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Show I SMURTHWAITE TO. DATE. - So many requests have come to us for a statement of tho Smurthwalte case with the Goddard connection, that It seems almost obligatory to review the matter to date. . Charles A. Smurthwalte was a well-to-do commission merchant of Ogdcn, a llrm Latter-day Saint, a teacher In the Fourth Ward of Ogdcn City, Utah quite a favorite with his bishop because of his cheerful charities, and a favorite favor-ite with nil who know him because of his brilliant and profound intellect. Ever since he became awaro of the character of Joseph F. Smith's testimony testi-mony at Washington and of Joseph F. Smith's personal character, and particularly par-ticularly since tho absurd ecclesiastical proceedings commenced agalnBt a friend of his, Mr. Smurthwalte has been quite outspoken In antagonism to the work of the hierarchy. Two of his teachers called upon him "to labor" with him and they attempted to tako down his replies. As they were within his own domicile, he refused to permit them to write, as one has a legal right to do under his own roof. He refused constantly to accept anything they should write as being a correct report of his utterances, as It was perfectly apparent that they Intended to use his remarks and their ignorant and Imperfect Imper-fect report of them as some kind of a charge or record against him. Mr. Smurthwalte said that he would prepare a letter In his own time and make known what were his views on this question. On the 13th of March, he addressed a letter to his bishop, Edwin T. Woolley, of Ogdcn, reciting the facts and declaring that he did not think that Joseph F. Smith was a prophet of God. Getting some Inkling that Smurthwalte Smurth-walte was thus engaged the .hierarchy proceeded to antedate some papers and to serve a summons on him, containing a charge of unchrlstlanlike conduct and apostasy; tho charge being dated the Sth of March, the summons being dated the 10th of March, requiring him to appear for trial on the 22nd of March, all in 1905. The charge and summons were filed upon him on the morning of the 14th at 11:30 o'clock, fifteen hours after he had mailed copies of his letters to his bishop and the various newspapers. newspa-pers. Hyrum II. Goddard, presiding teacher, teach-er, was the complaining witness against Charles A, Smurthwalte. Mr. Smurthwalte Smurth-walte immediately took, steps to deal with Mr." Goddard. He signed, on tho ISth day of March, and sent to his bishop, bish-op, a charge against Goddard In which he stated that Presiding Teacher Goddard God-dard was cohabiting with two wives, contrary to the statute of the State and the law of the church, and asking that he be brought to a hearing. In the meantime, he sent a letter to the bishop, to be read at his trial on the 22nd day of March. The secret session ses-sion of the bishops' court was held on the evening of that date; presumably his letter was read, as well as the charges; and the bishopric afterward stated that the matter had been taken under advisement. But on the 25th day of March Mr. Smurthwalte received a notice that he had been disfel-lowshlpped disfel-lowshlpped from the church at a session ses-sion of the bishopric held on the 24th day of March, 1905. Charles A. Smurthwalte h'ad no more opportunity to successfully defend or clear himself at the proposed hearing of the bishop's court than ,a snowball would have"of extinguishing the endless end-less flames of. the. infernal regions. From personal experience, we can state how the case would proceed. Ho would meet, in a room of the vestry of his church, with six- other-men, all of them in effect a part of the prosecution. prosecu-tion. He would be permitted to bring no one with him, neither witness, counsel, coun-sel, clerk nor friend. The charge and summons would be read. He would be permitted to read any written answer or to make oral answer. If he made oral answer, the six other men would take down such facts of his replies as might be suggested by their desire to answer the demands of - the power which had set In motion this alleged judicial machinery of the church- He would declare the truthof all that was admitted by him of the charge, and he would assert his ability to prove the truth. No one of the six men present would probably deny Its truth, but they would sit In silence, while he made the charge. If he asked for an opportunity to present witnesses, that opportunity would be refused to him. Finally his bishop would declare the hearing ended, and he would-leavo the premises. The "further proceedings would all be in secret, and on an early date, he would be declared dlsfellow-shlped dlsfellow-shlped from the church, with the order or-der that the case should go to the high courfcll of the Weber Stake of