| Show i ESC11EAT OF CORPORATE PROPERTY I Manly and courageous Editor Inisn of E the San Francisco Ma does not propose that because only the Mormons arc involved I now the doctrine laid down in the supremo court decision in tho church escheat cases shall pass unchallenged He sees the danger dan-ger in that opinion and is not afraid to point it There are other editors who seethe see-the same thing as clearly as he docs but most of them dare not say so lest they be charged with expressing sympathy for the unpopular Mormons The other day we reproduced a leading editorial in the Alto critiosiug the decision Below vie print iu I I full an editorial in the latest issue of tho Alta received It will be approved by all honest citizens The decision of the federal supreme court cs cheatinc all tho property tlieMonnon church to the United States is more than novel It is startling Xo one questions the power of Congress Con-gress to nullify the territorial act by which the Mormon church became a civil corporation Such nullification was no doubt competent and constitutional It need not be in the nature of r a penalty for violation of the antipolygamy or any other law As an act of publio policy alone it would not be without justification But when such a local act of incorporation is not only nullified but tho property held under i it is escheated as a penalty for violation of the law by the corporation a vast field of speculative law is opened the further margins of which are not distinguishable distin-guishable from any present standpoint In this case the corporation a church was accused of tenets and teachings and practices contrary tow to-w and for this its property is confiscated In jurisprudence a germ often expands unexpectedly unex-pectedly and is found to have held principles 1 and possibilities entirely unsuspected This is true ol the fourteenth amendment which was believed at the time of its adoption to apply only to natural persons In respect of their legal rights of person property and action This germ has expanded until It includes artificial artifi-cial persons and has become a most important contribution to corporation law Hereafter there will DO at least color of authority for escheat of tho property of any corporation that is found to have disobeyed the law Congress has taken jurisdiction of all interstate transportation trans-portation lines and by statute regulates their operation The intricate emergencies of the railroad business are > o impossible of accommodation accom-modation to a rigid statute that these roads are compelled to a constant technical violation of the law Why shall not escheat of their property be the penalty Again if a church in the wilderness shall be escheated preaching or practice contrary I to the law of the land why shall one within the pale escape Several of our strongest churches openly defy the civil law and for obedience to it visit spiritual penalties pen-alties upon their members Cm anyone tell why the Mormon church estate shall be con liscated and the property of other churches go free An antipolygamy law is no more sacred than a compulsory school law a high liquor license law and others which are openly denounced de-nounced and as openly ndlsobeyed by several churches It the fourteenth amendment could be a pandedto embrace artificial persons the principles of this decision which now smites HAOAII in the desert may also reach ABRAHAM in his tent At a distance it would seem that the pursuit of the Mormon church to punish it is a repetition of the familiar story of religion using the arm of the state to strike a spiritual rival It is timo that believers in a secular state should seriously consider the precedents in legislation and jurisprudence which are being be-ing established in the course of this contest Idaho disfranchises for membership in the Mormon church and it is proposed to extend the same disability to Utah the reason and pretext being that the teachings of the Mormon Mor-mon church are inimical good government The idltor of the New York Jail and Express says that the teachings of the Democratic party are Inimical to good government The Presifcnt of the United States says that he will veto any bill passed in Congress by the aid of Democratic votes Senator JOHN J IKGALLS has often expressed himself to the effect that the Democratic party is pernicoas and unfit for existence Now these opinions prevail in any state sufficiently why not follow the Idaho precedent pre-cedent and disfranchise all Democrats because the majority thinks their doctrines wrong Scores of hypothetical cases can be suggested which show how perilously near the edge we are treading in the principles which arc being applied ap-plied to the suppression of the Mormon church By and by the question will be asked Why was this necessary Why not punish forpol gamy g-amy the individuals who commit it as we do those who commit murder without disfranchising disfranchis-ing those who belong to the murderers church or confiscating Its property And who can answer an-swer it consistently with the policy which works denial of their civil rights to men as a penalty for their religious belief I |
