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Show WHY? A correspondent writes us, asking what we have against Apostle Smoot, and stating that there being no question about the regularity of his credentials, cre-dentials, nor about his integrity as a man, why he should be pursued and the rightfulness of his seat be questioned. The answer is that the fight is not upon the man, but the Apostle. The reason the fight is waged against the apostle is that if there could be a majority of the members of both houses of congress who were bound by the same obligations that Apostle Smoot Is, this would at once cease to be a Republic, except in name; the directing power would be Joseph F. Smith of this city. The purpose of the fathers who while making ample provisions for the protection of all creeds, at the same time provided that in this Republic there tjhould forever be an absolute separation of Church and State, would be defeated, and we should have a bristling Church Power in our midst claiming a divine right to temporal rule every where within our country's boundaries. The need of stamping out that assumption Is what supplies the justification for the protests against the seating seat-ing of Apostle Smoot in the Senate of the United States. If he is sincere In his belief, then his first fealty is not to the Government of the United States. Moreover, he Is in the Senate solely through church influence. He would never have been thought of as a possible Senator except for that influence, and the way that Influence was exerted ex-erted to insure his election was in open defiance of the spirit of free institutions and a defilement of a free ballot. The personal worthiness of the man Js not in question. There is no personal enmity en-mity to him that we know of. It is only that he has bound his soul by obligation's obliga-tion's higher than any that he holds, or ever can hold, tq the Government of the Republic, that the protests primarily lie. But in addition there aro ample reasons why he should be denied a seat in M the Senate. His seating would be a notice served on every young man in Utah that the only avenuo for preferment in this state must be through the Church, which would be a direct perversion of H free institutions. Again with him Senator he could safely enter into negotiations to promise the vote of Utah to any candidate for President. It would be,, equivalent to a compact of the Church with one or a dozen politicians to further their pollti- cal ends with all the power of this state, which is a thought Intolerable to liberty-loving men. Com- mon people, who do not receive revelations, can only judge of men and companies by what they see. Judged that way, the two leading incentives of the men who control this organization, called a creed here in Utah, aro commercial greed and political power. It is clear enough that the send ing of Apostle Smoot to the Senate was meant to be a test of how far the power of this thing fl called a creed could force itself into Governmental M affairs. It is time that the Mormon Church should be driven behind its political defenses and should cease to vex and be a menace to free institutions, H hence Apostle Smoot should be returned even as H B. H. Roberts was. H |