Thirteen Millions of Utah Trade.
It has come to the knowledge of the Chicago anti-polygamy committee that certain New York merchants have telegraphed to members of Congress, "New York sold $13,000,000 worth of goods to Utah last year. Hands off!" Certainly. By all means. With $13,000,000 in one scale, and nothing in the other but the fine sentiment of ministers and philanthropists and other fanatics about morality and decency and obedience to law—what else should be done? These abstractions foot no bills. They make no show in Wall street. They buy no brown stone fronts, no diamonds at Tiffany's, no spans and carriages for the boulevards. What is anything worth if it cannot do that. And as to these Latter-day Saints one must be charitable. It is true, they have a taste for sundry little amusements that are frowned upon by the seventh commandment; true that they seem to be cutting out work, if we leave them to themselves, on a rather large pattern for the American people. But then—$13,000,000! That puts another face on matters! They are men of weight. What have we to do with their family affairs? These zealots in Congress will hinder business. And is there no enterprise in the metropolis? Philadelphia may get quicker and lower on her knees to those $13,000,000. Down promptly, every one! Hands off in Washington from the private matters of our customers! This is the kind of policy to raise the character, name, and standing of American merchants. For $13,000,000 customers bring riches; and with riches comes respectability. This righteousness in rags shows well in a sermon. But it makes a sorry figure on Madison Square. Get money—honestly, decently, with some self-respect, if you can, but—anyway get money. Seriously, who are these tradesmen who sell their souls with their goods—or would, if such souls were worth buying? Is there no way of exposing them by name to the contempt they deserve? Are honorable merchants in that city to be disgraced by such company? While patriotic, Christian citizens are pleading with Congress to awake to this foul and blighting shame to our civilization, are a few such money-grabbers as these to be secretly holding them down? Is there no possibility of concentrating a fire of indignation, as in a burning-glass, with heat that shall find some vulnerable point in faces even as brazen as theirs? Exposure is to them what it is to a sneak-thief. We saw, once, at the New York Police Headquarters, the "Rogues' Gallery," a collection of photographs of the most notorious criminals of the metropolis. It was curious to see how they had dreaded the terrible truth-telling eye of the camera. One had put on a grimace to destroy his identity. Another had fought furiously and the miniature showed the grip of a policeman in his hair. They were a precious set of physiognomies. And we should like to see, added to them for universal circulation, the faces of the authors of this telegram to Congress.—Advance.