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Show "CONTROL OF COMMERCE FOR CHRIST. " The Constitution of the United SI LteS was Jealous In its determination to establish es-tablish equality of commerce between the States. By all means known to Its power, then, It made guardianship against the invasion or exclusion by legal authority of the ono State upon the legal rights of the other. Being me-e earthly men (probably among the wisest that ever lived) as has often been said In the Mormon pulpit), pul-pit), they could not foresee all things, and they could not know that a kind of Injustice would arise, so utterly foreign to ordinary commerce as that to de-BCrlbe de-BCrlbe U would have taxed their Inge-unity Inge-unity It Is a commerce which comes with thi growth of a church in financial power, and the ambition of a churchman church-man to Wield financial or commercial power among his people, I r over those who are not among his people Naturally The Tribune refers to Joseph Jo-seph F. Smith. There Is no word In the Knglish language lan-guage to describe the particular kind of crime which this man dally commits. First, there Is his every-day assumption assump-tion of the guise of a holy one, a vicegerent vice-gerent of the Christ; a prophet and deputy redeemer, who Ifl gathering up vast rlchefl so that when the Savior may come in His glory, He may find that His wealth has already been prepared for II lm. The peculiar Infamy and fallacy of this are in the fact that as all wealth and all power belong t Him, the Son of God, whom God will send to rule the world, there Is no need of any gathering gather-ing by deputy, anil no need of any stewardship by Joseph P. Smith In the meantime For when God wants It for His Son. it I mes His Son s by His gift For everything In the world belongs be-longs to ciod from the beginning To gather It for God Is rank blasphemy. There are ways of lending It to the Lord, called giving to the poor. Rut these are expression utterly ign d by Joseph F. Smith, and they must be taken i mean only that bestowals upon up-on the poor w in be repaid by the Blaster Blas-ter But e ven If the Lord God Almighty desired to Institute for His Son a system sys-tem of property gathering for the glory of His coming day, it is Inconceivable Incon-ceivable that He WOUld trust the task to a man so utterly selfish and besotted with personal desires as Is this man Smith. Nor would the sweet Savior of mankind assent to gather property by any system which should destroy countless of His brothers and sisters In Its processes. The w hole system is at onee so blasphemous, blas-phemous, so rotten, so Inefficient, so full of worldl selllshness for th" manipulators that to brand It on Its face as a fraud is to deal most mildly with its charai terlstlcs. It Is at once Injurious to the large participant or controller and to the small competitor or clerical servitor. Of the former class It makes masters, and of the latter class It makes serfs. So long as he can make tight he does so, paying ten per cent to the hierarchy, upon which ten per cent they can draw In time of need for funds with which to fight him When at last ho s destrojed (for no business will perpetually endure an annual drain of ten per cent of Its profits) he usually becomes a small servitor in some one of its branches. All the time men of less skill and abil-lt abil-lt than himself are swelling in their grandeur, because by some system of religious commandment he has been compelled to lav ten per cent annually upon the altar of God, subject to direction direc-tion by the Ignorant hierarchy, which is waging a disastrous competition with him If thu counsel were strictly followed (and It is to a dangerous extent), what would be the situation? No man would go into business In opposition to Z. C. M. I. This would leave Z. C M. I. the sole mercantile agency through which the people could deal. They could obtain ob-tain such price as it chose to pay, or buy such goods as it chose to sell In larga towns, v. here Gentiles were assembled. as-sembled. It would attempt to compete with Gentile stores, and could successfully success-fully do so. because of Its tremendous support of Mormon trade and Mormon sacrifice. But even Gentile stores would be compelled to meet its gross and un-American un-American advantages. And If the hierarchy hie-rarchy had their way strictly, Gentile stores would be closed out of business, after having contributed year after yiear to the glory of God and the establishment es-tablishment of the property tights which Joseph F. Smith had designed for His kingdom. Now, what are the?o property rights" And what possible relation Interest do they bear toward the coming of the Savior to earth " They are temples. In which a charge is made for saving the dead. They are tabernacles in whic h the people gather to be Instructed In their temporal duties. They are mercantile houses, over w hich the vicegerent of Christ presides, and where the faithful are expected to expend their money, and the still more faithful are expected to draw down the big dividend They are banks, and implement companies, com-panies, and drug ston. etc . of similar character They are the Deseret News, dally and semi-weekly, which at any price you are expected to buy, so that the News canvasser may boast of Its circulation to the Eastern advertiser and gather In his shekel; while at the same time he. the , t, ass- r gathereth in our ear-rot, ear-rot, which he doth exchange In various saintly ways for matter available to him and utlllzable In a non-union printing print-ing office They are an Era (God save the epoch!) and a Juvenile Instructor (God save the mark, alleged to be edited by one embodied ass, who hnth I 'implied 'im-plied within himself such doltish wlt-llngism; wlt-llngism; such Sluggard, tortoise. Dundreary Dun-dreary vagrancy and pererration ; such dlshclout shoveling, such nincompoop, nizxy, dreary, bankrupt, hoddydoddy, bedlamite- ravings; that the readers carefully ask God to Inspire, them to know whether he borrowed or wrote the editorials before they risk their Intellects In-tellects in pretending to peruse them There are street cars of dizzy and uncertain un-certain swing, and still more dizzy and uncertain curve which give us varied views of the same object going In the same direc tion. They are theatrical performance that would blush you, from J. Lincoln Carter, Car-ter, with his pure melodrama, up to the "altogether" of the unnanuable. They ore. Incidentally, prize fights, attended by Joseph F. Smith and a big and aried lot of other sports There are railroads and pavilions where you can get anything you want to hear or anything you want to drink You can listen to a disciple of father Matthew or you can listen to two hours and i half of the Word of Wisdom and you can listen until you can smell the fumes of sulphur from the hot place tbkllng the olfactory nerve, and then you can go down and And the stuff running run-ning In gallons or beakers for the dear girl or three fingers of Kentucky for yourself And If this is not ridiculous beyond all human expression, The Tribune would like to have some correspondent t' II It w herein language does describe Joseph F. Smith, the prophet and vlce-gi vlce-gi rent of God: and when the anser 6hall be given. The Tribune will attempt to make a more definite reply. In the meantime The Tribune points out the fact that the prophet of Gr.,1 s. in the blasphemed name of the Holy One, enguged In waging not only a cruel battle- which you Mormons seem to like, because you pay for It. but a cruel battle which the Gentiles do not like and which will destroy them, whether- thej pay for It or not after It has destroyed you Mormon merchants, These Gentiles Join The Tribune In begging you to resist before It is too late. Let us resist before It Is too late. |