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Show WHAT CHURCH RULE IS. I The Deseret News copies a long screed of , H balderdash from the Boise Capital-News in which ' h I the editor of that journal insists that "Mormons ' , I as a people "have as much right to their belief as I hiA e any other denomination." Who in the namie I H of heaven has ever disputed that proposition? H Aj 'in, the Capital-News says: "If there are poly- cjaa ists among them why not proceed against the individuals?" Sapient News. Why not go If into court and prove that the man in I he moon t. is a burglar? Then the Boise paper declares '' "That is not a matter for political parties to deal '' with." What is not a matter for political parties par-ties to deal or not to deal with? If there is a government here within the Government of the United States whose followers hold it as superior to any other government, what should deal with it save political parties? Then the Capital-News copies from the Rocky Mountain News some maudlin generalities which in turn the Deseret I News copies, the burden of which is that any- , f thing like seeming persecution of the Saints must ' be avoided, that "danger must b guarded against by the spread of general enlightenment" and more of such rot as Tom Patterson puts out for use in the next general election In Colorado when all the Mormon voters in that state will be wanted want-ed for the Democracy. ' We protest against all that dishonest and dis- , gusting stuff, for it is an impeachment of the t characters of every honest man who has ever sought to bring the Mormon Church within the laws of the United States and the spirit of free ltj , jf institutions. It is an Impeachment of the mo- H (! tives and impulses of men a thousand times H lj more generous, a hundred times more just than H ii Tom Patteraun ever dreamed of being. Then H II the News of this city follows by declaring that H (( ' all Mormons are entitled to just as many rights B ill and privileges as any other people, which no H v man on earth has ever questioned. But it adds Hj . the following: Bj ' "The use of improper influence, attempts at B'j ' coercion, whether by physical force or priestly H j! domination, are entirely different matter and are H jf J to be resisted by every free man. They may B jj 'j and should be denounced as deductive of lndivi- B ; '' dual liberty. They should not be confounded with B ) 1 I those constitutional rights and privileges that be- H J1 J long alike to all citizens of this Republic. TEey B ' are hostile to the spirit and priictico of the Mor- B S! 9 'mon' creed." B jj ' Accepted as English is generally accepted that B f reads all right. That, so accepted, contains all B fj kA that has made the Mormons trouble for so many B 'J l ' years. But the News does not mean it in the B. jjj f sense that it expects Gentiles will apply to it, not B j ,, I in the sense which It knows te Saints will re- B ;f l ceiye it. The reason is that when the church B 8j 1 1 puts out its mandates either in the form of a re- B ( J quest or command, the News does not think it is B h ' improper, and "priestly domination" when exer- B J cised by a Mormon priest, the News holds to be B' , "the will of God" and who can combat that? B'i For instance, a year ago, there was a stir B ( " through all the dominant Church in Utah. Sud- B denly all the priesthood of the Mormon church HL from Apostles down to teachers were moved to HJJjhi attend primaries and conventions, to elect dele- Biff $ gates who in turn would nominate candidates for B ' J the Legislature, who would in turn elect a certain B li'I man a Senator of the United States. B I What caused the sudden outpouring? Was it Bjll'l pre-eminent ability, or especial services to the state or any marked qualifications for the place on the part of the man? Not in the least. His most ardent friends never made any claims of that kind for him. It was solely because he was an Apostle of the Mormon church and it was understood that it had been determined to seat an Apostle in the Senate. The masses of Mormons responded almost to a man. Had some man as brave as Julius Caesar, as wise as Solomon, as patriotic as Regulus, opposed op-posed him, he would have been snowed under by the ballots of the slaves who without question voted for him. The News editor pretends to be a Democrat. The chances are a million to one that ho voted the straight, so-called, Republican Legislative Legis-lative ticket. Of course it was elected and that Legislature in turn elected the Apostle, though every man of them knew it was the breaking of the plighted word of the Presidency of the Church and the full quorum of the Apostles for him to bo elected as he was. Moreover it was, as it was intended to be, a slap directly in the face of the Government of the United States, as brazen an exhibition of theocratic government in the midst of this Republic Re-public as could be made. And when men jealous of their country's institutions in-stitutions cry out against outrages of that kind what does it count if one perverted American in Idaho who commands a few types cries out that "it is not a matter for political parties to deal with," or if another sycophant in Colorado who commands a few types feels called upon to caution cau-tion Americans that they must do nothing that smatters of "persecution," or if the twister on the News of this city says that "improper influences, attempts at coercion, whether by physical force or priestly domination are to be resisted by every freeman," when he for forty years has been declaring de-claring that the will of the first presidency of the Mormon church 2s the will of God and of course cannot be improper? "Wben will the people peo-ple of the United States understand that Mormon-ism Mormon-ism is simply a- great pblitical, commercial machine ma-chine hostile in its every attribute to what Americans Am-ericans know as a government of the people, by the people and for the people? |