The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1906-12-13
A DISHONORED DRAFT,

| which were refused and dishonored DY
that Mormon God s agent here on
earth
| Abel c. Dunbar Of Weber county,
after toiling and paying tlthes to the
church through his years of activity,
became old and i'll and impoverished,
But he had deposited his money ne
cording to the commandment, and he
had looked in return for the blessings
which were promised. They failed TO
arrive, and when he petitioned for
| them he was cast into the poorhousc.
There he died last week, and he would
have been buried in the potter s field
| but for the intervention of generous
minded people, who insisted that he
| should have the interment which was
due 10 A man who had fought the fight
| of labor. and who bad deserved from
! his fellow creatures something better
| than to be dumped like the decaycd
| carcass of brute beast into an un-
marked grave,
Such tragedies of human life illus
trate the cruelty of the present Smith
rule in tine Mormon church. Collect
ing ouetenth of the product of Nor
| mon toll in the name Of the Most
High, under pretense to care for the
poor, Joseph +. Smith leaves the
tithe payer III the anguish OF poverty
TO live Mt public charity, TO die IN
an almshouse, while Smith himself
lives in oriental luxury, AS is well
known to all, Smith has issued
IL. Zs hn
shall not be sustained out of the
| funds which he collects, but that an
additional eXaction shall be made III
each ward for the sustenancc oil
those who need. Thus the burden
| is doubled upon the maj during ms
period of usefulness, and thus he is
deprived of the support which be-
longs to him in his old age and help
| lessness Smith IS answer to the
charge is the one that Brigham II,
Roberts delivered for him at Provo last
wear. 1t was TO the effect that since
| Mormons pay taxes the Mormon poor
| should be sustained out of the public
funds. And, strange to say, Mormons
themselves who pay tithes accept this
explanation and continue TO rob them
| selves, in the name Of the poor,
for his ACKNOWLEDGMENT. And they
| stand in his defense when the world
demands that ne make accounting of
the disposition of the moneys which he
collects in the name Of God, and which
he refuses TO expend for the needs of
| God s creatures.
If there is anything in the Mormon
pretense, if God did command Abel c,
Dunbar to pay one-tenth of his IN
come into the Mormon church Golfers
as tithes. if God did command the use
of those tithes for the relief
of human need, then Abel c.
Dunbar will stand as an accuser against
Joseph +. Smith on the day of judg-
ment. He deposited his money with
God s pretended agent, and that agent
refused TO honor the draft which Dun
bar IS need drew upon him in the name
of that same God.
So far as Smith is able to make
majority of his people believe that
God commands a collection of the
tithes. lust so far does he also teach
them that God s commandment ceases
right there. The producer must pay
or come under Gods condemnation;
but Smith does not need 10 obey that
commandment by supporting the poor
out of his collections, because-as he
boa stfully declared before the Senate
Committee on Privileges and Elections
he obeys or disobeys God at his
pleasure.
Such experiences as that of Dunbar
are not the less pathetic because they
are common; they are not the less
tragic because the tithe payer himself
must be dupe, ridiculous dupe, 10
believe that Joseph f. Smith has ever
been appointed by Almighty God to
collect worldly pelf to add TO the
| grandeur Of the Creator of heaven
and earth In view of their super
stition and the suffering of the sick
and afflicted tithe payers who die in
almshouses when they are too old To
work, it would be cruel to say that they
get only their deseryiugs when they
trust their savings year by year into
the custody of a liar, blaspbemer and
self boasted sinner like Joseph i.
Smith.
This ease calls the attention OF the
public anew TO the fact that Smith
permits his tithe payers to be main
tanned at public charge, to the heavy