The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1906-02-20
HOW DOES HE KNOWp

Elder Joseph e Taylor, in his dis
course in the Tabernacle on Sunday,
vouched for President Joseph +, Smith
In the matter OF handling the tthes He
protested that the tithes are handled
carefully, and are applied judiciously
and properly: that President Smith
would rather lose his life than misap-
propriate one dollar OF tho sacred offer
ings OF the Latter-day Saints In the
shape OF tithine given to build up the
Kingdom of Cod"
As an expression OF the confidence Of
Elder Taylor In President Smith. moth
ing could be more satisfactory than
this. But what does Taylor know about
the handling OF the tithes2 No account
ing is made. 1t is not In the least
likely that Taylor has made any ex-
animation into the tithing fund; so
what can his statement amount to?
Taylor must know az every one knows
who reads the current news Of the day.
that the worst dcfalcations, the most
thorough lootings In banks and other
whom the officers of those institutions
had the most implicit confidence. 1T
amounts to nothing to say that Elder
Taylor, or all the other elders and
apostles, have unboundcd confidence In
President Smith for that Is precisely
where robbery and misappropriation
have their most firm basis. To be q
worthwhile rogue. as the history Of
humanity shows, II is necessary first to
build up repute for honesty and faith
fulness. And then when the rascallty
itch breaks out on the man who Is
trusted, his opportunity for rascality Is
before him
But If all Is so we'll with the tithing
fund, why not make a clean and tho
rough accounting for it? What Is the
objection to doing for this fund that
which men in all pursuits do 81 mat
ter of business and routine, and with
out question; what In most cases is abb
solutely required of them, both by law
and for their own protection? II is the
refusal to account for the tithes, to say
what Is received and what Is done with
the money, that gives rise to suspicious
that the tIthes are misappropriated
And when the people see a man who all
his life has been a poor man. wholly
insignificant financially, become i'm
menscly wealthy at once upon succeed
ing to the presidency OF the church. the
fact naturally and irresistibly awakens
the suggestion that it Is the tithes and
emoluments arising from the previous
investments OF tithes, that have made
him rich
To those who hold. as Elder Taylor
would probably hold. that this is not
misappropriation of the tIthes. all
would of course be satisfactory no
matter whether the president OF the
church made himself rich personally
out of the tithes or not; but to the
average man who contributes those
tithes, IT would hardly be sufficient
explanation of the handling Of them
to be told that the president of the
church had made himself wealthy out
of them. In fact, to most II would be a
confession Of misappropriation, just as
the courts would hold were IL shown
that the trustee of an estate or COM
pany had done that out of the property
conflded to his care.
All the protestations that the tithes
are properly handled and applied to the
uses for which they are paid in. count
for little in view Of the refusal TO make
an accounting. and the resistance to
every demand for a statement. Why
not make a clean breast of the whole
business?