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Show 'BOLSTERING A FALSEHOOD." There Is not a Mormon In Utah but knows that ever since Joseph F. Smith gave his testimony at Washington the entire church has been engaged In bolstering bol-stering up r dishonest position. Scarcely a sermon but, by falsehood or pretense (or' abuse of some ono else) attempts to shield Joseph F. from the consequence of his own words. The people who listen gather their mental forces determinedly and say to themselves: them-selves: "We will stand by our leaders no matter what the world says or docs against them." The sermons are deceitful; the answer an-swer of the people Is intended lo be heroic. But both mnke further trouble for Utah, and particularly for the Mormons. As soon ns Joseph F exposed himself him-self ail a falsifier, without the courage of even ordinary fanaticism, he lost all caste among the people of the United states. .Millions tiau neneveu mm to uu a bigoted, but a sincere leader of men. After his testimony was given, they realized that however much fanaticism might bo In him, he particularly had a strain of brutal self-will, a disposition to defend himself at the cost of truth, and that he was a somewhat unscrupulous unscru-pulous mlslcadcr of men. He showed none of the qualities which might have been expected of a prophet, seer and revelator. Whether he was fooling himself or fooling others, he appeared ns a plain, common, every-day grafter. JVnd It is this sort of. pretension this exploded, silly, ridiculous falsehood; this thing that the world all laughs and scoffs at that the Mormon people are trying to holster up with falsehood by the church, and with heroics undeserved unde-served on the part of the people. That Is all there is to it. If the church can continue to bolster up Its false position, if It can defend its lies, It can keep the world guessing Just that long; but such a fabric Is ns sure to come down ns is a nouse oi cards and some of these days tho whole thing will tumble. And then each faithful adherent has to do his part to bolster up the nonsense non-sense and mendacity; and .the following follow-ing are specimens of self-contradicting "arguments" which ure commonly heard: "The people do not sustain the leaders lead-ers In any of the falsehoods which they told at Washington, and you must not hold the whole church responsible for what one man does." "You can not attack the president of the church without attacking the whole people." "Joseph F. was somewhat rattled; and It Is not fair to Judge his statements, state-ments, when you know perfectly well that he was' standing before a committee com-mittee of shrewd and unscrupulous men who were ready to take advantage of his remarks." "For my part, I am proud of the testimony tes-timony which Joseph F. gave at Washington, Wash-ington, and I am ready to take a gun and defend him whenever he. Is endangered." en-dangered." "The Lord Is trying His people, as He has often done, to see whether they can judge for themselves concerning the truth, even when the leaders go wrong." "You will never make any mistake If you will Just follow your leader; for lie cannot go wrong; and I think it is a glorious thing to have the Smith blood in the leader, because the prophetic power Is with them, and we do not need to trouble ourselves." "Personally I believe In the manifesto manifes-to of Wilford Woodruff " "I am mighty glad to sec President Smith and Apostle Lyman and John W. Taylor and Brother Cowley stand up for their religion and live it, no matter what may be the worldly consequences." conse-quences." "I was opposed to Reed Smoot's election elec-tion to the Senate. I think It is the greatest mistake the people here ever made." "The whole trouble comes from the outside. If a lot of wicked men were not continually stirring up strife about us, we would be all right." "Well, what If there Is a little polygamy polyg-amy In the church?" "Everybody knows that half the men down In Congress keep mistresses of their own. They, have no business to criticise our people in anything they do." "My own opinion Is that each ward ought to have half of Its tithing for local use. It comes pretty hard on our ward, for Instance, to pay a full tithe, build a new nieetlng-house, construct an amusement hull, support the poor, help missionaries off and keep their wives while they are gone, and then pay about three per cent ta.xes to the State. 1 tell you one thing: I haven't much left by the time I'm through; In fact, 1 am going behind all the time. I don't think Brother Josoph F. ever showed much ability as a financier until un-til he got to be president; but these tithes are for the poor, so It does not make any difference." "I would think It a sin If I did not pay my full tithe, debts or no debts. The first debt Is to the Lord, and he exacts full payment. It's none of my business what becomes of the tithes. The Lord takes care of the poor." "Did I read the testimony of Joseph F. Smith? Not much! But I know that people lie about what It says; and the same way about Lyman and others. oth-ers. Why do people want to tell such lies? What if it was all printed In full at Washington? Couldn't the printers down there Insert a lot of lies? I know that President Smith would not tell a falsehood." "The way I look at It Is justthls: Our leaders are prophets of God, and it nuikcs no difference what they ph. whether true or false. They have s the right of judgment. DUn't the Lord tell Abraham to He to Pharaoh.' Ls " any sin to He when you are In tht. bands of your enemies? Besides to talk about these things only makes them worse: and if everybody would keep still about them there would he no trouble." And that is Just about the senseless way In which the whole thine Is considered! con-sidered! There is no way In which the testimony testi-mony given by Joseph F. Smith, at Washington can be defended by facts or logic; and the Deseret News makes no such alienist. But that paper and the church, and such of the believers i as can be induced to forsake all Individuality Indi-viduality and follow their leaders blindly, are engaged In an attempt to bolster uo a horrible Imposition now so completely exposed that to profess It Is to profess open fraud, and to accept ac-cept It Is to accept open fraud. |
