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Show ; - :: . ' rTHE NEW EDMUNDS LAAV. i j " ' The bill which Senator Edmunds has I ,ii introduced in regard to Utah matters is a most stringent measure, it being almost ! ! J a copy of the Hoar amendment to the Edmunds law of 1862. The bill provides ! 1 for many things among others, the ap- ; pointment of fourteen trustees to take . charge of the property of the Mormon j church and to sell the same. This it is - presumed would include the taking pos- ? session of the places of worship of the 1 Mormon church, as well as other prop- . - erty. Another provision is to do away witli female suffrage in Utah, that I suffrage which it was once thought would f J. do so much for the solution of the Utah I i question, but which has only made ' Etronger the power which it was intended ? . j to weaken. The law regulating the dis- 1 posal of the estates of deceased persons . s j is said to be very stringent, while illegiti- i mate children are entirely cutoff from all i I share in the estate of their father. These I are the most important features of the Ji new Edmunds law, although we -have j not seen a complete copy of the bill. The provision for the taking of the property of the church M ill in all proba- Wlity fail of its object, for the church is j not an entire corporation, as the small ; ecclesiastical M-ards are .separately in- corporated.- How-extensive 1 -this separ- i . i I ... ' 'X ' ate incorporation is we are unaware. The anti-polygamy law of 1862 disincorporated disincor-porated the Mormon church, and it is a question how a disincorporated body can again be disincorporated. Supposing that the houses . of worship of the Mormon church were to be seized by these fourteen four-teen trustees, , the question . in Utah would be no nearer solved than it is today, to-day, while to do such a thing would be so flagrant an outrage that it would only make more solid the already . compact Mormon people. But this is not all. The confiscation of these plaes of worship would create in the world such a sympathy sym-pathy for the people of Utah that such a confiscation would be looked upon as a disgrace to the American Government and m no way a solution of the Utah question. - That species of property which it is desirable that no church should amass in any quantity and of which the church dominant in Utah may be possessed pos-sessed more or lesSj is not in such shape and title that it could be discovered. Another important fact which this new bill overlooks, and of which it could have no possible control if it did not overlook it, is the tithing. The tithing which the Mormon people pay is the chief source of the M'ealth of the church. How would the fourteen trustees deal with this matter mat-ter ? They certainly could not collect the tithing, as, so far as the law is concerned, it is a voluntary contribution, and if the trustees who are to come shall think that it , will be continued . to them as representatives of the Twelve their error is great beyond conception. They may have dominion over the fowls of the air, the beasts of the field, the fishes of the sea, and every living thing, but they will never have dominion Over the tithing. This new bill of Senator Edmunds' is in no way a solution of the Utah question, while in many respects it makes it, providing pro-viding it shall become laM', more complicated. com-plicated. Some of the provisions are very good, w hile some are very bad. |