Show SAINTS IN conference SEVENTY THIRD SEMI ANNUAL MEETING LARGELY ATTENDED president smith advices followers to get out of debt and prepare for future period of depress on secret societies and labor unions censured fully 10 people were present at the opening session of the seventy third rd semi annual conference of the church of jesus christ of latter day dair saints which convened in the taber nacle in salt lake city saturday morn ing april ath members from all parts of the state and many from neighbor ing states being present the opening address of the morning sess session ioia was delivered by president jo seph F smith the head of the church during the course of his remarks president smith said I 1 desire to mention one or two subjects which I 1 deem worthy of the attention of the saints in this time of prosperity it is highly proper that the latter day saints should get out of debt we may look now for a period tot Df depression at any time and one of the best ways to pay our debts to our business asso dates elates is to first meet our obligations to god pay your tithing and be blessed that is just what I 1 mean president smith then took up his other subject that of labor he urged that more attention should be given to the manual training of the boys of zion the vast majority malo rity of these probes men eald said be he are worthless rhey are leeches upon the body politic some of us have an idea that it is de grading tor for our daughters to learn lo 10 cook they are now taught to play the piano and sing and spend their time in idle useless pleasures in so biety we stuff the heads of our chil dren with fables and fairy tales in stead of teaching them useful labor president seymour B young of the seventies regretted that too much time was being spent in educating the head and not enough in training the hand the schools and alid colleges he declared were incomplete because they lacked the facilities of teaching the bechani me chaill cal eat arts president jesse M smith of the snowflake stal e of arizona invited the saints to come to that state where he said the mormons had built up communities where the spades were bright and the barns were full president E D woolley of the ka nab stale reported that there was not a saloon in the settlement over which he presided president byron sessions of the big horn stake in wyoming reported that everybody was prosperous in his dis brict and that there was not a mort gage on a farm in that section at the afternoon session elder B H roberts spoke poke in favor of labor unions saying I 1 admit that sometimes sometime these unions go too far in their demands and have incorporated within them selves features are not good but it if our young men would follow the trades they mast recognize the th unions elder joseph A merrill late of the samoan mission reported progress in the islands over which he has ed while elder sylvester Q cannon who has lately returned from the netherlands mission reported the work of the church prospering in that country president charles kelly of the box elder said he was thankful there was not a single secret bation in his stake and declared that these trades unions are but secret orders and they should be shunned by the young men of zion sunday sess ons three sessions were held in the tab sunday at each session the great meeting place being crowded to its utmost capacity for the first time in the history of the church of jesus christ of latter day saints a united states senator oc coupled a seat among the twelve apos ties lles and in his ecclesiastical capacity addressed the vast assemblage apos tie tle and senator reed smoot spoke to the people of the virtues of cle cleanly arill ness and mas nas beard heard with rapt atten tion president lund was the first to ad dress the congregation at the morning session he commended the saints to fo the increased tithing which has poured into the coffers 0 of the church the past year but said there is still room for much improvement he ar gued that there was something wrong with a man who would not pay his tithing saying that the paying of ing Is not compulsory but a matter be t tween tee ee a man and I 1 Is god and a man should be honest with bis his god elder deuben G miller of emery stake and elders W C parkinson of the hyrum stake and thomas E bar rett of bremont stake gave encourage ing reports of officers in their respect tive stakes elder J golden kimball was the closing speaker at the morning ses seq sion and created somewhat of a sen cation by telling the people how they could popularized the church this be ing the abolition of the missionary tern tem and the prohibition of temple marriages in order to make the church oa 01 popular among the people of the earth he said the church should cease sending out missionaries to preach the gospel among the nations and tor for the same reason the practice of going into the temple for the th e pur pose of receiving endowments and marrying for time and eternity should be abolished these two innovations would increase the popularity of the mormon faith among the people of the earth he said sala the afternoon session was inter with selections by the choir and by and selections from individual vidual members among the speakers were senator and apostle reed smoot who spoke to the in u iti tude of cleanliness and prof tanner who spoke of the educational work be ing done by the church other speak era ers addressed the assemblage on the workings of various stakes and the financial and other condit ons of va rious settlements settlement ot of the Latt latter erday day saints at the evening session of the confer ence in the tabernacle the reports ol 01 the superintendents of the various stake blindly sunday schools were heard after which I 1 resident joseph F smith de livered himself of a short address upon the eills that beset the youths and younger people of salt lake elder J M tanner who handles the business part of the sunday school work reported some improvements in the schools he said there had been numerous meeting houses constructed and the old ones v ere rapidly being fit fed ted up and improved upon k closing session president smith in his closing ad dress to the saints scored the ene of the church in a vigorous man ner and denounced the crusade against reed smoot in the recent sen attrial campaign while he did not mention apostle smoot by name he referred to the fight against the churan when he wanted to become a depre tentative senta tive in the nation s congress and made it plain that he directed direct eu ea his criticism to those who were opposed to the seating of mr smoot in the united states senate I 1 want to t I 1 you said he that there are no more loyal people on the face of the earth than the Latt latter erday day saints nowhere will you find people more true to the best interests int crests of their country and government than we I 1 tell you that we will be a factor in bringing good to this nation and wilt will help it to be ome the best and grandest nation ic in the world we have been maligned mistreat ed and misrepresented but not by the nation it was by the lying hypocrite hypo crit leal test sneaking cowardly wolves in sheep s clothing that go through the world seeking to stir up strife and trouble for the righteous they seek to bring the wrath and ire of the na tie alon down upon us and our church the government would have protect ed us had it not been for these con temp tible bounds hounds that go about lying about us if we have not been lied about of late as well as ag from time im memorial I 1 do not know what lying is some men seem to be born liars I 1 believe with president wilford that some men are sent into to lie and they fulfill their mission president john R winder who je de livered the opening address of the session took occasion to rebuke the oung people of the tho church for fall ing to have their marriage ceremonies performed in the temple and warned them agati against marrying gentiles president lewis anderson of the south sanpete stake reported that in spite of the pest of grasshoppers the people had been forced to contend with they had been faithful in the payment of their tithing thomas A waddams president of the hawaiian colony tn in skull valley stated that his people were thriving rider joseph mcmurrin said that utah had become too small for the mormon people and they were spreading forth into other states and countries to build their communities president william A hyde of the pocatello stake stated that his corn was as beset with many difficult ties because of the outside world but he felt that the day of their triumph was near at hand president david cameron of the panguitch stake in dixie reported the work doing well in that section of the state |