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Show The unusual and unexpected attitude of political po-litical dormancy which the president of the church is exhibiting thfo year has given for the delectation of Gentiles an example of priestly wrangling among the Mormons such as has never been witnessed here before since the days of the bitter strife which resulted in the political overthrow of ex-Apostfe Moses. Thatcher and Seventy B. H. Roberts. As announced in these columns a week ago, the contest this year has been among the lesser priesthood, and the contest has developed into one of invective and acrimony. There is little doubt that Smoot would have duplicated his victory vic-tory of a year ago, had there not stood in his path, backed by the emniscient Joseph F., the imposing im-posing figure of President John R. Winder, Apostle-Editor C. W. Penrose, Stake President R. W. Young, and numerous other lesser ones, including in-cluding the versatile Fernstrom. Although the line of campaign resorted to between be-tween the leaders in the priestly tournament has been quite similar in a general way, there has been one notable difference. The Morris forces, which are under the active management of Councilman Coun-cilman Fernstrom, have relied upon Democratic bishops to carry out their strategic work, which was to hold the Democrats in solid formation for Morris and at the same time to counteract all the efforts of Smoot, Callister and Anderson to inveigle them into the Lynch ranks with the unauthorized un-authorized argument that President Smith desired his election. While all this was in progress, Callister and Anderson had pre-empted into the Lynch service a number of enthusiastic young Mormons prominently promi-nently identified with the Y. M. M. I. A. They were careful to choose only the young men who were in good standing with the church, and were able to secure their services by promising them rewards in the way of political positions. These positions, they were assured, would be given them if Lynch were elected, at the expense of young Mormons who were now holding them, but who were not in such complete harmony with the "priesthood." With such an incentive, they secured more zealous workers even than the bishops whom Editor Penrose and Mr. Fernstrom Fern-strom were able to impress into the service. The result has been, just as was predicted in this paper, that Lynch appears to be finishing stronger than Morris. The present showing indicates that the Democrats Demo-crats have depended too much upon the influence in-fluence of John R. Winder, a fervent Democrat and first counsellor to President Smith, and the editorials of Apo3tle Penrose, and have not shown the same attention to the practical details of campaign cam-paign work a3 have the well organized Republicans. Republi-cans. The outcome up to the present is that the Republicans have dislodged some little support from Morris, although apparently not sufficient to materially affect the result. Had there been a concerted effort to switch Lynch's support to Morris, the task would have been far easier. But with the twilight already closing over the conflict, con-flict, it is now too late to remedy the mistake. In fact, the Smoot lieutenants appear to have merely succeeded in taking away from Morris just about enough of hie former Republican following fol-lowing to almost positively assure the election of Mr. Thompson. |