Elk City mining news. (Elk City, Idaho) 1903-1913, 1913-03-20
SUBSCRIPTION RATES:
Entered at the Elk City, Idaho, Post
office for transmission through the
mails as second-class matter.
The Only Way the State Can Be
Saved.

Saved.
In disparaging and repudiating the
agitation for a new state the Boise
Capital News says ''there is abundant
cause for dissatisfaction, but we doubt !
that that the north has any more
ground for complaint than any other
sections of the state" and eff the pro-
gressive people of the north will act in
harmony with the progressive people
in the balance of the state, we promise
that there will be little left of the dis
appointed feeling that has caused the
secession talk" To be sure. Similar
ly, if the good" people will only act
together the other sort will disappear
from the face of the earth. Unhappily
the rub always comes in as to who are
the progressive people, who the good
people, who the real temperance peo-
pie, and so on. There is no agreement
as to that and no shibboleth by which
men or their principles can be uner-
ringly tested in formative politics, for
purposes of universal harmony. 1t is
good old United States doctrine to
differ all we please in our politics al d
it is fair to say that the American peo-
pie avail themselves Of that privilege
to the fullest extent. That is the
cause of our undoing, in the present
juncture where we are confronted by
section and sect, which, FOR prac
tical purposes, has 10 politics or prin-
ciples, in large sense, and which pos
sesses a numerical strength and a SOL
idarity that enables it to exercise an
absolute balance of power as long as
the rest of the state divides up on the
usual lines of controversy, as it has in
variably done up to this day. While
all the rest Of US are fighting for de-
mocracy or republicanism or progressive
ism, or for various special features of
our respective platforms or public in
terests, and dividing up our strength
accordingly, another sect or section is
voting solidly for Mormonism, for
Mormon power and for Mormon ag-
grandizement. AS result it is able
to, and does. elect its own special ticket
at the general poll for the federal con-
gress and for the state government and
to elect enough Of the legislature to en-
force its views, affimnatively or mega
lively, upon state policy. These views,
however admirable they may be from
that special standpoint, are still not
the views of the average red-blooded,
American citizenship. The generality
of people think out their plans, policies
preferences, and choose their best and
Strongest men, as they conceive, to
represent them in the outcome that a
sordid deal at Salt Lake has determined
in advance who are to man the govern
ment service and upon What lines it is
to be run. The natural and proper di-
visions of the rest of the state enable
that small but strong and subtle mi
nority to swing to result any way il
chooses and thus to set at naught al
the considerations that American citi
zenship holds highest and dearest. TIL,
reasonable and simple thing to do
therefore, seems to be to meet solid
arity with solidarity and to agree OF
some line of action that will enabl
this to be done. 1t cannot be done b,
each clinging to and fighting for hi
particular isms, as has been done in tn
past, but by letting go of those isms
at least until there is chance to max
them mean something, which is not tn
case now. Specifically, we must for
get that we are democrats, republican
or progressives, even that we are pre-
hibitioners or anti prohibitioners, an
stand for the state first. which ir
wolves new statehood also or It's aban
donment, as public opinion may decree
But as things stand now we exhaust c
nullify our various forces against eac
other al d defeat our own purpose.
whereupon it requires only the mos
rudimentary reasoning to understan
how compact and cohesive minorit
is able to have its own way and to in
press it's power so effectually upon til
public life and public policy of tt
state. Lewiston Tribune.