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Show ITS OLD-TIME BIGOTRY. Residents of Salt Lake who note tho unreasoning opposition which tho Dcseret Dcs-eret News is sotting up against tho proposed pro-posed bond iBsuo aro but witnessing a repetition of tho old tactics of tho church organ as launched against progress of any sort. Wo aro just now reminded that tho present attitudo of tho News with respect to public improvements im-provements is quito consistent with that which it occupied when thoro was an effort making in Utah to bettor tho educational edu-cational facilities. At that time tho church paper opposed the project to put j the public schools upon a better footing, because it foresaw that such a niovo j was to be tho beginning of tho end of I ecclesiastical control of public education. educa-tion. In its leading editorial article of Frida3', April S, 1SS1, tho Dcsercr, News had tho following to sa3': The remarks of President Joseph V. Smith during the conference, on the folly and wickedness of some so-called Latter-day Latter-day Saints, In sending their children to bo taught by those whoso object and Intent are to lead them from the fath of their parents, wero timely and indisputable. The Inconsistency of those who take such a course Is certainly of the most glaring kind. To come out from the world under convictions that Its Institutions, spirit and tendencies are wrong and contrary to the order of heaven, and then place our tender children, with minds unformed or Immature, under those very Influences, appears to us plain evidence either of great blindness or deep hypocrisy. Farenls who profess to believe that God has set up Ills church and kingdom on the earth and established a system which Is divine, and that all others arc creations of men. containing fatal elements ele-ments of error and doomed' to dissolution, and yet send their children to bo tutored In the schools and iiplrlt of the world, must be very thoughtless or very Insincere. Insin-cere. God will hold us responsible respon-sible for our course In this thing, and wo trust that the words of warning uttered during the conference will not go unregarded unre-garded nor without permanent effect. Except that the particular item against which the News at that time delivered de-livered itself is different from that of todaj', the church organ's processes are identical in both instances. In each case the News attempts to isolate its church readers from the remainder of tho citizenship here, and to array tho Mormon pooplo against progress along all lines that was not mado under the direct supervision of the Mormon priesthood. priest-hood. While there wero many difficulties difficul-ties to be met in the establishment of schools in tho early da3s-of Utah, in tho 3'car 1SSI sufficient headwa3r had been made in business matters to justify justi-fy an extension and betterment of the s3"Htcin. But all efforts of Gentiles -to take control of the public schools out of the bauds of priestcraft, and to so improve educational facilities as to keep the local s3'stem as nearly as possible abreast of the times, were met with the most severe opposition. As tho News plainly states, it was tho desire of the ecclesiasts to keep tho public schools in such condition that the Mormon religion would alwa's enter into tho lessons of the da3. The process was obnoxious to the free Gentile people, so they established estab-lished a few schools of their own, Tbeso offered advantages for education that were so far superior to the church-controlled institutions that Mormons of independent in-dependent spirit and advanced thought began to send their children to these Gcntije schools. It was against this growing practice that Joseph F. Smith, then an apostle of the church, raised his angr3 voice. It was in support of Smith in this attack upon the progressive element, ele-ment, in the church and out of it, that the News hastened to threaten the saints with the judgments of the Almighty Al-mighty if they permitted their children to achive education in the society and under the tutelage of "enemies of God's kingdom." Tho movement for betterment of the schools was in the interest of progress. Progression and broad-minded advancement are as beneficial bene-ficial to the la3r Mormon people as to the Gentiles; but the onward movement is against the selfish desires of the hierarchical hier-archical manipulators of a preteuded "faith. The Deseret News is engaged solely in the business of seconding the demands and aiding and abetting the onslaughts of these high priests upon the welfare of the commonwealth. Therefore a bettered public school system, sys-tem, or improved facilities for broader education, were opposed both b3' Smith and tho Deseret News. As our citizens aro 03 this time aware, tho obstructionist tactics aro given publicit3' through tho News, to bo faithfully and 63'cophantically followed and imitated b3' tho minor church prints. That the News speaks authoritatively authori-tatively for the polygamous lawbreakers lawbreak-ers and obstructionists can bo proved by the last official notice that was over published concerning the position occupied occu-pied by that journal. At the head of its editorial columns of Saturda3, December Decem-ber 17, 1898, appeared an official an- ; nouncement, signed "Lorenzo Snow, Trustee-in-Trust," in which the follow iug occurred: The "Deseret News." with all Its properties prop-erties and appurtenances, has reverted to tho P.hurch of JcRtiR Christ of Latter-day , Saints, by which It Is now owned and controlled. . It will be the official organ of tho church and bo sustained by Its authorities'. , So that when you see it in tho Dosoret News, .you know that it comes from tho dictation of mon who have, during all of their lives, attempted to hamper the progressives of this communit3'; tho men who havo always set thomselveB up as being a law unto themselves; tho men who havo. mado ovcry offort to defeat tho purposes of tho lawn of the State and tho Unitod States; tho men who are today defying tho statutes which were ena'ctcd by Legislators of their own choosing; tho mon who constantly throw obstacles in tho wa3r of eveo- offort of-fort for the uplift of tho wholo pooplo of Utah, and who havo nover 3'et relinquished relin-quished their determination to ruin that which thoy could not rulo. As tho priestcraft of twenty-seven years ago would havo deprived Mormon children of bettered educational facilities, facili-ties, so the priestcraft of today would rob theso samo children, now developed into manhood and womanhood, of tho advantages of material advancement. Will 3'ou stand for this sort of obstruction, ob-struction, and by this criminal class of high priests? |
