OCR Text |
Show THE STUPID PRETENSE. It Is bad enough for papers and for persons not familiar with tho situation In Utah to raise the cry that tho war making upon Smoot 1b made because he Is a Mormon, The utter stupidity of this Is so apparent to every one knowing actual conditions that it seems singular that onyono. could bo left, in America who would give voice to that absurd idea; but when papers in Salt Lake City will copy such expressions ex-pressions with approval and will give vent to such expressions themselves, then surely the depravity of Imposture and falsehood has touched the bottom of the depths. No ono here makes any war upon the Mormons; no ono here has made war upon tho Mormons; all that has ever been asked at any time Is that tho Mormons shall come upon the some plane as other citizens, obey the same laws that other people obey, and square their conduct and lives with American sentiment and American Ameri-can Institutions. Mormons have been In Congress from Utah from tlmo to time, with not the slightest breath raised in opposition to them holding their seals. Who said one word against Judge King? Against Howell? Against Frank J. Cannon? or against any other Mormon merely because he was a Mormon representing represent-ing Utah in either House of Congress? But if the War was against Mormons, why should therA not have been opposition oppo-sition agalnut all of these, and why should not the sentiment of the country demand their expulsion from the Hous-s In which they served, as. well as against Smoot? The utter futility. of any..sucli.chr?ej. tho utter nonsense of it. brings odlunl upon those who have voiced or countenanced counte-nanced any such idea. If anyone claims 1 that the warfare Is simply because he Is a Mormon, to be conslntont ho-will be obliged to show that there was a like warfare upon other Mormons who have served tho State In tho Senate or tho Hbuso of Representatives. Let them come forward with a showing of nuch opposition or confess -themselves falsifiers falsi-fiers and slanderora of the loyal people of Utah and America. The fact Is, that-there Ip no religious or sectarian basis or bias In the fight agalnsi Smoot. It Is wholly a fight on principle, and on conforming to American Amer-ican Ideas and American methods of conducting politics. It is merely a branch of" the demajid that tho la.ws shall be obeyed, allegiance rendered to the republic that church and Slate be separated and be kep; apart. That is all there is to it, and as scon as that is done with regard to Smoot and generally in Utah, there will bo no more fight, no more contention hf re. and all will be harmony among the citizens of this State as it exists tetween citizens of different forms of belief In other commonwealths of the American Union. |