The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-11-07
FROM A NEWCOMER.
Salt Lake City. Nov. 6. 1898.

salt LANE lily, NV o. 1870.
To the Editor of The Herald:
AS a newcomer in Zion, and studying
the manners and habits of the Saints,
| have become keenly interested in the
political progress of the Mormons; and,
as it is too late now to affect the cleo
ton, l do not object to publishing some
conclusions which may be of interest
to the political public outside of Utah.
l can state, without the least fear of
successful contradiction, that the Nor
mon church does not dictate politics
to its members: in fact, never was an
institution more divided upon any con-
ger!es ot sentiment or series of opin-
ions than are the members of the dom
inant church in the newest of the
states. | believe no state in the Union
is less solid or crystalliZed along par
tisan lines. Unlike the solid south, or
the embalmed east, this community
moves freely and healthily in obedience
to independent and individual convic-
tons. l think it would be impossible
to parallel elsewhere that most extra
ordinary, spectacular, political and
dramatic presentation which took place
in the Salt Lake theatre two nights
ago, wherein the chief executive of a
commonwealth in the American Union
produced a previously prepared and
seemingly carefully considered assault
upon the person of a candidate for
United States congress. If the Nor
mon church had any control over it's
members. or could dictate politics to
its adherents, it could not have COM
nitted a more suicidal act than to all
low one of the Saints, holding so prom
inent a political position, to assault a
brother Saint for LOYALTY and devotion
to the principles once advocated by
the faith and sanctioned by the pre-
ViouS practice OF the Mormon church
"a house divided against itself cannot
but fall" and the conduct of a politico-
religious institution, which would ar
ray it's most prominent devotees
against one another, under the fierce
glare of campaign publicity, can only
be likened to the mutual destruction of
the Kilkenny cats. Certainly it is dem
onstrated beyond a question that the
Mormon church stands acquitted be-
fore the bar of national opinion, of the
charge of controlling, or even effective
ly influencing the political conduct of
its members.
However inimicai to public policy and
offensive to private morals the conduct
of the chief executive may have been,
it yet has established the error and fu-
tilitv of the charge. solemnly made by
assembled GivineS and other less au-
gust bodies. that the dominant church
dictated oolitics in Utah. This is an
immense gain: and in time, will be
better appreciated by those who are
trying to remove the Misrepresentation
made against the people of this state.
Painful as is the prostitution of Of
fetal position to partisan purposes, to
the majority of patriotic citizens, yet
it cannot be compared to the sense of
outrage which should animate the
breast of every liberty-loving Ameri-
can, at the cowardly eleventh-hour as
sault upon the private rights and per-
sonalitv of a citizen of the great re-
public.
The domestic affairs of every man
are his own, and public arraignment
of mans purely private life, in order
to manufacture political capital, is the
foulest blot upon the career and con-
Guct of any political party. A repre-
sentative in congress sits in the house.
not to legislate for the private morals
of citizen of Utah, but to protect and
advance the political, commercial, in
dustrial and other public interests OF
the people. If the Republican party in
| this state is driven to such desperate
eXtremities, in obedience to the dicta-
ton of its great national boss, that il