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Show WHO IS VIOLATING THE MANIFESTO? It Is probable that at this semi-annual conference of the church the thou-"sands thou-"sands of good people who are gathered will hear a great deal about the enmity en-mity and the opposition of the world toward to-ward them; and it may be that specific statement will be made concerning the antagonism evidenced by the mass of American citizens against the leaders of the Mormon church arising from the election of Apostle Smoot to the Senate of the United States. Without desiring to meddle with tho message o.f the prophets to their people, peo-ple, The Tribune begs the attention of all the laity and all the minor olllclals of tho church to this fact: not one scintilla scin-tilla of political antagonism was manifested man-ifested against you by the people of the United States until your leaders broke the pledge which they had given to the country In the political manifesto of 1S9G. And oven now no animosity Is felt toward you, except as you permit yourselves to bo dragged Into a controversy con-troversy which should not concern you at all; and doos not concern you, unless you arraign yourselves as supporters of those politicians among your leaders lead-ers who have violated their own covenant cove-nant to the world and to you. Does It not Impress the laity and the minor officials of tho church as a rather rath-er startling fact that the only two cases of political aggression by your leaders, which have excited 111 feeling in the United States, are tho two cases in which leaders of tho church violated the proscription which they had pronounced pro-nounced against themselves and went into political life? Brlgham H. Roberts and Reed Smoot were proscribed by the political manifesto of the leaders of the church Issued In 1S96. Brlgham H. Roberts was afterward elected to Congress Con-gress and was ejected. Reed Smoot was afterward elected to the Senate and his right to hold the scat Is now in controversy before the Senate Committee Commit-tee on Privileges and Elections. No, one of the laity or minor officials of the church has ever been attacked on tho ground that, being a Mormon, he was disqualified from holding ofnee. Arc you not Impressed with the fact, that the poetical manifesto should have been obeyed to the letter, and that the prominent leaders should have abstained ab-stained from politics, and that the laity and the minor officials should have been permitted to enter Into political life, since all your woes have come from a violation of the manifesto Itself? Is It not apparent to the Mormon people themselves that they are being deliberately dragged Into a controversy with the sentiment of the United States by the ambitions of the lenders? Why should the whole people be made to. suffer because of the aspirations of two men who have deliberately proscribed pro-scribed themselves politically? And why should the people suffer because these men determinedly violated their own proscription? The Mormon people have the same rights that other American citizens enjoy: en-joy: and no one seeks to deprive them of those rights unless It be their awn lenders, who having disqualified themselves them-selves from holding office are determined deter-mined that all the people shall suffer with them. There was a day In the old time of Utah when the entire mass of the Mormon Mor-mon people stood around their leaders as a solid body, and wore proud to suffer suf-fer with these leaders, although the mass were not Involved In the subject of controversy. But with the manifesto of 1S90. with Statehood granted in 1894 upon certain pldeges; under the political polit-ical manifesto of 1S9G the people were released from any necessity to thus sacrifice sac-rifice themselves at the feet , of their leaders, because the leaders themselves had made the solemn-declarations which enfranchised the people and left them free to be as other American citizens are. The Tribune has no desire to offer a word of Interference between 'spiritual devotion of a believing follower to a spiritual leader; but It loins the American Amer-ican party in a determination to point out to the mass of the Mormon people that the only assailants of their political politi-cal rights are their own leaders, and the only bondage Into which they can fall Is one of servitude toward the .ambitions .am-bitions of men holding high positions among them who have by themselves been proscribed from aspiring to public pub-lic office. Mormons who believe in the tenets of their faith, as taught by their leaders, lead-ers, have a right, which no one would dispute, to follow the spiritual teaching teach-ing of Its leaders. But Mormons should be, like other citizens of the country, free in their politics and free in their buslriess relations. It was wisely stated stat-ed by a member of the Catholic church a few days ago that whero the clergy of a church attended first to business and next to politics and third to religion, re-ligion, there usually was not much energy en-ergy nor time left for the third. |