Show SAINTS CONFERENCE r SeventySecond SemiAnnual j Meeting Begins I DISCUSSION OF FREEDOM t Declares That He President Smith I to Pre the Feeling Does Not Want tho Mormons That vail Among Independent and Free to They Are Go and Do as They PleaseApostle Cowley Advises Against Marrying Out of the Church Tobacco Habit Scored I I Congregations which comfortably 1 flllcd the lower floor of the Tabernacle r were present both morning and after j oon yesterday the opening day of the I seventysecond semiannual conference 1 of the Mormon church In the absence of President Snow who was detained 1 nt home by a severe cold President Joseph F Smith presided over them t the-m tlnltS A variety of nubJects were discussed ly l the speakers but the growing evils among the Saints came In for the greatest share of their attention Those motit severely criticised l were profanity and the use of tobacco Apostle Claw yon pave statistics Hhowing the growth of the Mormon church since Its foundation foun-dation Aoostlo Smoot dwelt upon the law of tithing and Apostle Cowley advised ad-vised against marriages between Mormons Mor-mons and members of other churches saying that only evil would result thprcrom Elder Seymour B t Young offered the opening prayer in the morning after which PrcslJcnt Joseph F Smith addressed I ad-dressed the Saints President Smith referred to the evils I among the Saints including the breaking J break-ing or the Sabbath day and the taking of the name of tne Lord in vain both of which he said were Incompatible with the teachings of the gospel Another I An-other growlnx evil which President Smith said Is becoming nil too apparent is that of the use of tobacco among the youth of Zion and said the people t of God should set tholr faces like flint against this evil OT FRISK AND INDEPENDENT Lastly President Smith said he had noticed a tendency recently on the part of some of the people to sell out and I fio off Into some distant State take up farms or buy farnm and cut themselves t them-selves off from the organization of the i church He thought they should not do this but If they became dissatisfied f with their lot and wished to move Into f another region they should counsel r with the heads of the church He then I added We do not want the feeling r to prevail among our people that any man Independent and free to go and do as he pleases because we do not think it Is a correct principle As we separate and scatter about we weaken ourselves we destroy our Influence A nnd become like the rest of the sectarian I 1 sec-tarian world and it will not do I APOSTLE SMOOT ON OBEDIENCE I i Aoostle Reed Smoot confined his remarks 4 re-marks almost entirely to the necessity 4 f of obedience to the laws of God say r Jut that obedience isonc ofJheu > at foundation stones of the church and always al-ways will bo Ho thought it was not necessary for him to speak long upon the law of tithing but added that the men and women who believed In It and practiced It never grew tired of hear Jnc the ciders of Israel bear their testimony tes-timony regarding it Speaking of the poor of the earth and of the charity extended Apostle Smoot said that there are millions of people today groaning under the oppression op-pression of tyranny many of them unjustly un-justly and through the lack of an equal distribution of th 1 blessings of God that while the question hud attracted J the best thought of the philosophers oft of-t the day and men had given liberally f of their means to establish a way for the betterment of the condition of these people It wan simply like throwing a stone Into a brook The speaker said I hi never expected to see the time come when all would have the same but he did expect to see the time come when through the practice of the law of consecration there will be no poor afnong the Saints of God even as had been prophesied j GROWTH OF THE CHURCH The closing speaker of the morning Anostlc Rudgcr Clawsou occupied the time In telling of the growth oC the organization known as the Church ort or-t JCSUP Christ of Latterday Saints since Its foundation In 1S10 with six mem hers Hn then said that had Gov Bogga of Missouri who was one of the chief Dcrsccutora of the Saints In the early days been permitted to fall Into a sloop like that of Rip Van Winkle and could awake today In Salt Lake Cltv he would be astonished at the procrew that had been made for It was honed and believed by the enemies of the church In the days of Gov Bogga that the Mormon Church would dls aoocar forever from the earth Apostle Claws n then sold that today there nre fiftyone stakes in the Mormon church fourteen foreign missions 2CO W souls In I the stokes of Zlon and W I f In tho missions a total of 210000 55000 chllJrcn under S years of age c I Uift First Presidency and twelve apos IS tics 200 patriarchs GSOO high priests nJi seventies 20000 elders making a tir 4fLN cft 1 Q < ti A 7 fbV g2 ct P f i 44 L Al fl Lr 19ES Snirn rmc7 Oj5 THE 1I5V SEVENTYSECOND i S E 11 ANNUAL I 7 CorFRENcE I total of 30744 4800 priests 4900 teachers teach-ers 1COOO deacons a total of 25700 constituting the lesser priesthood or a II Brand total of G24I4 bearing the priesthood priest-hood of God Connected with the auxiliary associations of the church are 30150 members of the Relief society socie-ty 10000 oncers and teachers In Sun dayschools and 1GOOO children 28000 In the Y M M I A and 25000 In i they the-Y L M T A 40GO officers and 319SS children In tho primary association about 20000 belonging to the religious classes of the church the total of those belonging to the auxiliary associations reaching 1204 Of the 20000 farms owned by Latterday Saints Apostle Clawson said that 3SOOO are absolutely free from debt He closed by telling of the increase I in the Methodist Congregational