The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1907-04-27
A BOGUS ALLEGIANCE.

claws and governments are, there
fore, needed, and those who would tear
them down must be regarded as pubic
enemies" declares the Deseret News
in an unguarded moment. The organ OF
polyoamy has, in that statement, denied
It's calling and its faith; it has aposta-
tized from tho mission assigned to 1T
by its masters.
The knowledge is public property that
Joseph +. Smith, buncombe prophet
seer. and revelator of the organization
of which the News is chief journalistic
spokesman, has publicly confessed that
he is living in daily defiance of the laws
of his State-that rather than TO abide
by the will Of the government of his
State and country he has preferred to
"take his chances against the law
Joseph r. Smith has announced to all
the world that he intends to continue
in destructive violation Of the statutes
to live life Of gross immortality in de-
fiance of the Government which is sup
posed to be the enforcer of the law.
And yet the pharisaical church organ
will hold this man out to the world as
an exemplar of righteousness to all
mankind, while it declares that one VINO
will persist IN disregard of law is a
"public enemy In that particular
point the Deseret News is corrcct-that
law breaker is a public enemy. But
| in its usual pretended philosophy 1T
would seem to be entirely at variance
with all truth and decency, No man
can be prophet of the Almighty, nor
even citizen of plain and common hon
esty, who will defiantly set himself
against the laws of his community. But
that is precisely the stand which the
! News takes; and the only time that the
church organ departs from that incon-
sistent attitude is when it forgets itself
in n hypocritical effort to curry favor
with those who protect the hierarchical
crimes behind the power Of politics.
Joseph F. Smith and the Deseret
News both believe that their system
of government is to be permitted to
take the place Of all other forms of
government extant upon the face of the
earth; they preach that the kingdom
of God (meaning the Mormon church) is
to crush every man"made government In
existence; they declare that no legiti
mate authority obtains among men ex'
cept as exercised through the holy
priesthood Of the Mormon church. 1t
has been frequently said, throughout
the history of the people of Utah, that
some day the Lord would destroy the
Government of the United States-it
has even been boasted by the most
prominent speakers for the church that
the Mormon people would be foremost
in the work of destruction. While the
News and the hierarchs may occasion
ally, in this day, profess loyalty toward
the country, in their hearts they are
greater traitors than the Mormon Off
Gals who formerly expressed them
selves openly and defantly as IN oppo-
sition to this Government.
| In other respects are the priests OF
! the church opposed to government and
law. They assist the prophet in his
wholesale robbery Of the poor OF the
church; they hold up his hands in the
preparation of fraud in the name Of the
Lord; they subject their political acts
to the dlctation Of their ecclesiastical
superiors, and help these pious heelers
to impose their dictation upon others
who would be willing to oppose such
encroachments upon their civil rights il
they had sufficient strength to cope with
the close ecclesiastical corporation
which tvranDiZes over them.
| To find the News denouncing public
| enemies, is to find the News in apos-
tasy, were II not for the fact that those
who read its utterances know that there
is TO be no reliance placed in any pro-
fession it may make of political right,
eousness, either for itself or for the
hierarchy. But, taking the organ of the
polygamists at its word, it makes broad
confession of the fact that 1t speaks
for and in defense OF the most exten-
sive and insidious organization of trait.
orous public enemies the world ever saw.