The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1906-10-07
ENEMIES AND CRIMINALS.

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To President Joseph +. Smith In
recent address to your people, which
has been printed in full in the daily
papers of the community and which
will be issued IN pamphlet form by your
church, you mako the statement that
YOU and your people have "enemies -;
that you must escape the plots and
! crimes and Vaccinations of your enc
mics -; that you owe what standing and
what position you have in the world
'to your escape from the plots of your
enemies -
Mr.. Smith, is it fair 30 teach, as
prophet, seer and revelator, to a trust
ing people palpaple and dangerous
falsehood7 Unless it is such, your III
! rade was an abuse of the prerogatives
which your people accord to you. AS
a people the Mormons have no "ene.
mies'; as law.abiding, sustaining indi-
viduals they have their own sphere in
American civilization which they will
be permitted to fill not only with good
feeling, but with plaudits and assist
ance from the mass of mankind in the
world. To singularize the case and
bring it within the bounds of what was
probably your own thought:
!, tho prophet of God, have escaped
from the attempts 70 arrest and try me for
living according 10 God comma ndmcnt, and
| am stronger than ever with my people
because OF this victory gained over our
enemies. who swear out warrants under the
civil statute.
No matter whether your words are
interpreted or taken literally, Mr..
Smith, YOU have raised an issue be.
tween your people and American citi.
Zens in Utah which can never be closed
while your people accept and are guided
in their daily lives by such teaching
and such Interpretation. The opposi-
tion to the Mormon people has been
only opposition TO crimes and violations
Of covenant which have been commit
ted by leaders In the church, and who
have been upheld by the Mormon peo-
Pile Except as Mormons have delib-
erately met and sustained in active au-
thority as rulers in the community we'll
known criminals, there has been no
warfare made by their so-called "ene-
mics against the Mormons in Utah.
There has been a strenuous battle
waged against the leaders of the church
who are party TO certain now well
known, well defined crimes against the
community life. Most of these crimes
have statutory names; for some of them
it has become necessary to coin words,
but with a certain definite meaning
thereto which made them applicable and
unmistakable. That battle is to be
waged so long as tho American spirit
exists in your community in Utah. The
issue is absolutely drawn; on the one
side YOU are criminal leader and all
those who wilfully and defantly sup
port you in your crimes, and on the
other side stand those who believe IN
the upholding Of the law and the main
tenance Of the covenants by which
Utah obtained her Statehood. And
among these is growing mass of your
own following mass augmented year
by year by recession from the crimes
and the fellies which characterize your
leadership.
What a wretchedly cruel piece Of lea
dership it is to arrsign whole people,
amounting in numbers to not more in
reality than two hundred and fifty
thousand, against all the rest of the
world as mutual ''euemies. That is
what you do, President Joseph T.
Smith That is the full extent of your
cruel work. If you do in any less linn
hon
rayed your quarter of million people
against tho entire Government under
which they live, and this is treason
Probably never in satanic mind was
there devised a worse teaching to men
than that their fellowmeu were their
- enemies that thcv were at war
with mankind; that they must make
constant effort to escape the plots, the
crimes, the Vaccinations which their
enemies s''-neaping the rest of the
world--have set around their feet. All
the progress Of the world has come as
this awful idea has retreated into the
darkness, and the bringing forth from
its cavern now this old idea is the
worst crime OF Joseph /. Smith.
That was poor, pathetic thing for
you TO do 10 the Tabernacle on Friday |
to which reference is made in the open !
ing Of this article. Let US picture the |
case 10 you a man at the head Of a |
horse.stealing gang promises, after civ |
ilization invades his country, to cease
TO steal horses. And so, law and order |
s?ttle down TO supposed rule, But in
the course os some geographical explor-
atIon by tl;e Government the old horse ,
stealcr is asked to give his TESTIMONY, I
and in the course OF his remarks he |