The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1907-06-18
A RAY OF LIGHT.

lhere Is yet, 80 tar as the public
is concerned, good deal to explain
as to the forced resignation of Apos-
ties Taylor and Cowley. But little
light is shed on the matter from time
to time. A ray came from the Brig
ham H. Roberts scold of the ministers,
where he introduced letter written by
Taylor This letter was in response TO
a written request from President Jo-
seph F. Smith, who had promised to
get Taylor to go to Washington, if pos
sihle, and have him testify in the Smoot
case. It is not known whether Roberts
read all of the letter or not but what
he read is as follows:
81 acknowledge that L received re-
quest from President Joseph +. Smith,
by letter, to appear as witness In the
committee on Privileges and Elections.
But declined to do SO because, while ]
recognize his right TO direct me in church
affairs, I did not think his authority eX-
tended to civil affairs to the extent that
/ should expose my family concerns and
be questioned and held up 10 public ig
nomlny as some of my brethren were be-
fore that body; and ! stlll hold the same
views upon that matter.
This opened the window a little.
From il we should Judge that President
Smith was In earnest In his desire to
have Taylor appear at Washington and
testify; that Taylor refused, and und er-
took to draw a line over which Presi-
dent Smith S authority did not reach;
and that this was disastrous to Tay-
lor. For, it will be remembered, Smith
in his Provo address declared that the
man who admitted his spiritual authori-
ty and denied his temporal authority,
"lied before God;' that is, if that man
had enough sense to know what he was
talking about.
1t appears, further, from that Tay-
Tor letter, or part Of letter, that the
ordeal which the polygamists passed
through in bearing their cross for Smoot
ington, was one much to be dreaded.
Rather than face it, Taylor was ready
to follow Apostle Moses Thatcher IS
lead and set up personal civic right,
aside from his church duty Of obedience
TO the chief. But the act was as dis
astrous to him as it was to Thatcher
He lost his apostleship by it.
We conclude, further, that Apostle
Cowley also stood with Taylor in this
position, with the like result He, also,
without knowing it, by "get-
ting out Of harmony with his quorum
And the Thatcher case was the pro-
cedcnt upon which the action was tax
en-, through which Taylor and Cowley
were ousted from the Twelve. They,
as did Thatcher, "deposed them
selves, by disobcying counsel from
the first presidency. 1t follows that the
question of polygamy is not the matter
upon which they were out of harmony,
as has been supposed; but the inhar-
mony came in where the apostle thought
beyond the control Of President Smith,
a notion that cost him his apostolic
head
1t is an interesting and illuminating
exposure that Elder Roberts has made
in this matter, as in so many other
things, i'll that most scrviceablc address
Of his If he had been acting as the
high and mighty exposer of inner Sc
crets, as intimate disturber TO help
the American cause, as well as playing
the part of the devil S advocate, he
could not have better served the cause
of "our enemies than he did in that
notorious scroed