Congre-gational and Presbyterian churches of tho United States In 197 which out of a total membership of 4000000 amounted to 50000 The Latterday Saints he said in that year numbered a little over 250000 and their Increaoe was 20000 souls After the benediction by Elder Edward Ed-ward H Smith a recess was taken until un-til 2 oclock URGED TO ATTEND FAIR Elder Platt D Lyman invoked divine blessing at the afternoon session of conference which found a largely increased in-creased gathering over that of the morning The first speaker of the afternoon was Apostle Abraham O Woodruff who began by urging upon the people that they attend the State fair He says there wore too many who were willing to pay 50 cents to see a Punch and Judy show or a side show who were not willing to pay half that amount to go to the State fair He said those In charge of tho fair had I worked very hard to make it a success and the people of the State shoud appreciate ap-preciate It by attending Speaking of the report made by Apostle Apos-tle Clawson at the morning session Apostle Woodruff said that the enemies I of God must be very much dissatisfied with the efforts they bad put forth to destroy the work with such poor results re-sults PERSECUTION HELPFUL lie said It had Ten the Inheritance of the church to be misrepresented and persecuted by the corrupt of the world hut this had never amounted to anything any-thing in blocking the progress of the work and expressed the belief that had It not been for the persecution waged against their people in the past the mustard seed or gospel would never have spread abroad as it has today He referred to the practice which I was not popular here some years ago and said that because of It many of the leading brethren of the church had been driven into exile and were obliged to seek a friendlier place than this at I that time Had it not been for this I fact he doubted very much If today I there would be a stake of Zion in Mexico Canada Oregon Wyoming Colorado and other places USE OF TOBACCO In closing the speaker called attention atten-tion to the Increasing use of tobacco among the Saints and said It would appear from the actions ofsome of the elders that they think more of their cigarettes and of their chew of tobacco and of their filthy JmbltH than they door do-or their families and of priesthood of the son of God MANY FALLING BY WAYSIDE Apostle Cowley the succeeding I speaker referred to the statistical report re-port given by Apostlo Clawsou at the i morning session and said that notwithstanding not-withstanding the fact that the church had grown remarkably that while the membership Is 300000 today at least I 150000 souls who nuvo embraced the faith since the beginning have fallen by the wayside Apostle Cowley also took up and denounced de-nounced tho practice of profanity among the Saints and said an authority of the church had recently said to him that there was more profanity on the streets of Salt Lake In a short time than in the cities of England in a long time The apofctlo said too that he had spent nearly five years In the South and during that time he seldom heard the name of God taken in vain I that while those people were probably worse in some respects they would bean be-an example for the Latterday Saints I to follow In their freedom from pro fanity He said also that the young people of the sectarian churches could well be examples for the young people of the Mormon church in this regard He denounced the tobacco habit and said It was the duty of all the organizations organi-zations of the church to take up the labor to do away with It that there was no use talking about the glorious things of the kingdom of God unless we have faith enough to quit smoking a cigarette or an old pipe i WHO NOT TO MARRY The young people of the church wore appealed to In the closing sentences of the apostles address He called upon them to keep good company to not go out with men who profane tho name of deity smoke cigarettes chew tobacco dabble in liquor and profane the Sab bath day and said do not risk your company where there is a danger that your affections shall be attached to an object that Is not a Saint of God I Taking the opposite course has never resulted In good Evil has always come about and if it was my right L would i say to the Methodist marry within your church If it was my right I would say to the Baptist marry with in your own church and I would say to the Catholic the Methodist and the Presbyterian Dont marry a Latter day Saint girL I would not have a Mormon girl because they will make you trouble He said a Gentile churchman had recently told him that when they got a Mormon Into their trap it always caused them trouble because when a Gentile marries a Mormon Mor-mon girl and they have a baby she wants the baby blessed at a Mormon fastmeeting and when It is S rears old she wants it baptized into the Mormon Mor-mon church and so there Is trouble all the time And the apostle added CONVERT FIRST THEN MARRY I want to protect the Baptist the Catholic and the Methodist churches against you Mormon girls I have enough love for them to protect them and I want to protect the Catholic Methodist and Baptist girls against you Mormon boys I want to say to the girls that are not of your faith Dont marry a Mormon boy Ho will make you trouble just as sure as you live I unless they repent and they are not very apt to do that Dont marry a man to save him and It is better not to marry a woman to save her If you cannot convert them before marriage you will have a sorry job afterward Do your converting and laboring all before and if you cannot make a convert I con-vert then I say let them alone Tho benediction was pronounced by President Angus M Cannon adjourning adjourn-ing the conference until 10 oclock this morning |