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Show I THE REAL UTAH SITUATION. Since the rumored involvement of Judge Tan ner with two or three young women in an unlawful unlaw-ful coalescence, the Deseret News has been par- i ticularly malignant and insolent, and as the or- ij gan of the dominant church has been especially dictatorial in its instructions to the Mormon peo- j pie. Reduced to plain English its attitude has been something like this: To the .Gentiles: "You think you have discovered something. Piove it, will you? If you can get any prooi go ahead and convict. Of course if it can be established that J any one has violated the law, such an one should i) be punished." To the Mormons: "Keep your f mouths closed to inquisitors or answer them as I you please. If they think they know something let them prove it." That reveals the situation exactly as it is and shows exactly how things are in Utah. Were the News to be franK and truthful and to honestly i explain the situation it would be in very nearly i these words: "We, the Mormon people of Utah, had been !. , persecuted because of our defiiance of the laws, and denied statehood for forty-four years after our , first application for admittance into the Union. 1 We had to endure a Gentile governor, Gentile courts, marshals, etc., and the insistance of Am- l ericans here that we readjust our institutions and J ' bring them under the laws of the United States, p something we were determined never to do. At Slast the situation became intolerable. Our leading church members were sent to prison, the church td property was, to a large extent, taken from us ' and we were threatened with disfranchisement. Sk Something had to be done. So our then First President issued a manifesto. He was a feeble old man and the manifesto was shrewdly written for ,i Tilm. It did not renounce polygamy, but declared ly it temporarily suspended. But the Americans here were not satisfied, and when we asked that the escheated property be restored, more specific as- surances were required. Our leading church of- ficials were equal to the emergency. They swal lowed the oath as though it had been a mere tasteless laxative, declared that tltey understood i that it meant not only no more polygamous mar- riages, but also that living in polygamy was to be '' henceforth abandoned. This pleased the eastern people very much, but the Americans in Utah were still unsatisfied. Our church officials had dictated every vote of I1 our people for half a century; they had dictated to every Board of Aldermen in the state what ordinances should and what should not be passed, to every territorial legislature what bills should be passed and what should not be passed, and these Americans here wanted some assurance that Utah, if admitted as a state, would be an American Ameri-can state. Our leaders were again equal to the occasion. oc-casion. They voluntarily made statements and signed a document declaring that henceforth the Mormon church should be out of politics and the pople absolutely free to espouse whatever political politi-cal principles they pleased to espouse and to vote, without restraint, as they pleased. The Americans Ameri-cans believed that was sincere, withdrew their opposition and helped to secure statehood. It was obtained and for a year or two our church chiefs permitted things to drift and permitted per-mitted the Americans here to believe that It was a square deal. They even suspended the old News editor and ran it as an American newspaper. But, of course, there was no idea of permitting this people to learn to think and to have opinions. That would have shorn the Church of its power and its tithe money, the two things which it covets more than all others, except polygamy. So gradually grad-ually the old rule was introduced. Men who had polygamous wives were ordered to "live their religion;" re-ligion;" in one or another form polygamy was stealthily reintroduced, and the rule over the voters was resumed. In the meantime we had corrupted a great band of Gentile officials until they would much rather endorse us now than lose their offices. Some of the Americans accuse us of bad faith and even pur jury. What do we care? Did David of olu ever shrink from deceiving the Philistines? Was Moses squeamish a bit when he sent out the Israelites to borrow the spoons and jewels and to "spoil the Egyptians?" Our temples are so holy that we do not, as a rue, permit even ordinary Mormons to enter them. So when a man and woman of our church wish to be married in one of them, if there Is something not quite according to United States law in the union, no outsider knows of it, no record that could disturb matters can be found. If later, a suspicion is engendered or a direct charge is made, we in the News assume a frank air and say: "A charge does not convict; prove a crime if you can." At the same time we warn the Mormon people if they know anything to keep their mouths closedand they obey just as thousands thou-sands did when we told them not fo get vaccinated. vaccinat-ed. In the meantime we have one town in Colorado Colo-rado and one in eastern Oregon where ladles who need retirement for a season can go. You will see that we have got these Americans here, have got the people of the United States where they cannot help themselves. More, we hold a club over the twelve Senators In adjacent states where our people have settled in force, and not one of the twelve dare do otherwise other-wise than endorse us when any question affecting us comes before the senate. We think we are, so to speak, "on top." |