Show IN THE CHURCH SUITS PRESIDENT ANGUS M CANNON IN TERRO GATED lie commissioner information about iho temple the taking of testimony before jilge sprague inthe church suits is going along slowly the lawyers of the respective parties watching their clients interests closely president angus M cannon has been on the stand two days being questioned as to certain property turned over to the church association of salt lake stake by the trustee in trust on monday mr cannon declined to examine the record of the minutes of meetings of the directors of tho stake association and the matter was called up again tuesday morning when attorney young asked mr cannon when you were on the witness stand yesterday a question was asked you in regard to the min aites of a meeting contained in a certain book belonging to the corporation of this stake are you willing to answer the question emr cannon I 1 will say that I 1 have read the minutes and am willing to answer any question the counsel desires to ask P ii williams have you the book this morning C I 1 have he gets it from satchel W will you open at the first meeting of which you spoke in relation to the controversy C pointing to the minutes these are alj minutes mr carlson put in my hands W I 1 wish you would state whether that was the first meeting of the directors called relative to the personal property you spoke of yesterday C I 1 think these are the minutes of the first meeting which was held march ath 1887 at 10 a m the attorney then submitted along list of unimportant questions to tha witness relative to the meetings held by the board of directors of salt lake corporation the amount of property being 65 which was donated to complete the temple bj the trus tee in trust the minutes odthe different meetings held by the corporation were read by williams and taken as evi i dence by the plaintiff mr sheeks objected to these minutes being read lay mr williams as lie might make an error and thought a certified copy would be better mr williams at the second meeting did you see bishop preston present mr cannon no sir W have you that original agreement which I 1 have just read G I 1 secretary has it W does this record of the proceedings ce edings f those meetings contain an account of all that was done at those meetings respectively 0 so far as I 1 can judge and so far aa my memory serves me it is a complete account of all that was dono at the several meetings W did wm B preston sign this agreement with his own hand C yes sir W when and where with reference to that mooting did he sign it C immediately after the meeting in the room where the meeting was held I 1 think we submitted this icso to know if the board would approve of it which they did W when did you receive the list of property first U I 1 could not state exactly W you reported to the directors that you had received 1081 shares of deseret telegraph companas Comp anys stock is that correct 0 yes sir it was transferred to the church association W does the church association still hold the stock objection was raised by mr sheeks but mr cannon answered C I 1 dont know what disposition was made of it I 1 dont know that there is any income from it W where did you get it C from the trustee in trust and I 1 think james jack delivered tho certificate bat I 1 would not bo positive nor do I 1 remember the day W what is the par of this stock or what is its market calub C I 1 dont know as it yields no dividend W was it included in the personal property C I 1 think not mr cannon was then asked by mr sheeks these expends mentioned on tho record can you state how they were incurred G the expenses were incurred in paying public hands employed on the temple block etc S you speak of the temple will you state what that is C it ia a building erected for the use of the people in the performance of sacred rites and ordinances pertaining to tho salvation of our living i and the redemption of our kindred dead S for religious purposes C beg acir S how long has it been in the course of construction C tho ground wag broken early in the spring of 1853 S can give about tho asti mato already aspe ndoc in its con 0 well loan hardly say but it is up in tho millions S how near complete is it 0 the walls are complete but the towers are not we contemplate finishing it when we can S it has been built C it hab been built by thea offerings and voluntary donations of tho tho church of jesus christ of latter day saints S have any donations been given by any who were not members of the church C no not that I 1 am aware of legrande young mr Cannon can you state whether the been any of tho property removed from the place 0 I 1 think none of the been removed as it would incur expense we did not disturb it bo cause we thought it would not justify us change mr williams mr cannon how many temples are completed and how many are in the course 0 erection C two are completed and two in course of construction W are these temples used for public worship 0 no sir they are for the performance for mance of sacred rites but in the temple of logan there are lectures delivered to the students of the school not only in relation to our faith but also on scientific subjects as we were told by the founder of this church joseph smith to store our minds with knowledge from all good books so that our intelligence would correspond if not exceed the people of tho world and only those who can get the proper recommend or whose names are on the list are permitted to attend these schools W will you state whether or not it is a tenet of your church that a man may marry moi othan one woman the same time that is according to the revelation received by joseph smith in 1843 W Is it taught now by the church C I 1 will say I 1 have not heard it taught for some time W it is still a tonet of the church 0 I 1 believe it is at least that is my opinion do not the authorities of the church perform polygamous marriages in the temple now C ho sir it has been discontinued it must have been for nearly a year that persons who have applied have been refused W do you issue certificates or recommends C no sir I 1 have to sign them and when persons have come to me I 1 have told them the consequences if they did W are these marriages which hav abeen discontinued permanent C I 1 cannot say W why was it suspended C I 1 dont know unless it is that it had entailed so much buffering upon the people and brought them in conflict with the government but we feel that the responsibility rests upon those who prevent us and it is out of honor for the laws W why have you refused to recommend persons to the temple C because I 1 have heard that president woodruff would not endorse their recommends W do you refuse to grant or endorse recommends on hearsay 0 nosir I 1 wrote to president woodruff and he told me he could not grant recommends to the temple bior such marriages W how long has this been stopped C I 1 should think about a year mr sheeks mr cannon are there any other ordinances performed in these temples or d they continue these marriages C no sir abo authorities of the church have seen best to discontinue them mr A W carlson took the stand and testified that the minutes as read were correct and that helas the sec rotary of the corporation of the salt lake stake and