Show reward of merit the people of utah appreciate as much as anyone clean american politics they deprecate the clash between the church and the state for they believe the two should be separ ate their religious reli gous teaching baa told them to look forward to a time when the word of the lord should go out from jerusalem and the law from zion they believe tha church will always have a function separate and distinct from the state while the people of utah hold that the church should not encroach on the state they are equally zealous in their demands that the state shall net encroach on the church when either is done it interferes with the perfect law of liberty the cry has all along been made by the liberal or antichurch anti church faction in utah that the church was interfering with the state and when the church people were all arrayed on one side they might quite likely bring state business before religious reli gous gatherings and vice versa it was a condition that favored mixing church and state even it were not done it at least gave color to the charges so loud were the liberal charges of church and state that the people became more cautious than is customary in other communities fearing a repetition of the old cry officers of the state were almost ashamed to be seen with leading church members unmindful at times it seems to us that leading church men are also citizens As president cannon put it at provo what harm can there be in officers of the state calling on a venerable pioneer like president woodruff for his views on a legislative matter he was a pioneer of utah and knows the history of the state from its earliest infancy fie himself has been a member of many legislative sessions abid why can not his views also be obtained we ask the same question with the understanding as president cannon no doubt meant that president woodruff speaks as a citizen he would not assume we take it to speak otherwise to state officers should he undertake to say to them as he would to church members doth mayeth the lord that would be a case of attempted church dictation that we would censure let the church work within its proper sphere but the enquirer has always maintained that no citizen ought to be robbed of his rights as a citizen because he happens to be an officer in the church render therefore unto caeser the things which are Ose sers and unto god the things which are gods the church has a right to establish rules for its regulations and one of these rules recently given prominence by full vote of the mormon church is that no officer of the church is to follow pursuits that will interfere with his church duties first informing or consulting his quorum it is a necessary rule to perpetuate any organization if officers of a corporation especially one that demands as much time as the mormon church should go coffon other pursuits interfering with the duties of the corporation what would be tho action of the company A resignation would at once bo asked for or it would be declared that a vacancy existed bo the new rule of the church that antichurch anti church men in utah are now fighting is a correct principle an eternal principle and one necessary to the success of any organization it cannot be broken down without breaking down the mormon church ancl that is an impossible thing because the church is defending that rule when assailed by politicians it is charged that the church is interfering with politics to our mind the church has a perfect right to defend its position and when politicians like modes thatcher Thatch cr and joseph L raw lini go outside of the palo of politics and declare themselves against the church and make open war on it the aunch has a perfect right to seek to defeat them and their defeat will mean that politicians will soon get tired bringing the church into every campaign |