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Show Published Every Saturday BY GOODWINS WEEKLY PUBLISHING CO., INC. CHAS. W. LAWRENCE, Manager SUBSCRIPTION PRICE: Including postage in the United States, Canada and Mexico, $2.50 per year, $1.50 for six months. Subscriptions to all foreign countries, within the Postal Union, $4.50 per year. Single copies, 10 cents. Payments should be made by Check, Money Order or Registered Letter, payable to The Citizen. Address all communications to The Citizen. Entered as second-clas- s matter, June 21, 1919, at the postoffice at Salt Lake March 3, 1879. Act of City, Utah, under the Salt Lake City, Utah Ness Bldg. Phone Wasatch 5409 - . 311-12-- 13 THIS IS THE PLACE When Brigham Young, on July. 24, 1847, first looked upon the valley of the Great Sale Lake he saw that it was good and exclaimed to his followers, This is the place! The pioneer leader into the then Mexican territory had just completed a trip of approximately 1,000 miles, in company with companions who were at that time fleeing from what they regarded as church or religious intolerance. The Mormon pioneers had previously been enforced travelers away from Nauvoo, Illinois, in order, as they said, to escape persecu-ti- n for religions sake. During the career of the Mormon church, from its organization on April 6, 1830, the chief complaint has been that the world has. been intolerant in respect of its ideals, principles and practices. After the struggle to bring out the Book of Mormon, which began in Palmyra, New York, it was claimed and contended by leaders in the movement that obligation was forced upon followers to shift to Kirtland, Ohio, from there to Far West, Missouri, and later to Commerce (renamed Nauvoo), Illinois. In every shift of the Mormon church it has been complained by leaders in the movement that intolerance toward followers was the cause. Arriving in Salt Lake valley on July 24, 1847, as stated in the opening paragraph, Brigham Young, leader at that time, exclaimed, This is the place! In view of experience of the Mormon organization previous to July 24, 1847, it is fair to assume two things. These are that the pioneer leader had finally found a place where could be established and maintained religious tolerance and, as a resultant fact, progress for the people. It is fair to assume, on account of their own previous encounters with the intolerant spirit, as they viewed it, the Mormon leaders smd people were possessed of a conviction that establishment and maintenance of a community in which the greatest personal freedom consistent with law and order would make for a peaceful and thriving commonwealth. Some of the successors of Brigham Young, the pioneer leader in Utahs history, may have gone afield from the ideas entertained by the first band of people entering the Salt Lake valley in 1847 . That But whatever the cause of the present is a matter of opinion. situation, there is reigning in this state today a spirit of intolerance . that is unbearable to citizens of the United States. Now, there is no need to go further into the history of Utah and the Mormon church at this time in order to make clarified position of the facts. There is this, however, to say in respect of the situation: Sometimes it is true that the individual possessed of a given narrowness of mind will flee from intolerance of the other fellow in order tQ establish and maintain an intolerance of his own. The case in Utah is plain. What is true of Utah is true of Salt Lake City, its chief municipality. There is an opportunity ' present now to make good on the prediction of Brigham Young: This is the place. Presented to every citizen of Salt Lake in the existing situation is an opportunity to make good on the declaration and prediction of Brigham Young at the time of the arrival of the pioneers in 1847. . It should be possible to rid the commonwealth, and particularly the community of Salt Lake,' of the reactionary spirit which has retarded progress and subverted the uses of statehood to those of priestcraft. The complainer against present conditions in Utah there are many of him, and he is a church member and a is referred to the fact that the cause for his complaint will disappear as soon as he uses his own political judgment and refuses ro accept dictation from any fanatical source. As soon as this is done in Utah, every citizen who resides in the state may hold out welcoming arms to the incomer and reiterate the glad announcement of 1847 : This is the place ! non-churchm- an BANKING BUSINESS. On the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the Zions Savings Bank and Trust company, the following appears in its souvenir pamphlet sent out to the public generally: Zions Savings Bank & Trust company has to a remarkable degree the characteristic of permanency. It was founded under the Saints church and has always been and auspices of the Latter-da- y will always be under the SAME CONTROL. Its president and directors have been numbered among the most substantial citizens and reliable business men of this community. We do not understand whether this paragraph means that a church can conduct a banking business better than bankers or whether it is a threat to eastern capital to stay out of the Savings Bank and Trust company business in this city. Whatever it may mean, it is certain that religion and the banking business should be kept as far apart as the two poles. The Mormon church, as a church, has engaged in business. The president of the Mormon church and many of its most prominent leaders are likewise engaged in business. "What chance has the ordinary Mormon to compete against his church or against its president or other high leaders? Hebcr J. Grant & Company secured $5,000,000 worth of insurance from the Utah Power and Light company. We wonder how the Mormons engaged in the fire insurance business felt about this matter? How many mercantile institutions have been organized by Mormons in Salt Lake City in the last fifty years, which compete directly with the Z. C. M. I.? |