that the minutes include all the important transactions in the meeting and a copy of the consignment sign ment to bishop W B preston the minutes and copy of the consignment were admitted as evidence mr carlson said he was familiar with most of the property mentioned in the transfer and that it is now the same in general as when transferred that he was one of the directors mr carlson ly request of the attorney read the minutes tf a meeting held in the assembly hall june ath 1887 when the proper parties ratified the grant from president john taylor of certain property of this slake to the corp orators ho ako produced a list of names as evidence of the payment of the bands working on the temple block adjourned till 2 p m at 2 p m john E winder was called and testified that since he was examined he had sought to inform himself in relation to the property being the same and not removed from the place originally occupied and found that the things in general were the same as on the ad of march 1887 thiet the teams wagons storehouse and furniture are the bame but slight exceptions as when he went to see them in march last and as a whole ho believed it to bo the same property J M cannon was called and sworn he was engaged as clerk for ten days had made out a list of of work hands but could not bbate whether all had received payment whose names were on the list presented by mr carlson in the forenoon he was acquainted quain ted with most of the men there unnamed in named and known them to be church hands the list of names was submitted evidence as of payment in the case at 1030 on wednesday the examination of witnesses in the church suits before judge sprague jame moyle being I 1 have been working for the last arfe years on the temple block I 1 worked from january 1887 up to recently as foreman of itono stono cutters and have general on the temple the number 0 men varied at different periods but quite recently before all wor kwas stopped tho materially reduced it was some time in march 1887 when I 1 notified the change and was informed that the men would be under the employ of the church corporation at the end of about ten days the men were discharged for a few days ploy ed by tho presiding bishop 1 I aint remember who sent me word but I 1 think it was bishop Basset fc ho said he received a per cent in cash and another per cent in due bills which entitled him to draw things in the stores of the church mr williams here asked when yon received word from mr bassett bow long was it before a change took place Mr Moyle it would not be more than a day I 1 should think maybe immediately perhaps two or three days mr W what did yon do relative to the change mr M the men there donld bo a change and that we would not bo paid any longer by the trustee in trust mr W was not the change in consequence of the edmund tucker bill which law the church mr M the two things are not associated socia ted m my mind I 1 do not think the change was in consequence of the passage of such law however I 1 was acting under instructions mr williams questioned the witness closely to see if he had been paid by the church corporation the trustee in trust or the presiding bishop and wanted to know how much money what wages he was getting how he turned those due bills for table food whether any account was kept of the punching of the due bills and the amount taken in and if all the wages were paid in the same building and if vegetables and other produce were given in return for these due bills as before tho change to which the witness answered in the affirmative the testimony was long and tedious and many questions of unimportant signification were asked the witness mr douglas ferguson was then swum and testified that he had worked at the presiding bishops office for about ibur years as clerk and bookkeeper running a set of books upon the due bill system he had made out orders for men on the templo block and in fact for all church hands and about the only change that took place was in the wording of the orders when tho change from the thostee in trust to the church corporation po ration and from to the presiding bishop just stating who would pay or be responsible for tho payment of the orders mr fergusons Fergus ons testimony benti to show that though the property had changed hands and the orders were worded differently still the men could draw vegetables etc just as previously that at the time of the change duo bills on th general tithing store were required to get them changed for other ones and all the ahat was kept by him was the stubs mr assisted mr cannon in making the pay roll out for the hands employed by the church around the yard mr peters then subjected the witness to a rigid examination dwelling particularly on the knowledge the witness had of the signing of the pay roll the kind of bills issued their uses and in whose employ he the witness was during the change when he commenced work for the different organization or association the length of time so employed the redeeming of church pay his work in the office and the men he saw mr Ferguson had obtained tha greater part of the signatures to the pay roll and he understood that tho presiding bishop had received orders from the church association to pay these men with mr peters were there any donations received at your office at the time you were working for the church association mr JF erguson I 1 do not remember positively mr young objected as being irrelevant and immaterial it was a matter I 1 had nothing to do with and therefore did not notice any mr peters would it not have called your attention if they had been stopped mr ferguson well 1 dont know I 1 was very husband the farmers were also and there was but little coming in at that season of tho year mr P do you know whether the trustee ceased to do business at the beginning of the month mr F I 1 do not but I 1 had an idea mr young we object to the question mr peters you may was your idea mr r my idea was that the church had been by tho laws of congress mr peters that is the reason for the change as you understood it is it mr r well I 1 will not say it was my idea but when 1 got to view i way I 1 cannot tell as to the reason of the change mr P was there any reason given by any person why the change took place mr F no sir no reason that 1 know of T mr peters that is all president angus M cannon was again called and was asked to describe the transactions and business of the presidents office but as he had been there eo little fae knew but latue about how tho b boks were kept etc ho was acquainted with tho property named on the schedule and assigned as bir reason for keeping thoroughbred stock on tho church jeann that they cost but little if and were better and had made it a nie of his alfo to keep and breed the best stock ho co cheso cattle dother an things mentioned were necessary foche completion of the temple an fn that they supplied pure milk for church hands and horse and oxe for wagons etc and the reason no change was made with the stock was that ho thought it would involve more expense than to keep them where they are mr peters agreed with mr cannon and said be was right about the bred animals being the cheap estand best this closed the examination of witnesses before witnesses i ya |