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Show CHANGED THE MANIFESTO. On Monday morning The Tribuno paid somo attention to certain replies made by tho Doserot News to a letter of inquiry from a correspondent living in Brigham City. Tho questions dealt with in that article referred to the pledges made by the leaders of the Morrnon church previous to Statehood, and upon which sovereignty was procured. pro-cured. We showod the misleading nature na-ture of the replies given by tho News, and wo feel assured that tho nature of our presentation was trustworthy and convincing to tho cud that tho church orgau had laid itself out in a special effort to deceivo its correspondent. There was another interrogatoiy tondered to tho News bj' tho Brigham City citizen which, becauso it had lit-tlo lit-tlo bearing upou tho main subject matter, mat-ter, we left to future treatment. Here is tho question: Did Francis M. Lyman testify before the Investigating commltteo that the clerk of the Salt Lake temple had changed tho manifesto? To which the Dcseret Nows repliod: "No, not to our knowledge." That, wo beliove, was truthful. But it was not broad. With knowledge of the actual facts in its possession, the evi dent disposition of tho church organ to confine itself to this direct replj" 0 a direct question is manifestly evasive. It is ovident that tho Nows correspondent correspond-ent had, soraowhoro and at somo time, heard it eaid that some of the clerical experts in tho church had "edited," or othcrwiso corrected, tho manifesto "of Wilford Woodruff. But if appears that his lack of defiuito information upon tho subject led him to mistake the identit3' of tho individual so testifying testi-fying before the Senate committee. This beclouded condition tho Deseret Nows was evident' indisposed to clear awaj, foaring an exposure of some sort. The church organ has becomo so accustomed accus-tomed to resorting to falsehood or ovasion, even upon occasions when the straightforward truth would servo better, bet-ter, that tho practice has beconjo as its first nolure. In this instance it would appear that tho News will havo done itself no honor in the estimation of its correspondent, when tho real truth shall be madb known to him. And Tho Tribuno will bo glad to perform tho dut3' of presenting the anthorita tive information which will clear the manor up in the Brigham City nan'S mind. Mr. George Reynolds, who testified testi-fied that ho was "one of the church secretaries, " gavo tho following evidence: evi-dence: Mr. Worthlngton You said' something: about helping' to wrlto tho manifesto. Will you explain that? Mr. Reynolds President Woodruff wrots It in his own hand and ho was a very poor writer, worse, I believe, than Horace I Greeley and he gave It Into tho hands of threo of the elders to- propare It for tho press. I was ono of thoso threo. Mr, Worthlngton Who were the three? Mr. tteynoldsr-C. W. Pcnroso, John It. Winder, and myself. Mr. Worthlngton What did you do? You said you helped to write the manifesto, mani-festo, and I want to have an understanding understand-ing of what you mean hy that. Mr. Reynolds The answer came from the fact of tho question coming to mo whether 1 had read It and understood It, 1 and I answered that I had assisted In writing it. Mr. WorthlngtonDld you three, then, transcribe these notes of President Woodruff, Wood-ruff, or did you rewrite It, or what? Mr. Reynold a We transcribed tho notes and' CHANGED THE LANGUAGE to . adapt it for publication. Testimony Jn ' Smoot case, volume 2, pago 52. Now, what - harm could have been done if tho Deseret News had been honest, and had given this matter to . its correspondent in order to set him 1 right on this subject? Of course, the ( church organ will not disdain to mako uao of tho specious oxcuso that tho testimony did not como from Apostlo Lyman; but tho News knew of tho existence ex-istence of thiB ovId,onco given by Eldor Roj-nolds, which goes directly to tho substance of its correspondent's in-quir in-quir But tho truth is that tho Deseret Nows was sliukingly afraid to givo tho testimony. It foarod that tho publication publica-tion of such matter in its columns would causo tho faith of tho saints in their "inspired" prophots to fall, if it wero shown that tho Lord isn't oven ablo to speak good English out of thoir mouths, or to writo it through their pens. |