Zlon. This Is the situation today. The case will go to the Weber Stake of Zlon. If he attend the meeting there, the only difference wll be that thirty-six men, or thereabouts, all representing the prosecution, will be present against him, Instead of six. If he shall, not go. It will appear that he Is shrinking from the trial, that he. Is afraid to meet the witnesses against him: 1C he shall go, he will be placed entirely in the hands of his enemies,! because they will make any report they, please of the proceedings, and he will be one man against thirty-six. Even' If they try to be conscientious and fair' to him, the fact that they are all' moved by the machinery at Salt Lake and that It Is necessary tb excommunl-' cate this man from the church, will, weigh with them, and he Is lost. It la far bettor that he shall refuse to attend' the meeting, In order that he may preserve, pre-serve, as he has now, an unblemished record to hand down to his children. There is not in any community In the United States, n. power mox'ing with the silent, apparently sleepy and 'yet dangerous .force of this Mormon Church:. It Is illkc the crocodile Ithat seems to plumber on the bank, and when a victim, fancying it Is a dead log, comes near enough, it opens its snapping Jaws; . he is no more, and It Is asleep again. A man is in good-standing In the church; ho says something which Is offensive to the cars of the chief hle-rarch. hle-rarch. Some spy or sycophant, a retainer re-tainer of the hlorarch, carries the word, and then Joseph, by even the expression ex-pression of a wish, or an Inclination, can set In motion that machinery which as surely decapitates, ecclesiastically, ecclesias-tically, the object of bio hate as the blade of the guillotine ever fell upon a noble neck In France. No trial Is needed; need-ed; pretended trial Is a farce.' ' This Ignorant, Ig-norant, sullen, bigoted, selfish misruler of men Is the autocrat of all. Good peopio will find It hard to believe be-lieve that good people would resort' to such evil means' to do a good deed. If Mr. Smurthwalte be a sinner so gross as that to live In the' same church with him is defilement of tho body of the church, then It would seem that ho might have had an honest trial, with witnesses for and against; and that if there were no repentance, no forgiveness, forgive-ness, he might have been- dismissed with a prayer that he would do better In future. It must have been a very bad cause which demanded such bad methods.' It must bea bad leadership which demands de-mands of minor ecclesinsts that they thus degrade their priestly office to do vile injustice In their secret chambers, and yet to be made known of all men. It is fair to assume, on the face of It, that tho chnracter of the proceedings demonstrates that Charles A. Smurthwalte Smurth-walte was right and that Joseph! F. Smith was wrong, otherwise the Mormon Mor-mon church would have permitted Charles A. Smurthwalte to have a fair hearing. Fortunately, we do not need to depend de-pend on this evidence of augmentation. Charles A. Smurthwalte has made the case plain by his written documents delivered de-livered to the world; and he stands before be-fore his fellow-men honest, honorable, unyielding and courageous. And Joseph F. Smith, too, has made the matter plain for himself; f6r he has acknowledged acknowl-edged In the Tabernacle of Zlon that he perjured himself at Washington In 'order to avoid the "traps" prepared by Senators of the United States for his feeL And as to the Goddard case, the Mormon Mor-mon church will pay no attention to It, other than to practically acquit Goddard. God-dard. The probable method will be this: Now that Smurthwalte Is dlsfellowshlppcd dlsfel-lowshlppcd and Is on his way to quick excommunication (being nlready In prison and awaiting his number to go to the block), there is no one to press the charges against Goddard. Goddard surely will not do so; and as he Is the presiding teacher of his own district, there Is no one else who wants to do so. , Smurthwalte cannot demand that tho case proceed because he Is not of the plural marriage elite, he' Is not a fellow of tho Goddard cult, having been dlsfellowshlppcd. dls-fellowshlppcd. The bishop will wait a reasonable time, say fifteen minutes, and then declare that no witnesses appearing ap-pearing against Elder Goddard, the case is dismissed and his fellowship In the Church of Joseph, the defier of God and law, Is as good as anybody's. And that Is the review of the case to date, with some small predictions of the Immediate future. If you take It seriously, It seems like thoso outrageous, outrage-ous, almost Impossible tragedies of medieval me-dieval times. If you do not take It seriously, It sounds like the most foolish vagary of a clown's merriment under a circus tent |