The Grangeville globe. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho) 1907-1922, 1913-03-13
POLITICAL SITUATION OF
THE STATE OF IDAHO.

POLITICAL SITUATION OF
THE STATE OF IDAHO.
A precise and reliable estimate
of the legislative assembly S pro-
ceedings at Boise City is not yet
obtainable, as to the exact mea-
sures passed or defeated, their
terms and meaning and the in
fluences responsible for their
fate, and comment, therefore, is
necessarily reserved and incom-
plete. One fact however, is OBJ
vious, without requiring any fur
ther light or confederation, and
that fact is the mastery maintain
ed by the Mormon ecclesiastical
leaders over legislation end pub
lie policy. This mastery is now ex-
ercised by a minority, but in sue
ceeding legislatures it will be al
most if not quite a majority in
itself. That accomplishment is one
of the proceeds of the session just
expired. Another accomplishment
is in the defeat of practically
every measure of internal improve
ment and development, whereby
the state is made to stand still,
or rather retrogress, while all
around, including Utah, the states
are taking the lead in works of
building and of progress. No
bill has been allowed to become
law unless it obtained Mormon
approval; any bill wanted by the
Mormons, especially bills creating
offices for Mormons or increas-
ing the salaries of Mormon Off
cials, has been enacted, and even
when defeated through confusion
or through association with SINH
lar bills affecting other parts of
the state, such measures have
been quickly resurrected and
slipped through, the state mean
while resting under the impress
sion that such bills were dead.
The present situation, heavy
and dark as it is, could be endur-
ed and made the best of, if that
were all there was to it. But who
ever imagines that conditions are
not going to get worse instead of
better, is imagining a vain and
hopeless thing. The sect, in all rea
son is not extending it's political
power as witnessed, and magni-
flying its prerogative for the pur-
pose of relaxing its control over
the things it holds highest. Its
purpose, seasonably, is to subor-
dinate the state to its ideas and
to demonstrate it's supremacy as
an object lesson not only to its
own people but before all men.
Whether the yoke would be
easy and its rule wise and benev-
client, or not, is not the question.
The question is whether the state
is to govern itself, according to
its strength and its weakness, or
to be governed by an eccleslas-
ticlsm as repugnant now as ever
it was in the evil days of old. And
whether the people know ii or
not, whether they would rather
close their eyes and slumber
along in Indifference and sloth,
they are going to have to face
the music and determine their
own destiny, for better or worse.
The Tribune is entirely certain
that the non-Mormon portions of
the state are going to revolt, saw
ing perhaps only that element
which hopes to acquire place and
spoil through working with the
system. just what form this re-
volt will or should take cannot
now be foreseen, but it will pro-
badly take the initial form of a
temporary dissolution of all past
party lines-republican, democrat
ic and progressive-and a reas-
sembling for the new, determined
and supremely important purpose
of reasserting the right and the
responsibility of self-government
This step may be delayed or frus-
trated, for the time being, but