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Show AS THINGS ARE. We have been asked: "Why fight an abstraction? abstrac-tion? Utah is gaining in population, the things which clash with our Government will, with increasing in-creasing light, melt away." Those are not quite the words of our inquisitor, inquisi-tor, but they convey his Idea. The answer is direct to anyone who has kept watch of things in Utah or who has learned Its history, and who is familiar with foreign history. When men talk about a united rule of church and state, they forget that when any church is permitted per-mitted to share in the Government of a State It is precisely as it was with the Arab who on the stormy night permitted the camel to push his head into his tent. He found the camel would accept nothing less than the whole tent and the Arab and his iamily had no home except under the stars. It must be so. When one man tells his followers that he is God's accredited agent on earth and they believe him, that is sufficient, for who can fight against God or what is believed to be God? Very well, where this has been tried there always follows ignorance and degradation and poverty for the masses. The more pronounced the rule the more dense the ignorance, the deeper deep-er the degradation. When unchecked it means national degeneration and increased vices. Turkey is a fair sample, so is all Southern Europe. The men who settled Mexico, Central and South America were quite the equals in intellect intel-lect and courage of the Puritans of New England, of the Cavaliers of Virginia. The cause of tho change was so apparent that when the time came for the United States to frame a Constitution, among tho most earnest of the mem-beis mem-beis of that Constitutional Convention to utterly sever tho functions and tho rule of church and state, were the Roman Catholics. The progress M of our country sinco is 'perpetual evidence of the Jl wisdom which guided the deliverations or inwt ijH convention. M But, notwithstanding that, the Government of H the state of Utah is absolutely subordinated to riH tho Church as was shown by the last election, by j H the last Legislature, by the present City Coun- i'H cil. Party ties count for nothing with 'H men in office. Oaths of office count ! for nothing. Solemn pledges and the most bind- H ing covenants count for nothing, and any evidence j 'H of independent thought and action on the part H of Mormon officeholders means that ho is holding H his last office in Utah. This same influence is , H spreading and has become so potent in adjacent ' H states that it has made cowards of a whole row H of United States Senators from surrounding H states. The Church can absolutely count on the H support of the Nevada, the Idaho, the Wyoming, i H and the Colorado Senators for each one is look H ing to future elections and all want to be able to H negotiate in this city for the solid voce of the H Mormon voters in their respective states. H Is it not time for some one to enter a protest H against such a state "f affairs? If the evil Is not H cured in this generation It will be in a future one t even if it has to be through the wreck and death jH and waste of a mighty war. H The man who thinks that the present genera- tion is more yielding here then the former had better look around. As we estimate the matter the M present generation has quite as mucU f fanaticism and vastly less sense than their immediate ancestors. Surely in no i former year was there ever seen a legisla- ture more anxious to obey counsel than was the M last one which adjourned a few weeks ago. No t Mormons in the City Council in ancient days were M more servile than the Mormons in the present JH council. And it is but eight years since the pres- 'flH ent head of the Mormon church pledged his word and honor, and did It not, as an individual, but as M an apostle and member of the First Presidency, j that henceforth the men and women or his creea in Utah should be free; free to espouce whatever political principles they might please to, free to cast an untrammeled vote. Is it worth while to still believe that there is anything like honor In an institution of that kind? We tell Gentiles that it is due to their H own self-respect to dissolve anything like politl- H cal relations with such a people. The supersti- M tious fear is on the good men in the organlza- M tion and they are afraid to be men. Hence when M the next election draws near it will be the duty of Gentiles to nominate their own candidates and M work for their election, or to hold themselves , aloof and let the Saints take entire control. j " BBfl |