret News, the politically controlled
agents of the Mormon church, and by the self
seeking non -Mormons of this city?
Don't you know that the best advertising
which Salt Lake City ever had has been the an
nouncement that there is a majority of the
voters of this city who are opposed to the rule
of the priesthood of the dominant church?
Has not the census itself and the great in
crease in building permits and business activi-
tiles of all kinds been complete answer to
those who say that agitation by the Americans
has injured the city?
Recently Hampton s Magazine contained an edi-
toral which completely defends by the records of the
the abuse of power by certain elements in number
of the leading cities of the United States 1t is shown
that those who have been ntrenched behind the bull
warks of Especial privileges have invariably de-
claimed against the muckrakers and have exclaimed
that criticism of the order of things in these
cities would hurt the town. A striking illustration
is made by Hampton Is in the of Cleveland and
Cincinnati. Tom johnson made vigorous fight against
various forms of corruption and franchise abuses He
beautifed the city and filed it with parks, play
cried out against him the grounds that his policy
was etinlurng the cty's credit'' aud driving away
capital -
Boss Cox ruled Cincinnati and stood for the
most shameful abuses. Cincinnati IS increase but
eleven and twotenths cent the population of
1900: while Cleveland's increase 400 per cent,
which makes Cleveland the metropolis of the state
Detroit was freed from the clutches of those who
had the city in the interests of special clique,
and increased in population 63 per cent. The money
vored few improve the physical conditions
of Detroit, and it is known for its beauty up.to
dateness and thrift. Pttsburg which gained the repu
tation for dirt disorder and civic diseases of every
Sort gained but 1876 per cent.
In nearly every city where the people were awal
people, ruling and set about the eradicating
of those evils grew tremendously those who yield
ed to the false claims of the reactonares that agta
ton 'fhurt the town.
Hampton very properly asserts that ''mu-
nicipal beauty is city's asset
No city in the country has had finer ex-
ample Of what it means to root up the old
things and to install the new, than has Salt