Show 11 IL A refutation of antl cormon I ormon statements in a london journal london Chr chronicle oct ZI 21 to th the E editor ditar of the daily sir in your issues of th thursday and monday last list you give editorial prominence to certain cli charges arges against the latter ilay saints and make deductions which do great in justice u stice to the tile 11 mormon 11 community the X he first firstos of these charges is accredited to mr A Q G tucker that acts of bar bakity aro inflicted by the latter day bainte saints upon the inmates of the insane asylum at salt lake I desire to enter a general and most positive denial the said institution is not owned by the cormona Mor mona of utah nor is it in any sense under their control or management it belongs t to a private i ate gentleman dr seymour B young oung with whom iam I am aro individually ll a quain quainter fed ted and I know from personal observations and recently pub published lishe reports in my possession that the eaid sail asylum will simer corn compare alq favorably in all respects to similar institutions elsewhere in relation to mr widgeons rid geons writings against the cormons mormons Mor mons from which you make several quotations your our statement that be he hates all that Ts la mormon with tho heartiest hatred is sufficient to prove to every candid mind that hat hia his denunciation should ba be received with a very great degree of allowa allowance nep for embittered and prejudiced persons can never tell the absolute truth relative to those whom they BO so strongly contemn I will w III meet meeta a few of his statements however with nonpartisan non partisan proof I first clip from the therun sun the leading independent journal of america in utah territory thero there arc are according to tho the united states census and church statistical reports 83 cormons mormons Mor mons to 17 noni in tho wt utah 11 penitentiary i there re u wore or on in 52 arl prisoners r only of were cormons mormons Mor mons and to ol 01 these there were imprisoned for imitating abraham bra in their domestic practices so that tho 17 per cent outsiders out sidera hall 41 46 convicts in tho the penitentiary while the 83 per cent cormons mormons Mor mons had but live five TI tho total number of utah lockups lock ups including tho the penitentiary Is a 14 vie aggregate inmates of these not over 11 are ate 31 ermons sev orul of whom were incarcerated by method judges for minor offenses Tenses of and polygamy olga while it is notorious that ff if a all I the criminal class in the 17 per bent cent non mormon mornion population were veto imprisoned more gails would be b necessary of oatlie the saloon billiard bowling alley and pool table keepers in utah not liot over a dozen even profess to ba be mormons cormons Mor mons all the bagnios baguios and other disreputable concerns now in the territory are run fostered and sustained by non cormons mormons Mor mons ninety five per cent of the uia utah lawyers arc are fontilea Gon Gou tilea tiles and SO 80 per cent of all the tile litigations ia is of outside growth and promotion of the cities towns villa ts and wards in utah over have no gaudy sepulchre of departed virtue of any sort for lie the very obvious ou re reason as on that these two hundred and odd towns are almost exclusive exclusively lk occupied by mormons cormons Mor mons ninety five per cent of tho cormons mormons Mor mons live in their own houses on the irown land which they have es bought from the united I states government the following lowine fol showing our educational status is from utah and its people ft publication recently issued in it york ork by a gentile and ex U S official in the matter of education butali stands ahead of many old and wealthy states and of the tile general average of the tile united states in three important respects namely the enrollment of her school population tho the percentage of daily attendance at school and the amount per capita invested in school property tho the percentage of total white population who cannot write in utah is sixteen states and territories show a higher percentage in regard to the edmunds bill our position S i tion briefly defined is its n follows arsiclo r I of the amendments to tile constitution of the united states reads con congress gress shall mako make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof tomlin law dictionary g a standard authority alius defines the word religion that habit babit of reverence toward tho the divine nature whereby we arc are enabled and inclined to servo and worship him after such iii manner anner as we conceive to be acceptable to him so much for the legal leval phase of the question and now for the moral phase among all christian denominations the bible is regarded as the sure criterion by which we may judge the correctness and morality of all religious principles practices and observances let ret us apply p ply the test to polygamy in in genesis we read that abraham the lie father of tho faithful and the friend of god was a polygamist also that jacob did build tile the house of israel with liis his four wives and in st johns revelation axi we ne read that the names of or the tile sons of jacob whom the christian world of today to td day dav would denounce as conceived insi in sin and bom born in iniquity are to havn have their names inscribed upon tho the pearly am gates of that glorious city the new NOW jerusalem in which nothing shall engerth ent erth at whosoever abomination or inabeth a lie in kings I xv the prophet says because david did that which vas was right in the eyes of the lord and turned not aside from anything that ho ile commanded him all the days of his life cave only in tho the matter matte of uriah tha the hittite yet david was a notorious polygamist having several hundred wives at one and t the he same time A again ain samuel xii iii the lord said to david through nathan tho prophet I gaye gave theo thee thy masters wives into th thy bosom ac thus god not ont bonfy y countenanced and blessed polygamy as shown in the examples quoted but ut actually became the means of conferring the wives of samuela Samu elG elGIn in number upon his favored son david who was already a married m man in therefore when modern christians are tempted to denounce polygamy as lecherous and adult erx oua ous they should remember that they aro making serious charges against god himself for in calling poly polygamy garay adulterous they would stigmatize stig matise the ancient patriarchs and prophets as adulterer sandim implicate god as accessory to ono one of wo tho most diabolical crimes against which his own laws provide the penalty of death isaiah iv reads as follows and in that day seven women shall take hold bold of one man saying we will eat our own bread and wear our obrown own apparel only let us bo be called by thy name and take away our reproach and in that day shall the branch of the ilia lord be beautiful and glorious for the definition of tho the term reproach see genesis axx 23 and st luke 25 thus the latter day saints in their practice of Irly polygamy gamy stand strongly entrenched behind chind that great pall palladium aill of human rights the constitution of the united states and behind tho the most sacred of all sacred books the scripture of divine truth regretting that I have not mor more space to r reply cepl y to the other charges made I and t thanking h you for yo your ur kind indulge indulgence ri ce I am sir yours re spec spectrally trully J A A WEST LONDON se sept p t 27 |