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Show Published Every Saturday WEEKLY PUBLISHING CO., INC. CHAS. W. LAWRENCE, Manager SUBSCRIPTION PRICE: Including postage in the United States, Canada and Mexico, $2.50 per year, $1.50 for six months. Subscriptions to all foreign countries, within the Postal Union, $4.50 per year. . BY GOODWIN'S $ 8ingle copies, 10 cents. Payments should be made by Check, Money Order or Registered Letter, payable to The Citizen. Address all communications to The Citizen. Entered as second-clas- s matter, June 21, 1919, at the postoffice at 8alt Lake March 3, 1879. Act of City, Utah, under the Ness Bldg. Salt Lake City, Utah Phone Wasatch 5409 311-12-- 13 DOES CHURCH INTERFERE IN POLITICS f WHA T GRANT SA VS: WHA T THE FA CTS SH0 W! In his closing conference address President Heber J. Grant entered a specific denial of the influence of the priesthood in any Saints. temporal or material affairs of the Latter-Da- y We presume he included political in the words temporal and material, although the omission might have been intentional and an evasion of the issue. Assuming that political affairs were included, we call attention to the letter of President Grant in his official capacity, published in the Deseret News during the Harries campaign. Communication from President Heber J. Grant. Salt Lake City, November 3, 1922. To Members of the Church Residing in Salt Lake County. Dear Brethren and Sisters: For a number of years the Church, through several of its general auxiliary organizations, has contributed to the support of the Social Welfare League of Salt Lake City. This organization, under the leadership of Dean Milton Ben-nio- n of the University of Utah, has undertaken to bring of churches, agencies, and moral about the forces within the county of Salt Lake for the better enforcement of law and the improvement of social conditions. In an earnest effort to advance the cause for which it stands, the league has secured the nomination of an independent candidate for the office of sheriff. This action has been induced wholly without reference to partisan political considerations and rests entirely upon the conviction, born of a long experience with administrators of the law, that the social and moral welfare of the community will be best subserved in the election of a candidate without political ties of any sort whatsoever, who is committed to the exclusive platform of law enforcement and social betterment, and whose allegiance shall be avowedly to the league and its large constituency of institutions and people favorable to the strict enforcement of the law and the maintenance of high moral standards. We give our full support and sanction to the worthy Social Welfare objects sought to be accomplished by the Ben R. Harries, League in furthering the candidacy of Mr. members of independent candidate for sheriff. We urge the Church and all other good citizens of the county who with stand for clean, wholesome government, to the league in securing the election of its candidate. In so influence in par doing, we disclaim any intention to exert co-operat- ion co-oper- ate tisan politics. The questions and conditions involved arc essentially moral ones. On all such questions wrc reserve the right to speak even though they involve political considerations, as we have heretofore announced in our published statement. No member of the Church is under the least coercion or restraint in the expression of his opinion at the polls. We appeal merely to the judgment of men and women in support of a movement which we believe to be calculated to promote the welfare of all good people who reside in Salt Lake county. IIEBER J. GRANT, President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Da- y Saints. This was followed by other letters not published for the eye, but read in every meeting house in Salt Lake county, calling upon the members of the church to support Harries, and as a sample of the introductory remarks of the members of the priesthood, who read the presidents letter, we quote D. E. Hammond, the second councilor of a stake presidency, who said : Today a matter is presented to us respecting the stand we arc advised to take regarding the support of an independent candidate for sheriff. If our members follow the counsel and advice of those who preside over them, they will be blessed. In early days, when advice and counsel was given to members, almost without exception they responded favorably. When we understand that by the word of God through their idcrs they are taught, I may say unto you I advise act as you IP yet if you do not accept counsel, you will be condemned, we n readily understand the effect of the advice referred to by Mr. immond upon every sincere believer. The attempt to evade is again found in the letter published dur-- t the same campaign over the signatures of the three members the first presidency, in this language: official Any personal preference, intended or expressed by any the church, CARRIES WITH IT ONLY SLJCII WEIGHT. .OR :FLUENCE AS WOULD CHARACTERIZE Till- PERSONAL 'INION OF ANY MAN OF COMMENSURATE STANDING non-Morm- on - T) PRESTIGE AMONG HIS FELLOWS. This language was capable of but one construction. Accordof to George Albert Smith the priesthood is the authority author-- r ITcber J. Grant, as the head of the priesthood, is the and mouthpiece of God and of supreme standing and prestige id. |