Show BITING A FILE w Under the above caption on Sunday the Tribune reproduced a number of extracts from eastern newspapers concerning con-cerning the Ticker bill One of these was from the Springfield Mass Republican We reprint the eerpt here The exultation of the Mormon pressis at best a relief that things are not worse Added to this Is the possibility that the Mormons will take the test oath as a mere matter of form and thus retain control of the Legislature Ibis oath requires all voters to swear thatthey will obey the laws especially the antip lygamy laws and to support the United States Constitution This is just what polygamists are refusing to do every day in Utah preferring to pass a few months in the Penitentiary to disown jng EH important article of faith The Deseret News asks If Mormous should conclude to take the test oath and vote after all where would be found anticipations anticipa-tions of the repentant bummers Upon sober second thought the exultation among the Mormons will be changed to grief There such a thing as a moral force even in a region of dense ignorance and it is something to force the Mormon populace into a position where they must either abandom polygamy or perjure themselves in order to retain the electlvefranchise In spite of the vaunted compactness of the Church organization it cannot long stand upon a confessed lie duly sealed end sworn to We print thismerely for the purpose of introducing another extract from the editorial columns oi the same newspaper news-paper On February 25 a few days before be-fore the article quoted above appeared in thepaper mentioned the Republican = 1 = Cuniaineu a cuiuiuu jcnucx uu uaia same EdmundsTucker bill under the heading head-ing of Mistaken Dealings with Mormonism Mor-monism a portion of which article we reproduce below The best comment that can be made will be furnished by reading the two and reflectingthat they were written by thesame hand and appeared ap-peared in the same newspaper ithin a I week of each other People will naturally na-turally ask if any respect or consideration con-sideration ought to be given to the writings of Pan editor who so soon forgets for-gets the position he has assumed on any subject and who changes his views with the change of the wind Here is what the Republican editor wrote on February The conference report on the antiMormon bill has been passed by Congress and will doubtless receive the Presidents signature In that event the struggle for respectability in Utah and the surrounding Territory will enter upon a new stage The Gentile por tion of the community can afford to be candid in future endeavors to push nolve amy to the walL The Legislature of Arizona disfranchised all voters who refused to take an oath that they were not members of the Mormonchurch The law has since been repealed and now Nevada it seems has set out upon the same course the resolution proposing a constitutional amendment im > osmg such atest ooth having been adopted yy the Legislature with but three negative votes Idaho insists upon the same tes and with the TuckerEdmunds bill a law it I Would be within the possibilities that Utah itself would follow suit Nevertheless the rule is a very vicious one The theory is that the Mormon church is an organization thoroughly disloyal to Federal authority It undoubtedly is but to attack it in this manner makes a religious belief the basis of repressive action It may be a misfortune tr t man to believe that if he Is sealed to a number of women in constructive marriage mar-riage he will be suffused with alL the more glory when he reaches the celestial planes but it docs tot follow that te by this creed disfranchises himself Only about 2 per emt of the Mormons practice polygamybut JO I defend it A ptrcen Mormon was recently re-cently ed for unlawful cohabitation but it appeared upon the trial tht his superfluous marriages were with women already al-ready dead and that these posthumous al liances were merely due to religious form It will be very unwise to follow up these de hIded people with a sharp stick when there Is enough work in hand to suppress rank immoralities Even the struggle with con fessed offenders in Poll is attended with many acts 01 undue bitterness Of ficers armed with warrants make inciting incursions into all manner of retreats This of course cannot well be avoided At the same time thpre is no excuse ex-cuse for unnecessarily interfering with emirch property Word was brought to the L uiieu ciams vursuiu u lunuigui ago that George Q Cannon who had jumped his bail was hiding in the church buildings about Tithinghouse Square and a raiding arty was immediately organized When the officers entered the Tithiughouse yard tio of the men were smoking and the moment protests were entered by the Church attendants cigars appeared in the mouths of all the deputies The party searched the Grdo House Lion House Tithing Estab ishment and Historians Office without suc cess and then they raided the famous En dowment House about which so much has been written and so little known Here follows an account of the search from theTrtane This sort of thing may do the cause of morality and law good but we doub it very much If this report is a fair specimen of the Gentile sentiment toward oolvgamy lit tle will be accomplished It is mere rowdy scurrility and witnont justification as it is without disnity The nation wants an exe cuiion of the law blackguardism flung at men of eccentric religious belief It may be remarked that the above was not copied into the Tribune which printed the other Republican editorial |