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Show ,tj j , I 1 The Gentile Taught the Mormon 'Politico and JVfot& Weep. iff I IB m r I What a mad and unreasoning lot we are hope- H I I lesaly unreasoning after all. I've been reading B m r the ebulitions of those disappointed at the recent M j I It, I election, and were it not that the writers seem ear- m j I 1 nestly to believe themselves genuinely surprised m ft at the result, the expressions would be really m ! I laughable. I rejoice that I am not to be numbered M iK i among those who laugh at the other fellow's sor- M m 'P i row, for whether it have real or only a fancied ba- M jl sis, 'tis just as hard to bear. Happily, I predicted H jj I j 1 in these columns an undoubted Republican tri- m m f I I umph in Utah. Those vain enough to hope for any M l1 t other result are vain enough to hope for any- M fi thing. With a result so certain why should any m m ' one be either surprised or disappointed? H if f " Verily, man is prone to evil as the sparks to H if fl fly upward, and I make no exception among men B n.ij i your priest least and last of all. In this State the i ill Iri 1 president of the Mormon church is the ecclesiasti- B K Pi cal and the political leader. It matters not that he M lj jj Is concerned more in the getting of money than M M ' f-i in the saving of souls, or that a Republican vic- V ' ory s more to be praised than the conversion of M m tj hundreds to the faith he professes. Those who be- HHif' i lieve in him will not concede he can do wrong, and w though in all internal acts (such as exercising to Hisff ! tlie snecml end lie desires his personal and ecclesi- lil'r astical power) he shows himself a .very human be- ilw:f) ' ing, his followers cannot and will not concede this. I;lI Th's is in despite of the fact that they admit him 1 m ' to be a man and fallible, yet when evidence of this Hff. k fallibility is brought to their attention they Bj: "i squirm, evade, and finally deny with more or less 1 !' ; heat and temper. Giving to the man every moral fij ! ft virtue claimed for him, the unbiased can see he is jj , fr feathering an individual nest, and that like any S; Jjk j other human being, he is not averse to using the lii power he possesses to forward his own interests, H), to promote the welfare of his relatives, to punish Hm those that displease him and to put into active ffilfi. service all the power he can command to bring Hl 'Ifj about the political results and personal prefer- l ments he desires to see consummated. To all this ijjl there can be but one objection which is that the ,J practices and the professions of the man are far I'M from being in harmony with each other. The ordinary ordi-nary run of men expect one who professes much to differ in some distinguishable and virtuous respect re-spect from those who profess little or nothing. Herein these are as the foolish virgins who were without oil in their lamps. The wiser part of mankind recognizes the fact that a monkey is a monkey still, clothe the beast as you will. High-sounding High-sounding professions and proclamations catch the unwary, but the experienced are not surprised when the tail of the biped protrudes from beneath the personal adornments put on by the professor to distinguish him from the rest of the specie. A writer in these columns, one "Dennis B.," who worked himself into something of a fit over the doings of the church authorities, gave an evidence of lucid intervals. He asserted that for all practical prac-tical purposes the vote of members of the Mormon church was still a unit, while their opponents were hopelessly divided. Whether Mormon leaders at the time they consented to a division of their people peo-ple on national party lines were far-sighted enough to discover that by . doing so they could more strongly entrench themselves than ever I am not prepared to say. My personal view is that these leaders in common with their opponents and the balance of the human race, are fools. For this reason rea-son I give them no credit for foresight; but the chance turn has fallen their way. Therefore those who came to divide the Mormons are as Tom would say, themselves "divid" themselves, and your Mormon, freed from the danger of political disfranchisement, has arisen in a new strength and smites his erstwhile smiter with a "smite" about which there can be no mistaking. And your Gentile is sore. He started to teach the Mormon politics, and now the Mormon has learned them he weeps and wails aloud that all his fellow countrymen country-men may hear, and those of the Gentiles who have not an eye glued to some office proclaim their discouragement dis-couragement and curse the fate that keeps them in a country where they must submit to the perpetual domination of a church whose leaders may well be numbered among those who love the church well, but who love themselves better. Into all parts of the world from 500 to 750 young men the bone, sinew and brains of the Mormon people are sent forth every year as