The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1906-12-22
THEIR OWN COWARDICE.

The lying and cowardly Smoot church
papers are seeking now to Shift respon-
sibility for their own effort to disfran-
chse the Mormon people, and to that
end they claim that at some time in this
controversy The Tribune has favored
the taking away Of the civic rights of
the members Of the Mormon church in
Utah
The infamous discredit for that at
tempt at disfranchiscment belongs pri-
marily to the Deseret News, and in
the second degree TO the other church
and Smoot agencies. From the begin
nng of this great conflict The Tribune
has avowcd that the mass of the Nor
mon people were not legally chained
to the chariots of the hicrarchs, and
that thc fate of Smoot did not ncccssar-
lily prescribe (even if he were cast out
of the Scnate) the rank and file Of the
Mormon people. who did not have his
responsibility and who had not Joined
in the treason and crime which charac-
terize the career of the hierarchy, In
direct opposition TO this the Descrct
News has frequently stated, and the
church Smoot agencies have re-echoed,
the claim that all the Mormon people
were bound by the fate of SmooJ il he
should be elected, and that if he were
denied seat in the Senate the Nor
mon people in the entirety were thereby
disfranchised,
1t is too late at this hour for these
cowardly and lying organs to escape the
responsibility for their own vile effort
TO drag tho innocent mass in front of the
guilty class. The Tribune has always
made sharp distinction. The American
party itself deliberately drew the line
where the hicrarchs made the demarca-
tiou in 1895, There are twenty-siX of
the elite who are banded together in
criminal conspiracy to protect and fos-
ter the breaking and the treason
of the chiefs and to hold the mass be-
low the twenty.six in subiugation to
their selfish purpose. 1T is TO ohliterate
that line, for the time being, and TO in
tcrDOsc the innocent mass between
themselves and the citizenship of the
their organs to proclaim that when falls
Smoot all the Mormon people fall.
IL is not true that the exclusion of
Reed Smoot from the Senate proscribes
the mass Of the Mormon people. He is
recognized as responsible authority
in the commission of the ofrenses which
characterize the hierarchy. He is Il
part of the government of the church.
He has n voice, and large voice, IN
the continued teaching of polygamy
through the Doctrine and Covenants
and other standard works of the church.
He has definite authority in the selec-
tion Of his co-offenders in the govern
ment of the church After election 10
the Senate he exercised that voice in
naming prominent polygamist for a
place in the apostolic quorum, He sus-
! tains the breakers and the violators
Of their covenant with their country,
| He sits in secret council with Joseph
f. Smith and other defiant transgres-
sors To concert means to avoid the law
and to dishonor the pledge which Utah
gave to the Nation.
The whole country is willing to rec
ognize difference between the mass
| of the Mormon church and the ruling
class; and it is only the cowardly selfish
ness of the criminal element Of the Nor
mon leaders which dictates the threat
| that the fate Of Smoot if righteous ven
geance shall fall upon him, must be
| tbo fa,a nf oil tho Mnrnon nnnnlo> fnr
the fact is that the mass Of the Mormon
church arc not charged with guilt by tho
opponents Of Smoot, but merely by his
| friends.