The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1913-07-30
NO DISPLACEMENT,

Ii is surprising 10 see the proneness
OF captious people 20 misreprescnt
those whom they consider their op-
Deseret News Of Monday evening, in
a statement referring to The Tribune s
comments on Pioneer Day, in which the
church organ affects 10 see an effort
TO throw discredit upon the achieve
ments OF the pioneers. by suggesting
that they did not have a very hard
task after all, since various other
parties had preceded them as ex"
plorers, or had followed them as
colonists.' In this the News is evil
IDENTIFY following the childish and fool.
ish chatter of the Smoot organ, rather
than what The Tribune itself said.
We do not see why there should
be any loneliness about this matter,
which is simply recital of historical
fact The Tribune stated, as the fact
lis, that the pioneer party started to
60 10 Southern California, without any
idea Of halting midway. This is known
to every one who has paid any atten.
tion to the facts. The sending Of the
colony around Cape Horn under Elder
Brannan, and the stipulation that the
Mormon battalion should be disbanded
in Southern California and should re,
tain their arms and accouterments, is
conclusive on this point. It is also
true that when these advance settlers
L,. ~, -, i
stopped in Salt Lake valley, their rep.
resentatives came here and pleaded
with Brigham Young to proceed to
Southern California, as the original
purpose was; but he refused
IT is also quite true that the pioneers
followed the Oregon emigrants' trail
up to Ham s Fork. and from there they
branched, following the Donner Reed
wagon trail to this valley; the Donner-
Reed party having the year before spent
a good deal of time making wagon
road over Big Mountain and Little
Mountain, as detailed by Elder Roberts
in The Tribune of Sunday last, which
road the Mormon pioneers followed,
and naturally were glad to End. These
are matters known all along to every
one who cared to inform himself upon
the facts.
At no time. however. has The Trib-
une undertaken to minimize the hard.
ships, the tolls, and the trials of that
overland journey, or to disparage the
achievements Of any who undertook it,
The Oregon emigrants had the longer
journey. since they went to the coast
They, in the first place, followed the
trails of the old trappers, and, as Emer,
son Hough says of this region, clear
up to the Canadian boundary il was
overrun by the trappers, and every
stream was known to them, and by
1886 was so thoroughly trapped out
that trapping 10 longer paid. The
southern route had been traversed
many times, and the route down Snake
River-Fort Hall being a prominent
land mark on that trial-was thorough.
ly known to hundreds of people
These are simply questions Of his.
torical verify and why it is that any
one shonld claim to be damaged by
their recital we do not understand, for
every achievement OF all who traversed
that weary trail was a triumph.
We appreciate fully that the pioneers
of Utah, in common with the pioneers
Of other portions of this Western re.
gion, had times OF sore hardship, and
that it would be alike cruel and un-
worthy to undertake to minimize these
hardships. We have not the slightest
disposition to do anything OF that
kind. Our only purpose is to try to
keep the record straight, and we do
not understand why there should be
any objection to this, or why there
should be the resentment that is some
times manifested when effort is made
10 clear up the record and dissipate the
that has at times threatened TO obscure
the facts. All credit that is due TO the
pioneers Of Utah, as well as to the
pioneers of other portions of the noun.
tain and coast region, should be cheer,
fully rendered by every person, and at
all times. TO this we not only agree
but We insist that it is absolutely right
and proper. Beyond that we do not 90,
and 10 Join in any tangle and con-
fusions of the truth we absolutely de-
cline.