A POPULAR QUESTION wr WE have seen a great many comments on the circular issued by the leading hading authorities of the church of jesus christ of latter day saints in relation to the doctrines and discipline of the church and the misrepresentations representations 1418 thereof which have recently been made to the country antry some borne papers give a synopsis of the circular without on anent others proceed to make remarks which sire are utterly irrelevant to the subjects treated of As asa a sample of the latter class cam we clip the follow following dg from an editorial in the st bt paul pioneer press which is a journal of influence and ability every man who wishes to live under this government should either obey the laws with which that position is reinforced or remove to some country where he can be free to enjoy the loose customs of earlier and more primitive ages he cannot be a good citizen and he ought not to be a citizen at all unless the laws of af this country can command from him both respect and obedience so go far the mormon church refuses to acknowledge or obey the law on the au subject abject of polygamy that is th the whole issue and no access of patriotism in other directions will cover the failure every IM mormon ormon understands the situation perfectly well let the mormon society abandon poly polygamy ganay and publicly direct its members to obey the law in this particular and the mormon question will no longer exist until that is done nothing need or can be said 11 the pioneer press makes these remarks with special reference to the denial of citizenship to certain mormon applicants for naturalization against which it says the mormon authorities protest if that paper will take the trouble to look fairly at the decision it will find that the polygamy matter which it says is the whole issue is not the question at all neither of the applicants for citizenship was or ever had been a polygamist it did not appear that they even believed in polygamy the decision was that no member of the imor mormon church however moral sober industrious or capable can be naturalized the sole disqualification was membership in the mor imor mou meu church chereb those papers which are commenting on the endowment ceremonies under the mistaken idea that it is only endowed cormons mormons Mor mons who are excluded should pay attention to this they are as much in error on this point as they are in regard to the ceremonies the findings in the decision go far beyond that matter as they do beyond the facts and the testimony in evidence cormons mormons Mor mons are excluded because of their membership in a church that is the issue and the press of the country lose sight of it when they go into the polygamy question or the endowment question it is not claimed by ny one that the men who were refused naturalization had not obeyed or that they would not obey the laws of this government their acts showed that these laws had commanded their respect and obedience in the put past and they were ready to take the oath required concerning that respect and obedience for the future there is nothing in this matter but a square violation of that constitutional guarantee which secures religious liberty that is freedom of faith and worship to everybody in this republic and we suggest to the pioneer press pren that the mormon l church does not violate la law that the mormon church cannot be required to make any declaration upon any subject and that it is idle and foolish to make any such demands upon it that church is an ecclesiastical organization composed of men and women who are responsible for their acts but not for their belief to the civil law if any of them violate the law they can be prosecuted and punished their faith is and must of necess necessity ilmy be frand fr nd their worship or their acts edw op nging from their belief must also be free so long as they are not in violation of law the church cannot be proceeded against it cannot be ordered or compelled or dictated by law to do anything the individual members may be proceeded against persecuted marked out for invidious distinction deprived of rights that should be equal denied the uniform operation of the laws because of their religion but it is nonsense to indict or arraign or make demands upon the church we expect our religion to be misrepresented and our views to be distorted because the of public opinion the press writers of the country persist in listening to false reports and closing their ears against the truth but we think on the simple question of the denial delial of citizenship to worthy and law abiding men against whom nothing can be charged simply because they are members of the mormon church the press of the land ought to stand on the side of justice liberty and equal rights free from anti mor imor mon or any other prejudice