The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1903-09-10
THAT MORMON INVASION.


Some comments of the Journal on
the possibility of the introduction of
Norm onism into Vermont has aroused
little newspaper discussion over this
subject. The Barre Telegram hints
that the Journal is quaking just a lit
tie at the thought of Mormon inva-
sion of the State and the contemporary
states that it has too much conf
dence in the common sense of our peo-
pie to think twice about the prob
ability of any of them becoming con-
verts of the Brigham Young doctrine. -
The st. Adams Messenger is not so
sanguine of the liability of Vermont
ers to withstand Exclusions of various
kinds" and says:
We all delight in most optimistic
appreciation of Yankee shrewdness
and penetration, but, like other people
who have too often confused shIewd-
ness with knowledge, we have fire.
qnently overreached ourselves in an
attempt to be too clever We have
been buucoed more than once right
here in Vermont and it is a somewhat
remarkable fact that this very State
has indirectly helped to put into cir
culation some of che most absurd men,
tai delusions that ever made an intel
ligent believer ridiculous in the eyes
of his fellows. Men are still living
who recall the days when the Miller
ties wrapped themselves in their white
robes and assembled hilltops and noun
10, g 4 h. 4
Miller passed many years of his life
in PoultDey before his absurd notion
came to attention and it is probable
that he there meditated and evolved
the grotesque freak that afterward
came to such pitiful collapse. Even
the founder of this same Mormonism
that The Telegram refers to was {.
VeImonter, and the evidence of his
barefaced fraud has been exposed over
and over again but apparently to no
purpose.
The Messenger would not trust the
people of Vermont not to embrace
Mormonism any quicker than it would
the people of New Hampshire or any
other similar State. The fact is that,
while there is no likelihood of these
Mormon missionaries making any
considerable number of converts in
our towns, experience has nevelthe-
less shown that they may, for all
that, strike some communities here
and there where they will succeed in
proselyting people of whom such a
weakness never would have been sus-
pected. The only way TO be sure that
Mormon missionaries do no harm here
is to meet their arguments with the
facts everywhere they 60 and never
abandon the fight until they do.
The Journal is by no means terror
lied at the thought of Mormon doc
trines being preached in Vermont us
suggested by the Telegram, nor can
it be so serious over the matter as
the st. Adams contemporary. 1t is con-
coded that people is always bet
ter with a religion than without, no
matter what that religion is. Now,
according to church and other reports,
large proportion of Vermonters do
not claim to possess any particular re-
ligion, as that term is generally I'M
derstood, and as the tendency of man
kind is toward this sort of thing in
one way or another it would seem as
though the State afforded u splendid
field for really energetic workers in
the cause of Mormonism or any other
issue that has been or may be invent
ed.
The Messengers suggests that the
way to prevent Mormon missionaries
from doing charm" is to meet their
arguments with facts and never aban-
don the fight. This is good sound
ing suggestion, but the method has
been tried wherever the quiet earnest
workers of the Mormons have gone and
all the time they have continued to
bring thousands into the fold. So YER
monters may rest assured that when the
| church in Utah, or elsewhere, chooses to
send missionaries here they will find
fields ripe for the harvest and argu-
ments won't hinder them from gather
ing in the sheaves. But really there
are just as bad isms as that alleged to
have been evolved from the nightmare
of Joseph Smith, and even if 1t should
|