mis- sionaries. They are gone from two to five years. From the first thirty days of their absence they are compelled to defend, against all classes, a faith that is attacked by every other creed in Christian nations. With whatever uncertainty they may depart, de-part, there is no shadow of doubt as to the depth and sincerity of their convictions that their religion re-ligion is true when they return. And this conviction con-viction binds them to an acceptance of the dogma that God is responsible for the appointment of the church leaders, that God holds direct and personal communication with the president of the church, and that when the president or any of the leading men are working injury to the cause of the church God will remove them. Furthermore, it is not given them to criticise the conduct of these authoritiesthat au-thoritiesthat is between the authorities and God and that theirs is the duty to obey the priesthood. priest-hood. Mormon strongholds are filled with men and women grown gray in the absolute conviction that such a belief on their part, accompanied by absolute obedience to the church authorities, is the obligation they owe to the church and to God. Every year from 500 to 750 young men return from all parts of the earth with tho same conviction deeply rooted in their souls. And yet these asse3 who pose as political leaders have presumed they could lure young and old Mormons to an independence inde-pendence which would make them follow the new office-seeking mob as against the behest of church leaders, who call upon the heavens and the Almighty Al-mighty to support their claims to the obedience and confidence of the Mormon people. Can one wonder at the growth of pessimism when he contemplates con-templates the wrath of those who are angered because be-cause vain hopes cherished by imbecile politicians are blown away by the breath of a church president presi-dent even as hoar frost disappears under the warm winds of the south? And why should your Mormon desert the old to follow the new God? Your new man, the politician, politi-cian, seeks the same end as the old one the church man. Both strive to cajole those with undersized un-dersized brains to their personal advantage. Stripped of the power the position gives him, Joseph Jo-seph F. Smith would not want to be president of the Mormon church. Rev. Smoot would not rejoice re-joice at being an apostle, and unless an apostle he R would not dream of the Senatorship. Rob the poli- H tician of the promise of power and take from him H the self-aggrandizement a leadership among men H assures and how many politicians would we have? H So far as Utah is concerned, the contest is an H unequal one the church men are in the saddle, II and will stay there until internal dissentions and II jealousies destroy the confidence of lay Mormons II in the leaders who are now milking and working I them. Not the outside pressure of self-seeking H politicians and loud-mouthed demagogues will D change the balance of power from where it is now R to a coterie equally as hungry for personal advan- H tage and as full of high-sounding though less ap- R pealing platitudes. If I am to be robbed, let it be H by those who have stood with me; if I am to be hoodwinked to my own heart, let it be by those who are partially satiated by long association and gain. As between two sets seeking to work me, apart from all other considerations, I see no choice, and certainly not enough to induce me to go over to a new gang who have the same object in fooling me as those they would have me desert. This petty brawling nauseates. Behind neither one side nor the other is any principle to quicken a man's pulse or to heat his blood to deeds of daring dar-ing or to the making of sacrifices. We are pulled this way and that over petty disputes that involve only a question of personality, and it is all disheartening. dis-heartening. The conditions which disturb our rest today, the happenings which alarm us and set us by the ears will be as far from our concern in twehe months as the remotest thing of our lives. Were it not for their professions these Mormons would be just like the balance of us, but the op- Iportunity for fooling the people is better than ours, and we must concede that there is little to be taught them in the way of getting from their followers fol-lowers "all the tariff will bear." So what's the use of all this contention and brawling? We're part of a world of fools, and perhaps, as fools, no small part Of course, all these conditions will change. They will change whether we wish it or not. But the change will be no improvement, for in one guise or another there will always be priests and politicians to deceive and fleece the fools of earth, as there always has been, and they will make the fools think they are serving God or struggling for all men when, they yield of their substance or manhood at the cry of the ecclesiastic or the demagogue. dema-gogue. In the language of the street, "Wot's the use of anything? Nothink." THE PESSIMIST. |
