OCR Text |
Show JUDGE LANDIS RULING. The rulinff of Judge Landis, in the United States court at Chicago, on the status of men who give a higher allegiance to some other Government than they do to that of the United States, and his further ruling as to who owns the property given to a so-called so-called creed, is of special significance in Utah. . The oath of allegiance of the Mormon people to their creed is not worded like the Dowie oath, but in spirit it is just the same, for it is true that the devout Mormon holds everything, even his family ties, in subordination to the higher rule of the church, and by the church we mean the head of the church and his close advisers. If anyone doubts this,' let him review what the Mormon church teaches. It i first, that - this institution, known as the Church' of Jesus Christ of Latter-aay Saints, is a dual kingdom, spiritual and temporal; that the hea'd of the church by divine authority rules the people peo-ple in all things, and that the heaa'of the church is in truth the church, from day tc day, for to him is given the gift of receiving revelations from day to day from Almighty God. Now, we hold that a man imbued with that belief be-lief can give no allegiance to the Government of the United States except a subordinate one. In fact, Apostle Smoot practically admitted that in his evi dence before the Senate committee, and when men say ttiat other churches also hold that the hea.l of the church, so far as a mortal can. is acting iu God's stead on earth, such person forgets that no other creed except the Mohammedan imposes upen its followers as a duty the absolute obedience in all temporal as well as spiritual things to some earthly head. When it comes to the property, this Judge holds naturally that property so intrusted to the head of the church is a trust; that it does not belong to the head, but to the people who give. That carried out to its legitimate . end should make every share of sugar stock or mercantile stock or any- other stock bought by church money in the name of Joseph F. Smith, the real property bf the Mormon people, to whom the dividends should belong. be-long. It is as clear and terse a statement of the real status of affairs in Utah as though it had been made especially in Utah, and as though the church under consideration was the church of Joseph Smith instead in-stead of the church of John Alexander Dowie. |