| Show THEY DO NOT WANT THE TRUTH A PEW few weeks ago a letter was addressed to a lady in this city who to is thoroughly qualified for the task re questing her to write a series of articles for an eastern journal the publisher of which offered liberal terms fur for the work the lady responded and expressed her willingness to do what was de desired alred but having made known her connection with the 11 mormon ff 11 faith a change came over the mind or of the publisher the next letter brought different tidings the writer said 1 I was strange to say not aware of fit your our position on the mormon question it would hardly be wise to run a series of articles on mormonism from your point of argument no matter how strong and true your barines doctrines might be the people of the united states would condemn us for giving them place in our columns you possibly know as well as we do that aple people are hard to reason with what the he desires I 1 is to publish a series of four articles four columns each with illustrations on mormonism as it is at present you might be prejudiced so I 1 have decided to have the articles written up by a newspaper man of our oar own city and staff I 1 this iss is a frank statement of the position occupied by the publishers publisher and sand journalists in this country they want at on mormonism but they do not want them truthful no matter how strong aud true a candid state ment might be it would not do for the columns of a paper that wants a series of articles on mormonism as it Is at present why because the publishers are afraid it woul I 1 not suit the POO people ale money being the object some thing must be made up to catch the popular taste no DO matter how bow false and puerile the stuff may be what a spectacle this publisher makes of himself in this amusing correspondence respond encel he wants articles on od mormonism mormonism 12 as it is and applies as be supposes to an anti mormon 1 1 for the information who would be sure to p present resent mormonism as it to is not inot discovering that the lady to is a mormon monand and able and willing to describe mormonism as it really is at present he declines to receive what he pretend ed to want for fear she might be prejudiced and in order to get the information straight he determines to employ a newspaper man who knows nathl nothing ug of the subject and who will have to manufacture something to fill the demand out of the unreliable and prejudiced material sent forth to deceive the world this is how mormonism as it and mormonism as it never was has been dealt out to the public it is because of this that both the writers for bor the press and the people who read their ef fusions are so densely ignorant on the mormon Mor question they do not appear to want to know the truth literary men aud and women who come to utah attah professedly to study mormon ism ismon on the spot usually consort with the bitterest antl anti 1 I cormons mormons Mor mons r persons dersons steeped in the gall of bitterness and bound with the bonds of bigotry and intolerance whose very breath to is hat bate e and whose spirit Is the essence of spite and malignity of course the mormonism li they write up under such influences is the same old monstrous distortion which has been hold held up as a bugaboo for half a century with a few new wrinkles and another daub or two of garish paint if they apply to the only source from which correct information is likely in the very nature of things to be obtained it is not usually for the pur pow pose of getting at an I 1 reproducing the facts but of being bet ng able to say they have talked with persons advocating both sides of the question so that they my may appear to be without bias mormonism ism as it is can never be presented to the public except by mormon Hormon lP advocates its opponents do not fairly explain its doctrines nor truthfully state its position their blows are directed Pa against a dummy of their own manufacture their arguments against idem ideas of their ivvan invention ven tion we think that even the money grub bing publishers as well as the enter center prying editors of the country make an egregious in this continual pandering to public prejudice and this perpetual uRl repetition of antl anti mormon falsehood 1 they rhey should give their readers something new why not deal dea louta out a little truth on the mormon mod question it would have the attraction of novelty it might pay better than the stale trash in common use for each sensation that is worked up upon on this subject is but an old rumor in a now new garb and the reading public are geating very familiar with it all eastern publishers who prefer employing some newspaper man on their own staff 11 in writing up mormonism as it tell is to a person residing here who understands the subject and would give a true and strong pre sen tatton of the facts merely travel in the old timeworn time worn ruts and deal in decayed and shriveled chestnuts P they have no conception of ane true purposes of journalism they prostitute the power placed in their hands for good and they occupy no do higher moral plane than the dealer in green goods or other trader on the ignorance and folly of mankind |
