The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1906-07-06
INTOLERANT MISTAKES.

ance."
Promising that tho tide is peculiar
| " uniting for the text OF the article
It is interesting 10 record three of the
most pertinent sentences OF the cs-
teemed Eagles editorial,
1T IS alleged against him tApostie
| Srnootl that he knew Of the polyge.
nous practices OF President Smith enc
| other high officials OF the church, that
AT no time did he file protest against
| such a violation OF the State and Feo-
eral Constitutions. but that, on the
contrary he has sustained them by
| his ejlence He has right
to take any OATH he plesses, Just as
| others do on or about the first OF jan
uary Polygamy Ia dying
natural death.
The Eagle is one OF the great news
| papers of tho United States. Its infor-
| nation Is usually so exact, and Its
| views are so Well and logically ma
| tured, as rule, that the reader ts
| perfectly safe 10 follow Its utterence
with fun acceptance. But there Is
| neither fact nor logic in any one Of the
| three sentences quoted
First, Apostle Smoot has done more
| than to SUSTAIN the polygamous prao-
tices of the high officials by his ST.
lence BY his instruction, as a prophet,
seer and revelator of his cult. he has
inculcated an imitation OF their Of
fenees At the general conference Of
the church, standing In the pulpit, he
has urged the chief ruler and the most
determined polygannist OF the commu-
nifty TO continue to live his life Of de-
fiance TO the law. In sermon and by
vote he has sustained the polygamists
in their lawbreaking and as divinely
ordained exemplars 10 all mankind.
And az trustee Of Brigham Young col
lege he has employed and paid as pres
! ident OF that institution, a man who Is
q notorious polygamist and has taken
a plural wife since the manifesto; and
upon tho resignation of that particu-
lar polygamist. Apostle Smoot sus-
tained and compensated another po-
lygamist as his successor. He has voted
for and sustained In subordinate posi-
tion to his own, as preceptors to the
youth of the Mormon community, men
who were notoriously engaged in chas-
Ing after the young women of the
Sunday schools and other organiza-
tions, to make plural wives OF them.
Is all that merely sustaining by ST.
lence? On the contrary, IT would
seem that Reed Smoot could not have
done more. without more time and
ability. TO protect and encourage the
practice OF polygamy.
Second, has a man really "a right
to take any oath he pleases" and still
remain Senator of the United States?
Suppose he were to mako his oath Of
allegiance to the British or some other
foreign government. and were to make
his oath of renunciation Of his citi-
zenship IN the United States Of Amer
lea? Would the Eagle hold that he
still had right TO sit as Senator of
the United States, and would IT be
deemed a triumph OF intolerance" for
the Committee on Privileges and Elec-
tions of the United States Senate to re-
port that he was not entitled 10 his
place. In effect, that is exactly what
Apostle Smoot has done-he has cove
nanted his supreme allegiance to the
Mormon kingdom. Suppose some an
archist, Joining a society, were to con-
secrate himself as a member of that
society to the destruction OF the United
States Government and the substitu-
ton of chaos therefor. Would the
Eagle still holds that he might prop
erly sit as a Senator OF the United
States? And yet Apostle Smoot. while
not an anarchist. is q member OF a So
ciety which has taught from the be-
ginning that the Government of the
United States would be overthrown
and the rule of the Mormon priest
hood, under the title OF the kingdom
of God. should be established in lieu
thereof.
Third. "polygamy Is dying natural
death" says the Eagle. Polygamy In
the Mormon church is not dying at all
either naturally or unnaturally 1t
has been revived with a generality and
a Nrulence unknown in its earlier ca
reer, 1t seems incomprehensible that
magnificent newspaper, like the
Eagle, possessed OF such signal char
acteristics Of general accuracy could
seriously emit that declaration. In no
authoritative book OF the Mormon
church IS there even an inhibition
against polygamy. The Doctrine and
Covenants commands It; the leaders
practice It; the young men who have
grown into recent favor with the chiefs
Of the church are in many instances
known TO have taken plural wives
within five years past. The Eagles
declaration Is a reminder of con-
versation which took place between
two Mormons i'm The Tribune office
not long ago. They were contending
on this same subject. one Of them be-
Ing for the church and its practices
and the other against Call them A
and B, Elder A said: We'll. you
must not expect perfection all at once.
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