The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1907-05-12
THE HUMBUG srlANDER CRY.
With affected innocence and impuden

With affected innocence and impudent
leer, the Deseret News asks.
What effect does the dissemination OF
slander about the people OF Utah have
among the people OF the United States
clined TO the opinion that IT Is less In
furious than might be Inferred from the
noise made about H. and the boast in
dulged In by the arch-slanderers'
The impudence Of an utterance of
that kind is only excelled by the hum
bug of the pretensc implied in it. Who
has been disseminating slandcr about
of the United States or among any
peoplel Who has been making any
noise about the dissemination of this
slander2 Who has been making any
boasts about the effect of slandering
the people of Utah9
All that is the mcrest insolent clap
trap. There is not the slightest foun-
dation for any claim that the people
of Utah have been slandered, or, IN
fact, that anything whatever has been
said against the people of Utah by
anybody
1t is quite true that some unpleasant
truths have been told about the church
leaders. the lawless traitors, the pledge
breakers, the filthy lechers who I'M
dertake here in defiance of God and
man to pose as holy persons and as
men whose lives are exemplars to their
followers and to their fellow citizens.
Nothing but the truth has been said,
however, about these persons There
has been nothing said against them
that is not clearly borne ont by the
record; in fact, the most of what is
said about them is quoted from their
own statements, and in large degree
these quotations have been from the
sworn testimony Of the chief leader OF
the church himself. That testimony
was so appalling in it's depravity, so
clear in its showing of the imposture
this leader practices, so filthy in its
sexual bearings, so absolutely revolt
ing TO common sense, common honesty,
and common deccncy, that the Deseret
News has never dared TO print that
testimony in full or even to give its
readers any approximate idea Of what
it really is.
Is it slander TO tell the truth7 Is
it abuse of the people of Utah TO show
that the chief church leader is self
confessed impostor, a charlatan, a
lecherous w-breakerl What is all
this clamor about slandering the peo-
pie, anyway Who has been Sian.
dered9 Who has done the slandering?
1t is time to draw the line and see
where we are at, as regards this master
of humbuggery and imposturc, so that
the people can get some clear idea of
what Is meant when statements and
denials are made. The attempt to iden-
tify the people of Utah with the chief
law-breaker, pledge~breaker, and lasci-
vious law -dcfcr, is the real slander
upon them, and must necessarily be n
failure. The people Of Utah are break
ing away in disgust from the leader
ship of this unworthy chief. Hun
dreds of the Mormon people, good
of the church and in its mission 10 hui
are coming TO see with the
clearness of truth and honest vision
that the present leaders are not true
leaders of the church; that the fount
Of revelation has failed; that the liv
ing voice is no longer a living voice
10 this people; that they are leaderless
In fact, and where they are blamed
that blame comes to them through the
vices and dishonor of their leaders.
Let us have done with this prepos-
ferrous nonsense that telling the truth
about a lot Of greedy and eXacting i'm
posters is slander1ng the masses of the
people. There Is nothing TO 1t, and
the people themselves arc waking up
to the fact. Let us get down to straight
business and straight talk. Let us drop
pretense and mockery, and be candid,
fearless, and true And when VIC ar.
rive at that stage we shall see that no
body has been slandercd. and that the
masses of the people are free from
blame, that the only reproach under
which they suffer is a reflected re-
proach from the dry-rot and vileness
Of their evil leadership