In This Issue

The first article in this issue takes readers behind the scenes of a fascinating political campaign—the 1964 U.S Senate race of Ernest L. Wilkinson, president of Brigham Young University. An "ideological twin" of presidential candidate Barry Goldwater, Wilkinson seemed at first to hold a winning hand supported by David O McKay, revered leader of the Mormon church, and entrepreneur Joseph P. Rosenblatt, aJew. When the latter opted to remain on the sidelines and Lyndon B. Johnson's two highly publicized visits with McKay effectively neutralized that asset, incumbent Sen. Frank E. Moss was able to successfully exploit Wilkinson's extensive investments in Texas real estate and his role in several controversial matters affecting Utah's colleges and universities. Wilkinson labeled his defeat "a sad and expensive experience."

In the following article Aaron DeWitt, another disillusioned observer of the political scene, used poetry to describe his distaste for the way Mormon leaders in Cache Valley ran things in the era before statehood. With Utah's admission to the Union in 1896 DeWitt mellowed and his verse proclaimed the equal rights of all in the new state.

Next, an analysis of the effect of industrialization and urbanization on families in Murray, Utah, during 1890-1920 provides much food for thought, especially the apparent correlation of social change and rising juvenile delinquency rates and environmental deterioration and health problems.

The final article details events in Utah during the nationwide Red Scare of 1919. The state experienced some labor unrest, bombs were mailed to prominent individuals, nativist sentiments surfaced, and law enforcement officials spied on dissenters. Yet, the nationwide "hysteria" described by some historians of the era created only a ripple in Utah Nevertheless, it was a ripple that enabled organized business leaders to strip labor unions of much of their power.