Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1903-11-24
MORMON SECRETS EXPOSED.
GentiIes Making a Hard Fight u
Utah.

MORMON SECRETS EXPOSED.
GentiIes Making Hard Fight In
| Utah.
| Mormons and Gentiles are engaged
in the bitterest campaign they have
fought since Liberal days. 1t Is pre-
liminary to a demand for an investi-
cation of the situation in Utah which
will be presented to congress at Its
next regular session.
The promoters Of the investigation
declare that the movement has the sup
port Of 100000 women and preachers
Memorials urging the investigation are
being signed all over the country.
The right Of United States senator
elect, Reed Smoot, Mormon apostle
to sit in the senate is one issue involv-
ed. The proposal to admit Arizona
New Mexico and Oklahoma to state
hood also figures in the fight.
When Utah was admitted as a state
it was under the condition, implied al
least, that the Mormon church was not
to take part in politics. The church
was especially desirous of statehood, II
is alleged. because the Edmunds- Tuck
er law would thereby be nullified and
all prosecutions for pollygamy would
be In the state courts. Now that state
hood has been secured 1t Is charged
that the church has become all power
full in politics. 1t is also charged that
high officers of the church are living
in polygamy.
The Gentiles declare that the Nor
mon church has built up one Of the
strongest and most powerful politica
machines in the world. 1t already con.
trolls Utah elections, electing Democra-
tic or Republican tickets at will; and II
is now asserted that the church has
laid it's plans to hold the balance oi
power in the United States senate
by electing senators from Utah, Idaho
Montana, Wyoming, Nevada, Colora.
do, Arizona, New Mexico and Oregon
The purpose of the Gentiles In the
present campaign is to defeat these
Mormon plans. In the Republican
primaries after Senator Reed Smoot
and the church leaders had made
bitter fight to nominate Mormon candi'
dates the Gentiles succeeded in nam
ing a non Mormon ticket. Although
Salt Lake City has been overwhelm-
ingly Republican for years, the Nor
mon church is now trying to elect the
Democratic ticket.
| There Is a local issue to the cam.
paign also. The church owns the three
great public utilities, the electric light
and gas system and the street car sys-
tenn, and has just put new telephone
system in the field. 1t is making ar
especially hard fight to elect Mormon
city officials who are friendly to these
monopolies.
Senator Reed Smoot, an apostle Of
the Quorum Of Twelve, Is the master
mind behind the Mormon fight. HI
directs to the smallest detail the
church's political campaign.
In their campaign the Gentiles are
making use of the testimony taker
before Judge Anderson, Of the United
States court of Utah in the case Of five
Mormon foreigners who made appli'
cation to become citizens Of the Uni
ted States. This testimony, 1t Is as
serted, exposed the secret doctrines oi
the Mormon church. AS a result o.
the hearing, Judge Anderson held tha
persons who had taken the endowment
oath of the church were not fit to be-
come citizens. The hearing occurred
in 1889 and it is explained that the
testimony has not been heretofore OBJ
tainable.
John Bond described the ceremony
of the oath in the endowment house
as follows:
In it's administration the one going
through takes the right hand Of the
party that officiates there, presses the
knuckle of the index finger; that wa:
Il token of the lesser priesthood, as
remember, that was binding upon me
AS far as l remember l took the OBJ
legation, pressed their thumb with the
index finger; that Is the Aaronic o
lesser priesthood; this confined me tt
believe every doctrine that was taught
by the Mormon church, especially
against the government Of the United
States, as l understood it.
The penalty of divulging that, 1 was
to have my throat cut from ear to eal
and my tongue torn out. 1 was re-
uuired to hold my hand to high HEAVIER
in the presence Of those there, tha
they might see that l granted this ac
to be done. This Is the first as far as
l remember.
The second one 1 was put under wa:
to arenge the blood Of the prophets
against the government Of the United
States. teach that to my children anc
my childrens children from generation
to generation, and everlastingly keeI
after them. The penalty. believe, was
that the heart, or the bowels, would
be torn out-something to that effect
so far as my memory will carry me.
was under obligation to sustain anG
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