| Description |
UTAH PRESS ASSOCIATION EDWIN A. LITTLEFIELD, Ogden Standard Born March 5, 1837 - Died June 4, 1911 Installed in Hall of Fame at Salt Lake City, 1976 "Indolence in politics is akin to treachery, as the selfish indolence of good men furnishes the most effective opportunity for ambitious bad men to accomplish their nefarious purposes. "The indolence of good men and the treachery of bad men are equally dangerous; and unless both are finally overcome by the awakened intelligence and virtue of the people, we cannot expect good government." A recent editorial on the post-Watergate excesses in government and breaches of faith by high-level officials? Not by 83 years! These far-reaching words are from a September 15, 1892 editorial in the Ogden Standard. Their author: Edwin Albert Littlefield, who was in 1976 installed in the Utah Newspaper Hall of Fame. Acting editor of the Standard in those days was "Major" (origin of the always-used title is obscure) Littlefield, sitting in during the campaign for territorial delegate to Congress of the paper's publisher-editor, Frank J. Cannon. It was a Republican newspaper, no question about it. "No SINCERE (his caps) Republican will bolt a regular party nomination," Littlefield editorialized. In another he admitted that the Republican party in Utah and its presidential candidate, Benjamin Harrison, had a hard fight on their hands against the Democrats and Liberals. He urged unaligned voters to see the "light" of making up their minds, adding: "In a republican government, persona, practical politics is the price of civil liberty and the protection of the law." 578 |
