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Show WHAT THE OABDINAIj SAID. The interest, created in tho personality per-sonality of Cardinal Gibbons by reason of tho congratulations conveyed to him personally on Tuesday last by President Presi-dent Taft, o.v-Prcsidcnt Roosevelt. Senator Sen-ator Root, and others in connection with the celebration of his jubilee as a priest, and f ho 'twenty-fifth anniversary of his investiture as Cardinal of the Roman Catholic church, conibino to make his utterances on live topics of the day of immcdinto interest and importance. im-portance. Tho Detroit Tribune of June 1th has an article in the nature of an interview with the Cardinal, in which he treated on various public; questions. Tho Dcserct 2"ews of this city lakes up his reply to the questions ques-tions proposed in its usual nagging and vicious style, undertaking to 'refute" 're-fute" what the Cardinal says. It states that Cardinal Gibbons "has reecntby had himself interviewed," with the result as given, which was a mean fling at the Cardinal, for he is a man that docs not nood to get himself him-self interviewed, nor to come before the public under any sort of false pretenses. pre-tenses. Cardinal Gibbous is a man from whom interviews aro sought, not one who invites interviews, or who plans to give them. His opinions on various questions of the day arc eagerly eager-ly asked for, but too seldom had because of the stress of his work aud flie impossibility of his yielding to the solicitations of all who may -wish to hear from him. This, of course,, is perfectly per-fectly well known to tho editor of the News, so that his fling about the Cardinal Car-dinal getting himself interviewed is a gratuitous insult. The Cardinal is quoted in general, and especially on Morinonism, as follows: fol-lows: The five greatest evils confronting America today, the Cardinal declares, are the following; "Mormonlsm and divorce, which strike at tho root of the family and society. "An imperfect and vh-Ious system of education, which undermines tho religion of our youth. '"The desecration of the Christian Sabbath, Sab-bath, which tends to obliterate in our adult population the salutary fear of God and the homage that we owe Him. "The gross nnd systematic election frauds. "Lastly, the unreasonable delay In carrying car-rying Into effect the sentences of our criminal courts, and the numerous subterfuges subter-fuges by which criminals evade the execution exe-cution of the laws." 'Tn what way ate theso evils menacing the American civilization?" tho Cardinal was asked. "To one of the flvo radical vices I have Just enumerated may be traced our insatiable in-satiable greed for gain, the oo-exlstonce of colossal wealth with abject poverty, the extravagance of the rich, the discontent discon-tent of the. poor, our eager and Impetuous rushing through life, and every other moral and social delinquency." That was the Cardinal's answer. "There is not. a man who has the welfare wel-fare of his country at heart." he continued, con-tinued, "but must he alarmed at the existence ex-istence and gradual development of Mormonlsm, Mor-monlsm, which Is a plague spot on our civilisation, a discredit to our government, govern-ment, a degradation of the female sex. and a standing menace to the sanctitv of the marriage bond. Tho feeble and spasmodic attompts that have been ma do to repress this social dvll and the virtual vir-tual immunity that It enjoys have rendered ren-dered its apostles bold and defiant. Formerly For-merly they wore content with enlisting recruits from England. Wales. Sweden, and other parts of Scandinavia, but now, emboldened by toleration, they send their emlFsarics throughout the country and obtain disciples from all the States of the l:nion. "The Gospel forbids a man to have more than one wife nnd a wife to have mote than one husband. 'Have vou not road,' says our Saviour, 'that 'ka who made man In the beginning made them male and femal' And Ho said, 'For this cause shall man leave father and mother, and shall cleave unto his wife, and thev two shall bo in one flesh.' Our Lord recalls marriage to Its primitive Institution, Insti-tution, as It was ordained by Almighty God. Now. marriage, in its primitive ordinance, was the union or one man with one woman, for Jehovah created but one helpmate to Adam. Ho would have created cre-ated more if His design had been to establish es-tablish polygamy. The Scripture says that 'man shall adhere to his wife.' not his, wives. It does not declare that there shall be three or more, but that 'thev shall be two In one flesh.' "Hence Mormonism, unhappily prevalent preva-lent in the United States, is at variance with the plain teachings of the Gospel and is consequently condemned bv the Catholic church. Polygamy, wherever It exists, cannot fail to he a perpetual source of family discord and feudp. It fosters deadly jealousy and hate among the wives of the same household, it 'deranges 'de-ranges the laws of succession and primogeniture, primo-geniture, and breeds rlvalrj' among the chiilron. each endeavoring to supplant the other In the affections and Inheritance of their common father." The church organ objects to the Cardinal identifying Mormonism with polygamy, and yet the long record of the Mormon church with respect to polygamy is the Cardinal's complete justification in this, and the fact that the polygamy revelation is still carried among the official ' rules and laws of the church, together with the further fact that belief in the doctrino of polygamy is still proclaimed, reinforces' rein-forces' that justification. And in an article printed by the church organ on Saturday evening from an English writer, and reproduced on this page, the whole stress goes to the point; that Mormonism is polygamj. The pith of the church organ's reply is in theso words: "Cardinal Gibbons should inform in-form himself on the question and learn that. Mormonism is not synonymous with polyganry, but that the church existed before thnt doctrine was taught, and that, it exists now after the termination of the practice." This statement is a rare piece of deceit and jugglery, for the moro the origin of polyganry in the Mormon church is inquired in-quired -into, tho further back tho practice prac-tice of that vice is found to exist. President Joseph F. Smith traces it back to nboufc 1S31, very soon after the church was organized; in fact, it might very well be claimed that the organization of tho church and -tho introduction in-troduction of polygamy were practically practi-cally identical. But when the church organ says that tho church "exists now after the termination of the practice," prac-tice," wo must all wonder wlien President Presi-dent Joseph V: Smith aud others practicing, prac-ticing, polygamy ceased that practice. Tho practice of polygamy is living in tho polygamous relation. This Presi dent Smith stated he had never ceased doing, and that ho expected to continue living in thai relation right along. Tf. indeed, ho has quit; this practice of polygamy, it is au important im-portant thing to know, ancl'the public would bo glad to be informed more definitely of tho faqfc and of tho date at which this polygamous living ceased. But when the Dcserct. Xews undertakes under-takes to incasnro up against Cardinal Gibbons in any statement, fact, logic, or argument, it is a good deal as though a (lea-bitten little- (lco bristled up to a magnificent mastiff aud challenged chal-lenged for a fight. |