| OCR Text |
Show AMERICAN GAIN. The Deseret News Is usually a clever falsifier and alwnys a ?peclcus one. I", tho matter of the case against Apostle Reed Smoot It did not dare to claim that the hlerarch had won a victory; In fact It ungraciously, but completely admitted ad-mitted his defeat. But to compensate for Its back-sliding Into truth (an unforgivable un-forgivable offense in tho eyes of its edi-' edi-' tor) it comes out with nn editorial as essentially falso as though it were to deny that men nro human. Tho recent omanatlon of tho News was "Doomed to Disappointment," an editorial which is reproduced In Ih'is'TsSue'Sf The Tribune. Trib-une. Taking up this article of the News (after giving to It a complete presentation? presenta-tion? as Is the custom of Tho Tribune, and as Is not the custom of the News when it desires to meet tho argument of an adversary), this paper offers tho following observations upon tho general gener-al falsehood of the church organ: First, there Is no antl-"Mormon" crusade. cru-sade. There is a non-church movement against the Mormon hierarchy; It has its origin In a desire to fulfil the Constitution Con-stitution of this Stato, which declares for a separation of sectarianism and civics. If It Is "Mormon" to disobey law and to flout Constitution, then the movement of necessity Is antI-"Mor-mon"; but tho proponents of the oppo-slon oppo-slon to the Mormon hierarchy do not adopt the word even though that particular par-ticular designation, and the confession which must accompany It, are furnished fur-nished by tho Deseret News Itself, tho church organ and the representative of The News assumes that tho disappointment disap-pointment of Americans will bo more keen If the Senate shall dismiss Smoot than if it shall retain him. Americans will take all tho risk involved in this kind of a decision; but at the same timo we are cognizant of the great fact that the retention of Smoot by the United States' Senate will contlnuo the warfare against tho Mormon hierarchy with concentration and effectiveness. The best friends of tha church and the ablest opponents of tho American party are those certain' intelligent men who begged the Mormon loaders to compel Smoot to resign in order to suspend the conflict. The News worries about the langungo In. which tho prot-staiits and petitioners peti-tioners against Reed Smoot couch their sentiments. It is, especially anguished because some good w6men ln certain parts of our common country call Mor-mcnlsm Mor-mcnlsm an "octopus." Refinement In the use of names about an unrefined thing would be useless euphemism. Mormonism is, In broad terms, Smith-Ism Smith-Ism and Smootisnu Smlthlsm means to hf,ve flvo wives and forty-two children, r-nd eleven of them born outsldo of the law and then some. Smootism means the rule of a church over the politics of a people, rimall wonder If certain South .Dakota womtn failed to differentiate between on octopus and a devilfish. Tho News assumes that efforts have been' made to diBgulse the, fight against the Mormon hierarchy under Smoot, v, ho is a part of that hierarchy. Nonsense! Non-sense! Every effort has been made to keep the fight plain to expose Its entire en-tire workings. To show how strenuous has been the struggle to give an intelligent intel-ligent account of tho characttriBtlcs of the warfare, The Tribune has repeatedly repeated-ly reprinted articles from Joseph F. Smith and "Brlgham H. Roberts, and hao reprinted such lntelligiblo and non-obscene non-obscene articles as the Deseret Nows has offered on this subject. The News, with characteristic effrontery, Insists that there Is no Mormon hierarchy In Utah. There are twenty-six men who are,. constituted by their own act and by the vote of the subordinate mass to be a governing' body; fifteen of them are prophets, s"eers and revelators; ono of. them Is THE prophet, seer and reve-lator reve-lator to all the world, and his volco is the voice of God. To offend this body is to be excommunicated from the chuch and to be destroyed In business and political affairs If one be a Mor-1mon. Mor-1mon. and to be turned over to the hate of. the -whole masB If one be. a Gentile. These mon may claim that they are not hierarchs; and If tho Deseret News prefer pre-fer the other synonym, they are brigands, brig-ands, 4 The News appeals to history to protect pro-tect itself and Its tyrannies by showing that onco men wore slain for so-called heresy; but in reality the argument turns itself against the Idormon leaders lead-ers and their organ, for they are the crucifcrs of today. It is they who institute insti-tute the thumb-screw and tho rack; it Is they who make the test by fire and water; It Is they who slay and ravish and lay waste In nil the territory of those who do not believe as the church leaders would have mankind believe. The appeal of the News to liberality of sentiment is like the appeal of the Jackal to courage it Invokes the cxer-clso cxer-clso of that quality which it does not possess. The News concluded with a paragraph para-graph In which occurs this sentence: "Human sagacity cannot advance it. tho Mormon church nor can human opposition stay its progress." There is no human' sagacity within tho church that is advancing or retarding its progressthere pro-gressthere is lgnoranco which is destroying de-stroying It. If the Deseret Nows presumes pre-sumes by this sentence to convey the Idea that tho Mormon church is progressing pro-gressing In power and in tho high consideration' con-sideration' of mankind let it be undeceived; unde-ceived; for tho fact exists that the Mormon Mor-mon church is poorer In numbers, poorer poor-er In repute, poorer in all things except arrogance and the wealth which It has stolon from Its people, than It was ten years ago. |
