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Show APPEALING TO THE MINISTERS. The Deserot News is sending out to the ministers of this city an appealing letter asking them to subscribe lo tho Mormon church-organ at half rates, on certain moral grounds which it states. Among these grounds is the alleged devotion of tho Deserot News to purity in civic government, to the enforcement of tho Sunday laws, and, in general, the attitudo of that organ for morality, decency, and a higher standard stan-dard of life. Tho conspicuous fraud and false pretense pre-tense involved in all this is so apparent as to be grimly humorous. The Deseret Nows as an advocate of purity in civic government, simply is the orgun of priestly rule. It is tho organ of tho temporal government of God on earth, .as run by the priesthood oX the Mormon church. Its idea of tho accountability of public officials with respect to fho handling of money provided by the pub-lie pub-lie is well exemplified in two directions; first, by its fervent and tearful excuses for t lie tithe-gatherers in their determination determi-nation nob to make any accounting at all for the money Ihey receive; and, second, in its misrepresentation, vilification, vili-fication, and indecent assaults upon American party officials who handle the public faxes. As to the latter, tho News is olor.nally censuring, cnlumniat-ing. cnlumniat-ing. condemning, and assailing in a fashion that is at once ignor.iut and vicious. If does not understand a plain financial statement when it is made, and keeps a continual demand for figures fig-ures that have alread- been furnished, but which it. seems una bio to comprehend. compre-hend. And this at tho vory fimo when it is most lusty and insistent in its claim thai no accounting , of tithe- moneys ought to bo made, aud that thoso who call for such accounting are wicked, malignant ma-lignant 'slanderers. And this is the key to the News's position in general. Any of the priesthood having to do with the public is entitled to do just as he pleases, without any accounting and without it being anybody's business to find out what is going on. But any one not; of the priesthood having official power -and handling public, money, not only must account fully, faithfully, and frequently, fre-quently, but if any one docs not understand under-stand (hirf accounting when it is made, tho person who docs not understand is at liberty to call tho public official a bad citizen, wicked official, a grafter, n thief. The Ncwk'h idea of morality can fairly be gathered by its relation to tho question of polygamy. Its idea in all this is! that if a man being of its own sect wants lo marry two or more women it is nobody's business, and the issuo of such marriages who an: illegitimate must be treated in every respect us lawful, law-ful, and tho relations which brought theui into life must, be considered not only pure, but holy. If any ono not of its 0',-rn seci, however, takes moro than one wife, then he must be hounded to the penitcntiarv. held ud as a crimi nal, and if any offspring resulted from the illcgitimato union, that offspring is nnd or tho sacred reprehension of fho polygamous cult which encourages precisely pre-cisely tho .samo sort of illegitimacy among its own members. And that is tho Deseret News's idea of purity of lifo as applied to members of the community. com-munity. Its respect for the Sabbath is well illustrated by the fact that tho Sabbath has never had the least respect from it or from its sect, snvo as it could jiso that sentiment to tho misleading of tho unguarded, and making those not well posted beliovo in tho earnestness and devotion of tho Mormon leaders to Sabbath observance. Tho fraud and tho humbug of all this is apparent when wo recall that when the Mormons woro hero alone and in exclusive control, the saloon ordinance which they passed, ami under which thoy worked for many years, said nothing whatever about closing saloons on Sunday, said nothing about keeping women out of saloons, and expressly allowed minors lo frequent fre-quent them, if those minors wero above .fourteen years of ago. For a great man years Salt Lako City, under the exclusivo control of tho Mormon cedes-iasls, cedes-iasls, worked under that, ordinance. Thoro was not the slightest pretenso of Sunda3' obsorvance, so far as all that was concerned, nor was such n thing oven mentioned. Wo do not beliovo that tho Deseret News wLll imposo its fraudulent claim in theso respects upon any of tho Christian minislr3' of J.his city. Thcro is not ono but knows perfectly tho utter ut-ter fraud and scandalous indeccmy of tho Deseret News making an3' such claims, cither for itself or for tho sect of which it is the organ. And yet this appeal from it is a shining illustration of fhe audacity with which tho church organ will put forth its shameless, false, and desperate claims. But every one having knowlcdgo of the situation here, of tho record of tho Nows and of tho ecelesiasts for which it speaks, understands under-stands tho absurdit3 of tho News making mak-ing an3 such claims as it is now making iu the circular it is sending to the Christian ministers hero asking their subscriptions. It is ii bald, audacious, and ridiculous effort to deceive. But after all, no ono can bo deceived by that sort of fraudulent trumpet'. And the impudenco of tho Nows in putting it forth is only equaled by tho virulenc3-with virulenc3-with which that paper assails theso same ministers when they make some statement of vital fact which touches it on tho raw. |
