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Show CHURCH ORGAN SN TROUBLE .AND TURNING SHORT CORNERS Scraps of Recent History to Show to What Straits a Wily ' Editor Has Been Driven to Defend Polygamy and Deny It at the Same Time. The open confession of President Joseph Jo-seph F. Smith has played especial havoc with tho organ of the church. It is being be-ing pointed out all over the town that the News has persistently and unblush-Ingly unblush-Ingly attempted to deceive the people of Utah on the question of polygamous relationship re-lationship for years. And now that the head of the church has appeared before the Senate committee at Washington and declared that the leading men of the church and the editor of the Deseret News are now openly violating the laws of the land, and aro living with plural wives, there is nothing for the News to do but to take Its medicine and admit, by Its silence, that nil these years it has been wilfully and knowingly attacking the people of Utah who have dared to say that polygamy has and does exist. Few of the reading people of the State have forgotten how the Deseret News raved when the citizens of Utah and the Ministerial alliance protested against the seating of Reed SmooL They have very keen recollection of the sulphurous clouds that hovered over the building that houses the church organ, and now that President Smith has admitted practically prac-tically all of the things that the citizens citi-zens nnd the ministers claimed, there is no end to the fun that is being poked at the Mormon editor. ' Going back to the date of the publication publica-tion of the protest of the ministers, we find that the Deseret News had this to say about the matter: "As to their unsupported allegations and insulting attacks on gentlemen whose character and standing and reputation rep-utation are at least as good and high as their own, we will merely say that they come in very ill grace from such a source." News, November 25, 1902. Then on the same date and in the sams connection the News said: "Seriously, we do not think the opinions of those preachers count for much on a subject of this kind, and they would be In better work If attending attend-ing to their preaching and minding their own business." Discussing this comment, a Salt Laker said that he could not understand that "President Joseph F. Smith could possibly be In good grace when confirming confirm-ing the statements of preachers who were In ill grace but I suppose the Deseret Des-eret News would have no difficulty explaining ex-plaining that." On March 5th. last year, the News took another shot at the preachers. It contained among other fulmlnatlons the following: "The Leilich story will not help the anti-Mormon cause. Neither will the presence of such defamers as Wishar'd, i Schroeder and Nutting, now in Washington Wash-ington on the same mission as Leilich, though perhaps not with the came lurid tale. But think of such a combination as they make for any purposol Two reverend sectarian lights linked In with The Devil's Lantern!' Oh, what a 'trinity lnt unity!' Presbyterlanlsm, atheism and Methodism" Joined In one to abuse 'Mormonism' and the 'Mormons!' 'Mor-mons!' The incongruity of the Jointure is complete, except the well-known un-veraclty un-veraclty of each part. This has been so often "exposed that here it needs no further fur-ther disclosure." When reviewing the foregoing from the News, a citizen suggested that the church could improve his simile and bring It up to date by making a quartette quar-tette out of the trio and dubbing President Presi-dent Joseph "The Master of the Show." Certainly the president has carried the defamation Into the Senate himself, and has made the work of the ministers an unnecessary bit of toll. "If President Smith had have told the preachers that he Intended to make tho entire case out for them himself," said one, "then we might have stuck to our pulpits and sparecj ourselves so much concern." There was one time that tho Deseret News held that the charges of the ministers min-isters were not only vile, but that they w'ere "musty, dilapidated and irrelevant." irrele-vant." To be more precise and to give those who have forgotten the full text of the opinion on this particular point the benefit of it, we reproduco the following: fol-lowing: "The next movement of tho conspirators conspira-tors will be to obtain a hearing before a committee, when they will present the old, musty, dilapidated and Irrelevant stories, quotations, fables and sophistries sophis-tries that have done pulpit duty and figured In anti-Mormon fiction for so many 3'cars, coupled with allegations and Insinuations about the present, which they will have to support with more potent evidence than that which they havo yet been able to produce, to have any convincing effect on men of the caliber of those who will Investigate the matter. And both sides will be heard, which will be a very different thing to getting up a one-sided story for a popular lecture or to regale a coterie co-terie of religious ladies." News, March 5, 1903. There was a time that tho News thought that a man who violates the laws of the land ought to be punished. This was when It was deploring the conduct of a young Mormon In objecting object-ing to Judge Tanner In a Tabernacle meeting on the alleged grounds that the Judge was a polygamlst. The News had some very clever things to say at that time about "Peeping Toms" and scandalmongers, scan-dalmongers, but it declared that there was not a sufficient proof against the Judge. It further declared that the young man who "spoke out in meeting" was not eligible to speak because ho was not a member of the "stake" having hav-ing Jurisdiction over the Judge, etc. The following from the Issue of March 12. 1903, will be especially pertinent at this time as It will show how bad a hole the testimony of the president haa placed the News' polygamous editor In: "If any person or persons have vlo lated the law against polygamy, they must abide the consequences. They do so against their own peril. They have not the sanction of the church in breaking break-ing the laws of the land. They do. so If at all, entirely on their own responsibility. respon-sibility. No one, however, should be condemnedn common rumor." It is taken for granted that the editor of the News has not had any special grounds to claim that he has been In strict harmony with the church's teachings teach-ings for the past fourteen years, if President Smith Is not misinformed about the editor's polygamous relationship. relation-ship. Or perhaps the editor of the church organ will hold that the testimony testi-mony of the president Is "common rumor." ru-mor." Discussing the stories commonly be lieved in Utah and the specifically mado charges of the Ministers association, ' the News of April 15, 1903, had this bit 'H of opinion to propound: '-fl "Even if the Burmiscs and accusa- tions and reported violations of the 1H law are true which wo do not admit what would these fow cases of law- 1 9 breaking prove, except that they should Iifl have been prosecuted." nil Here is ono of the charges contained Hffl In tho "Protest of Citizens" and the US one evidently In the mind of the editor flfl when he gave expression to tho forego- I fl At least threo of tho apostles have en- I fl tercd new polygamous relations slnco , I )H the manifesto of President Woodrufr, 1 ,H We refer to Apostle Abraham H. Can- I non (whose polygamous marriage Pres- 1 II ident Joseph F. Smith is said to have fi solemnized), Apostle John W. Taylor ' . H and Apostle George Teasdale, Charles I fl H. Merrill, son of Apostle Mariner W. ,tfl Merrill, Is guilty of the same crime, of ifl "which offense his father has criminal JH cognizance. That other polygamous re- ,jH latlonshlps have, since Statehood, been ijfl consummated within the church Is just nfl as certain, and in a monogamous com- III munlty could easily be proven. i:?B |
