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Show The Perfidy Of It All. Q The performances in the Tabernacle last Sun- H day ought to shake the faith of the rank and file H of the Mormon church more than anything that H ever happened, for it demonstrated the hollow- ness and the fraud of the whole system so clearly H that only eyes blinded by fanaticism ought to H any longer be deceived. B Let us see briefly what was dr Two apos- H itles were fired out of their high ecclesiastical offices of-fices because since the manifesto of President Woodruff they have talcen polygamous wives. Nothing was said about that in the Tabernacle, but there was not one person present who did not know all the facts. By doing that the fir3t presidency presi-dency and nine apostles openly proclaimed that another apostle had been a liar profound every time that ho, through the organ of the Lord for the last dozen years, had proclaimed that no man had been united in a polygamous marriage since the manifesto, with the consent of the church. Either he lied then or ho lied when he said it would be Impossible for any man to be thu3 involved in-volved without the consent of the church. Both horns of the dilemma are for him tipped with a Again, the vast congregation in the Tabernacle Taber-nacle one year ago was called upon to sustain these same two ex-apostles when every officer of the church lcnew as well then as they knew on Sunday last that these men had not only gone into polygamy, but were in hiding for fear of arrest ar-rest for that same crime. Again, what was done did not prove any contrition con-trition or any repentance or any change of policy on the part of the church leaders, but it did. make clear that the one thing that those leaders covet more than anything else is political power, and they feared the first blow at that political power would be hurled if those two were permitted to remain in the fold. The direct benefit was to be for Mr. Smoot, the indirect benefit was to hold the church solid and pormit the church to go on building build-ing u pits kingdom within this Republic' unhampered unham-pered by its laws, undisturbed in its practices. It was the culminating act of falsehood and bad faith toward the government of the United States. It was the most inconsistent performance ever attempted by knaves to be perpetrated upon a confiding people, because while they voted those men out, they voted to sustain Joseph F. Smith as the vice geront of Almighty God, though since the manifesto ho has bdcomo the father of a baker's dozen of children, and those two disgraced dis-graced apostles in taking now wives were seeking merely to emulate what the president of the church was doing. There was not one whispered word thatlookel H like a vindication of the promises made by the church in order to obtain statehood. There was Hj no declaration that the chiefs had the slightest idea of relaxing in the least their tyranny over the people, not Or hint that hereafter the church and everybody cuutbrned should be made to har-monize har-monize with the Government of the United States and its laws, that the people should be free to act as they please, to vote as they please, to think as they please, on all political subjects. fl There was not one admission that the policy which has been steadily pursued for the last doz- j en years, the secret involvement of foolish wo- men in tho meshes of polygamy, was to cease. To all intents and purposes the same front was main-tained main-tained that was maintained by Brigham Young fifty years ago, when ho in effect declared that this kingdom was to be a law to itself despito the Government of the United States. There was no abatement from tho doctrine taught by John Taylor that this church was the only legal gov-ernmont. gov-ernmont. on earth, that all other governments were but usurpations. In plain English it merely meant that "we are WM at present in a close place; it will be difficult for Hfl us to save Senator Smoot's seat for him, and If he is fired out there is a possibility that in the very wording of his dismissal our political power will be seriously abated." The whole display was but a double perfidy Hj perfidy toward tho Government of- the United States, perfidy to the Mormon people themselves, for it was in effect an ultimatum to them that whatever Joseph F. Smith chooses to do they must accept as though it came from the very voice of God Himself. The thought of the feelings of the families of those two apostles and all their friends, the thought of the estimation that the public would hold of such a system, never deterred the business busi-ness for a moment. In plain English it was: "I, Joseph Smith, am in a close place myself; the political power of the Mormon church is jeopardized. jeopar-dized. I am going to save myself; I am going to save that political power, no matter how many men who have been faithful all their lives may bo sacrificed." He had no more thought of the feelings of the people than had Napoleon at Wagran when he hurled Macdonald with the Old Guard on the Austrian center, with "cannons to right of them, cannons to left of them, cannons in front of them," volleying and thundering, and of the 16,003 who started on that tremendous assault only' 1,500 remained when it was over. |
