The San Francisco call., 1904-06-12
STATE AND CHURCH AND LAW.

that so long disturbed the Coeur Aene district Idaho
and after suppression there by the means
ployed by Governor Peabody transferred to Colo
rado are recognized at once Molly Magureism in
aggravated form.
The Molly Magures in the coal region of Pennsyl-
vania were Tor years terror. They committed hun
dreds OF murders If mine foreman became obnoxious
he found dead If mine owner incurred the
wrath of the inner council he assassnated If tel
low-workman was disagreeabe refused to yield to
exaction his corpse found Ill the NINE. Fl
naly detectives joined the Moles and patiently gath
cred evidence 1t was found that sherffs and even
judges the bench Molles, and that they had
participated murders and had acquitted their accom-
plices when brought before them. When the evidence
gathered the legal hanging began and in about two
years the Molles had 'expated their crimes the gal
lows, were in prison exile.
The system undoubtedly transferred from Penn
sylvania to Idaho. The only difference the more
open commission of its crimes. Local officers
trely controlled by it, and hundred murders and vast
destruction of property occurred with no attempt to
check punish the perpetrators The Governor OF
Idaho, whose honorable fame will increase with years,
last called for Federal troops and cleared out the
criminals. The local officials deposed and since
his work finished the district has been peaceful and
prosperous. The State OF Colorado has lost nearly
$a5 900 by the domescation of the Idaho refugees
in her mining region and Governor Peabody is
taking the same measures that were necessary in Idaho
worthy and Federal troops not necessary When
the Eastern people point these in Western
mining States and profess great about them
is only necessary remind them of the Molly Maguires
in the old State of Pennsylvania.
1t is the duty of the State enforce the law and when
the local officers in the combination of its voatos
they be deprived of their functions The fact that
life and property made unsafe by society organ
ization whose members destroy both does sanctfy
the crime. Take the of the Mormon church
illustration 1t is fixed in constitutional policy that
the state must not interfere with religion. To do
would be invasion of that liberty of conscience which
essential free government When such interference
takes place civil liberty is end. But if a religious
society have policy that is necessarily destructive OF
civil liberty it plead its religious character
avoidance of punishment by the state. Government de-
fends itself in defending the rights OF person and prop
erty and r enforcing the law against those who defy
it, be they secular religious societies. If the Mormon
church defy the law of the land in its practices, it be-
comes liable to exactly the treatment dealt out
to the Molly Maguires in Idaho and Colorado.
Without any desire to inject partsanshp into this dis
cusson may note the evidence that the influence of
both secular and religious lawbreakers apparent in
of the great parties in the States named. The
Democratic convention of Idaho refused send as
delegate to the National Convention the great Democrat
who as Governor enforced the law and punished and
banished the Molly Maguires. The refusal was upon
the express ground that he did enforce the law. The
State convention of the party in Utah, under the
influence of the religious society that breaks the law
refused make any expression the subject Of po-
lygamy.
These incidents only disclose the perils of
the state when secular religious societies array
themselves against the law Where suffrage universal
tie ballot which intended preserve the rights of
person and property and maintain the law becomes
the instrument destroy what it intended to de-
fend.
1t is conceivable that in Utah the measures may
day have to be taken against the Mormon church
that have been taken against the Molly Magures in
Idaho and Colorado. OF such measures cause
many pitiful incidents No person is pitiable
than who suffers the penalty of contumacy that
originates in perverted conscience. The miscreants
who dynamted to death nearly of men in
Colorado recently felt conscientious scrupes Their
Molly Mcguire oath had come to be the only binding
obligation they felt They know no state no govern
ment, except their murderous instincts
So too when about the time President Smith
of the Mormon church i'll his address to the young peo-
pie Of his church declared that he would continue to
defy the law by living with his FIVE there was ex
pressed religious conscience and the obligation of
secret oath, all superior to any civil obligation He
knows state and government The perverted
practices Of his religion the sole guides Of his con-
duct These things center the struggle for and gov
ernmen in the West AS both have prevailed over their
secular enemies they will those who dey them
II the of religion, though every Mormon have TO
-be banished from the country