The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1910-04-23
SHOOTS POWER SITE ELL.

II l. quite natural that the conseTva'
ton forces should oppose Smoot's bill
for the granting Of water control and
power sites to the States. II is evident.
however, that this opposition is on sen
timeDtsl grounds. and ought not TO sp-
ply. The real ground Of opposition 10
the Smoot bill is quite different from
that which the conservationists would
urge. They oppose il in the interest of
the Clifford Pinchot policies. but the
] true opposition is on account of the
favoritism and graft which would in.
evitably cnsuc.
II this bill passes, there will be
legislation in Utah which would give
TO the Mormon church. its apostles,
priests. seers and rcvclators, everything
OF value in the State, relating 10 water
privileges. II would be 2 good deal
like the action of some Of the earlier
legislatures in this (theu) Territory
which made land grants Of the different
CANYONS to various Of the church lead
ors-City Creek To Brigham Young.
Big Cottonwood TO Daniel n. Wells,
and so on. The difference is that these
old land grants would not stick, being
usurpations OF authority
not vested in the Legislature. In the
case now supposed, however. with the |
Smoot bill passed and the authority con
ferred upon the Legislature to manage |
these power sites and water rights, the |
nights conferred on or obtained by the
fsvoritcs and church rulers would he
valid and would hold. The Mormon
Legislature with Mormon Governor,
both departments entirely subservient
TO the church, would give the church
leaders anything they might desire. and
thoir desire is limited only by their un-
bounded avarice, their all-cmbracing ap
oetites and lusts.
To what extent other States might
Yield TO persuasions or coercious of vari
nus kinds and so part with these val
IabIe rights and privileges and favor
Individuals or corporations, for a mere
ong, is not so evident as in the case
e Utah. 1t can be safely assumed, {
however, that undue influences would
'revail far more than they should in
most OF the States. In Utah it is {
oregone conclusion that the "Fedcr- {
] bunch and the church leaders '
would take everything in sight, leav. G
ne the masses Of the people moro com q
letcly at the mercy of these harpies f
han ever before I
direct precedent for the throwing c
way Of the people s rights. tho vast :
ne of their property regardless OF
heir interests, as here Supposed, was G
Immediately upon the State Il
T Utah being organized, in the dis
osal OF lands granted, especially the ?
congressional grants for common I
chools. These grants were shamefully D
rttercd away, were practically given v
, favorites of the church for almost J.
othing. and the school fund is de-
letcd, so that it amounts TO scarcely
ne'tenth, perhaps we might say one.
of what il ought to be. :,
nd so 1T has been right along with
gard TO school lands or anything else =,
, sight. The priesthood has taken %
'erything that it could lay its hands
D. and the public has been CORES :,
ondlngly defrauded. There is not the ,
ast possibility OF doubling this, and :,
'ere is not The least possibility of 9,
'olding the practical certainty that the n
inc tactics would be repeated as TO 4
ater power that has been put into f,
lect IN other directions. through the p
huenccs of the evil powers in con n
ol since the comforting Of Statehood h.
bon Utah.
The Smoot bill would probably work m
nj everywhere. 1t would inevitably e,
I'd certainly be an unmitigated evil b
I'd scourge upon Utah. II,