OooOwinsWe.kly I
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Vol. 27 SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH, JANUARY 13, 1917 No. 27 jl
An Independent Paper Published Under
:: the Management of T. L. Holman ::
EDITORIALS B Y JUDGE C. C. GOOD WIN
The Birds
THE last month in Utah has been a hard one
on the robins, the wrens and the quail have -suffered
greatly and the sparrows have had a .
hard time to make a living. A little company ;
' of pigeons that have learned to come to a cer
tain window for food come now and peck on the
window with a look that seems to say: "Can
you not see that there is no hope for us unless
you help us through?"
It is too bad. Everyone should feed the birds
in such a winter. Even the sparrows should be
fed. If the purpose is to exterminate them, it
should not include starving and freezing.
And the robins, the jolly, sociable robins, and
the quail, they surely should be looked after and
i fed. Their loss is a state loss. So innocent are
f they, so trusting. The spring will not be spring
f without the robins and the quail are a part of
the state's food supply.
Have The Exposition
BOSTON is beginning the agitation for a
world's exposition in honor of the landing of
the Pilgrims three hundred years ago. This is as
it should be, for that landing was in truth a
punctuation point in history.
Those old Pilgrims were not a perfect set of
mortals by a long way, but they were a mar
velous, robust crowd nevertheless. They were
seeking a land "where they could worship God
according to the dictates of their owa con
science," but the germ of charity for the opin
ions of those who differed with them was not
largely developed in their make-up. They had
not much use or compassion for any one whose
conscience ran in any other groove than their
own, which caused them to do many cruel things
in their way up toward perfect light. But their
" work in the mighty aggregate was something so
tremenduous that it may be fairly set down as a
i chief factor in the civilization of those nations
which we call the enlightened nations of the
earth.
In this, the soil they were given to cultivate
in the new world and the climate they were
given to live in were strong factors.
$i They were not stronger than were the men
who followed Cortez and Pizarro, but they were
different.
They were determined to keep all the com
mandments and the conditions that surrounded
them caused them to see at once that their ex
istence depended upon incessant labor. There
were no precious metal mines to lure them; there
was no soft climate bringing forth spontaneous
food supplies, or food in abundance with the
most careless cultivation.
It was a fight for, life l;ora the beginning, and
so with a grim determination they began that
fight and with a tenacity of courage and purpose
they kept it up until they made a marked im
pression on the world. They pushed the little
red school house before them into the formidable
wilderness and this caused each rising generation
to be superior to the one preceding it, and gave
a special significance to the reply of Webster -to
Jackson, when Jackson was president and
Webster accompanied him on a trip through New
England. Looking out upon the poor and thin
soil, Jackson said: "My God, Webster, what can
. people raise out of this soil?" The sombre eyes
of Webster glowed as he replied: "They build
school houses and raise men, Mr. President."
So that work and that discipline for a hundred
and fifty years had prepared them, both in the
aggregate and as individuals, to look with calm
ness when the mightiest power on earth mar
.shalled its armies and assembled its fleet to sub
due them.
Ever since, out from her schools a contingent
of men has spread which has given direction to
events in our own country, which, by indirection,
has influenced the world, softened the ferocities
of wars, given women a new place in the so
cieties of nations, made the one man shrink In
importance and exalted all men, and vastly re
duced the tyrannies which were the rule only
a century ago.
So intense was the vitality of old "Eclipse,"
the wonderful English thoroughbred horse, that
he transmitted a black spot on his back through
nine generations of colts.
We have always thought that was typical ot
that race, the fathers and mothers of which in
midwinter landed on Plymouth Rock and kneel
ing awakened that first song of praise on this con
tinent: "Amidst the storm they sang,
And the stars heard and the sea;
And the sounding aisles of the dim woods
rang
With the anthems of the free."
We hope Boston will go on with her prepara
tions for the exposition. It should be held. Since
the landing of Columbus on the soil of the new
world, not many events have been more import
ant than the landing of the Pilgrims on Plymouth
Rock.
Electricity
BEFORE us is a most interesting article on the
constantly increasing uses to which electric
ity is subjected.
It is a reminder of, one of the marvelous facts
of history. For thousands of years, electricity
as seen in the lightning's flash was but a terror.
The ancients assumed that it was the especial
agent of Jove to show his power, his approval or
disapproval of the works of nations and individ
uals. Its unexplained nature, the swiftness of its
coming, the ruin it wrought, were all incompre
hensible and hence the natural conclusion that
it was but the agent of the gods to do their
work.
That it was but waiting for man to utilize it
for his work never crossed their minds.
That, despite its fierce manifestations, it was
1 'M
ready to serve mankind in a thousand ways they f H
could not comprehend. M
But of all the elements it has more power and I
less pride than any other. It is ready to ring a ' H
door bell or bore a decayed tooth. At the same ' H
time it moves the mightiest machinery, and now H
the United States government is making arrange- H
ments to propel some great battleships and to H
move its heavy guns by electricity.
Still in one sense the ancients were right. It 'fil
is the working agent of omnipotence, the power U
He calls into service to light and warm and keep i H
in jarless motion His worlds, even to the remot- 9
est boundary of His universe. Without it crea- 'H
tion would suddenly become dark and cold; all !H
vegetation and animal life would die It would JH
mean annihilation. gfl
Men have learned much of its nature and lil
still they actually know about as little of it as IfH
did the ancients who watched its power and said HI
with, trembling lips: "It is Jove's messenger no fH
mortal can measure its power." ill
His Attitude On Prohibition H
S- OVERNOR BAMBERGER seems determined H
- to make a record on extreme prohibition, 11
which is all right, only to assume that a large H
portion of the property holders and taxpayers H
of the state have no rights which the truly good H
have any call to respect jars upon the sensibili- ll
ties of old-fashionable people who have old-fash- '!
ioned ideas of right and wrong. jH
When the first twelve miles of railroad were H
built in China it crossed an old graveyard at one H
point. The wise populace made such a clamor H
about their dead ancestors being disturbed by t H
the noise that the government stopped the (work 11
and tore up the rails. But before doing that, jH
they paid for the work that had been done and 1H
the material" that had been used. They were H
"heathen Chinee," but the Christian .people of JH
Utah think it unnecessary to make any restitu- H
tion when they go out to destroy property and fl
make wicked people good by statute. H
M
As To A Merchant Marine H
WE have not heard from Washington since 'H
congress assembled the words "merchant H
marine." Is there no senator or representative 'I
who can at least try to introduce and urge the iH
passage of an enlightened shipping law H
The president pointed out last summer H
(what the Weekly had often done before) that
for years our country has been like a great mer- H
chant who has no delivery wagon, but his rem- rl
edy offered no hope of a restoration of our ?H
merchant marine. He seems to think that for ;
the government to undertake something which "I
private citizens can do infinitely better, and H
to meet the deficit thus made by dipping into H
the public treasury for the funds, is vastly bet- :
ter than to pay a competent company a subsidy IH
or a bounty to make up the necessary deficit H
that at first would be encountered in running fl
ships in competition with the protected ships 1H
of Great Britain and Germany. JiH
But to ruccessfully restore our merchant ser- ,'M
vice oh the seas requires many things. IjH
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