The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1902-08-02
The Lying "0regonian. |"

THEY MAY have some conscientious
! reporters upon the Portland Ore
gonian, but the one they assigned
to write up Utah and its political con-
| ditions is not one of them. For a
| newspaper with so much pretensions
as the Oregonian, aiming to achieve
a national reputation, one would nat
! urally suppose that its information
might be regarded as reliable. 1t may
be in some features, but whenever it
treats upon Catholic matters its COM
ments have always exhibited the bile
of the bigot.
Writing from Salt Lake, this corre-
spondent of the Oregonian starts off
by saying that Utah politics are a
queer tumble. No intelligent oh
server of events in Utah will
dispute that assertion. Endeavor-
ing to analyze this queer jun
ble,' he discovers a political alliance
between the Catholic church in Utah
and the Mormon church. He reasons
out such alliance because in a state
where 20 per cent of the people are
Mormons, Thomas Kearns, a practical
Catholic, was elected United States
senator. Thomas Kearns, also, ac-
cording to the correspondent, carries
a large Catholic vote with him, and
has things pretty much his way
throughout the state. Another reason
given to fortify his charge that a
oil -;cfc &c J,n
fact that the Catholics have not Joined
with the evangelical churches in urg-
ing national legislation to ferret out
and punish polygamists in the state.
A more ingenious way to pervert
fact could scarcely be conceived by
other than an evangelical preacher,
and it is probably from this source the
Oregonian's correspondent derived his
information. What he writes about
other matters, especially that concern
ing the daily newspaper syndicate of
Salt Lake. does not concern us. But
we cannot allow such falsehood
about Catholics in Utah to go abroad
without rebuke.
l. There never was nor never will be
an alliance, political or otherwise, be-
Mormon church, or between the Cath
Ollie church and any other church, in
Utah or elsewhere.
.. Because in times past and more
recently. the head of the Catholic
church in Utah has steadily refused to
join in the hue and cry raised by evan
gelical preachers against the dominant
church of Utah and indict the whore
people for the crimes of the few, offers
no reason or suggestion that Catholics
have joined with Mormons as against
all others. The Catholic church
in Utah in ne respect differs
from the Catholic church in any
part of America. The Catholic church,
as Father Lambert expressed it.
fuIfills her divine mission in her own
and sinners to light, truth and repent
ance; and to lead immortal souls to
eternal life. In this work of hers she
includes Protestant and Mormon alike
as objects of her solicitude and char
ity
8. Because a Catholic was elected
to represent Utah in the senate of the
United States offers no more proof that
religion or church influence had any
more to do with such election than
either had in the election of Walsh of
Colorado or Carter of Montana
T. That Senator Kearns has it all
his own way in Utah is only natural. !
He is the one Republican senator, and |
The federal administration is Repub-
lean.
5. But that whatever Senator
Kearns may say or do can bulge the |
of any intelligent Catholic |
Democrat, along with the statement |
that the senator carries the Catholic |
vote of the state in his pocket, |
we brand as falsehood and an insult |
10 Catholic citizenship. Did such a |
tissue of falsehoods appear in an OBJ
scure paper, we would pay no atten-
ion to them. The Portland Oregonian,
however, is a newspaper of wide cir
,ulation and national reputation Be
;ause it is such, is the principal
-eason why such silly statements as
he one relating to a Mormon Catholic
alliance should not be allowed to cir
.ulate as sober truth. In Utah
hey would be laughed out of court,
wen by nom Catholics.