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Show j THAT REJOINDER. H'i The News is rejoiced that a rejoiner to the Hl protest against the seating of Apostle Reed M h Smoot has been prepared and signed by many M Gentiles. Is it strange that many Gentiles should B sign it? Such Gentiles as Judge Baskin or Mr. H W. S. McCornick, or the others who have politics politi-cs 1 cal or business reasons, or are moved by per-H per-H '. , sonal friendship to act? M But the News understands that this document m i sets forth that Apostle Smoot was regularly elect- H j, y ed by the Legislature of Utah, that the Legis- M f: lators were regularly elected by a large majority H'! of the voters of Utah. Has that ever been de- B 1 nied? Has it not been repeatedly asserted that Mt such was the case, that all ranks of the priest- Hf!1 hood from the teachers up to the apostles Hf' ! thronged the conventions and scrambled like ward Hfi politicians to insure the nominations of men who Hi' would be sure to vote for Apostle Smoot in the Hf!' Legislatuie? That on election day the teachers Hill were sent out to explain to the faithful that it was H j 1 the wish of the First Presidency that certain men HI':!, should be supported on the Legislative ticket? H ' And what of it? Suppose a majority of the Hf , voters of, we will say, South Carolina, were Mo- H i hammedans, that they still gave their first fealty H( to the Sultan of Turkey, that they should on elec- H j !' tion day elect a great majority of brother Moham- HJ'1, medans to the Legislature and they in turn should H J ,l elect one of the Sultan's close advisers to the Sen- H . ate, one who would still look to the bultan for ad- H ) vice and orders, would or would not the Senate Hf ,1 be expected to ask a few questions touching the H 1 qualifications of such a man for a seat in their Hl'jfi It would be in part a parallel case. Further, Biju suppose that the majority were intent upon mak- HJjjP Ing all the other states of the Union Mohamme- 11 j Han, with the avowed purpose of superceding tho Hi present government of the United States, by the ancient Asiatic despotism of their creed, that the l,; j election of the Sultan's close adviser to the Sen- j ate was but a factor in that identical plan, would the United States Senate be still bound to accept j j such a fellow member, without question, inas- much as his brother Musselmans had regularly I elected him? I i We say the cases would be similar, but only I I ., partially so, for the Sultan does not pretend that I I to him has been given the spirit of prophecy, or j j that he from time to time, as God's vicegerent, I J receives revelations directly from the Most High, li I while Apostle Smoot's superior does; that to him has been given the right to rule in all things, and Apostle Smoot has given all his allegiance to that chief and to the kingdom the temporal lcingdom over which that chief rules. Does this response to the protest deny any of this? There was a time when such men as Judge Baskin were horrified that such a government govern-ment was building itself up in Utah. If of late he lias outgrown that horror and is willing to certify certi-fy that in his early days when it was thought thai he was making a fight for principle he was mistaken, still it does not change the facts, in the least and they are as stated above. Hence what does the rejoinder to the protest count for except as was said by the indiscree slave who first started out to get signatures that those who might refuse to sign would be known and "rewarded1' later? It will not be on a question as to whether Apostle Smoot was legally elected or not, it will not be on any question of Apostle Smoot's character char-acter as a man that any questions will be asked him, but rather as to where his real allegiance rests. Will Judge Baskin or Mr. McCornick, or the others certify to a belief that he is in the American Amer-ican sense an American? |