The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1908-11-19
CONFIRMED I.AWBREAKERS.

CONFIRMED LAwBREAKERs.
Mr.. Tayler.-You propose to continue
the practice that you then started. upon
the theory that there Is higher obllga-
tion upon you than the obligation TO OBEY
the law?
Apostle John Henry Smith.-fes; !
mus, suffer the consequences que r.etT- NY
mony in Smoot case. volume 2, page 2Ho'
What would be thought Of any other
class Of lawbreakers who would state
A personal determination similar TO this
one of Apostle Smith, Would they rot
be looked upon as confirmed perVerts'
Yet these men pose as possessors OF
superior righteousness and divine IN
spiratiou. They profess 10 live closer
10 the immaculate throue than do others
of humanity, and to be specially fa-
vored with communion from On High.
Some of them, whilc living i'll their law
less state, have even gone so Tar as 10
say that they have talked with angels
in the secret chambers Of the temples.
And their followers have actually be-
lieved them in open -mouthed awe and
reverence, sustaining them In their SIN
and supporting them in their lswless-
ness and fraud.
II should not be surprising to the
Mormon people when the facts arc all
considered, that the world looks upon
them as being largely responsible for
the evils that have been perpetrated by
the leaders. While The Tribune realizes
that this apparent attitude of guilt on
their part is due TO their innocent zeal
in their faith, it is difficult TO induce
persons who are not properly informed
in the matter to djssociate the rank
and 6le of the Mormon people from the
sins of those higher up. And It is true,
too, that the evils complained of IN the
higher authority could not possibly
exist if the followers would but cast
off the yoke Of priestly authority which
forces them 10 couutepauce defiance of
law Thus far the Mormon people are
responsible.
As sn illustration let us poiut out 2
we'll known fact; During all the in
vestigatioDs that have been had in the
matter of polygamous marriages, it has
been constantly coptended by the au
tborities that the practice was not SO
general in The church as has been sup
posed by outsiders. They have asserted
that at no timc--not even IN the palm
lest days of polygamy-were more
than uine per cent of the elders mar
ried in that relation. Why, then, is ii
necessary that the other uinetysone per
cent, together with their families,
should have been compelled TO suffer
on account of the sins of the few?
1t is simply because the leaders have
always dragged the people out in front
of this miserable nine per cent and
stood them up to take the consequences
that belonged wholly to the lawbreak-
ers who covered behind them. All of
the woe that has come TO the Mormon
people through polygamy has been due
to Just such prophetic determination as
that announced by Apostle John Henry
Smith at Washington, Public sentiment
has been continually imposed upon and
de6ed by the few laDbreakers, with
the result that tho resentment that nat
urally followed has necessarily been
shared by the entire church membership,
innocent of offense though the majority
of them have been. Not only is this
true, but it is also fact that the in
noceuts have been compelled to suffer
most of the distress, because they have
remained to take the brunt of the trou~
bic while the guilty ones have fed to
escape it. Joseph +. Smith, who pro-
fesses to be about the most courageous
president the Mormon church ever had,
fed in abJect terror when there was
danger that he would be made to suffer
for his lawlcssness, And ut the time
of mis- flight the people whom he left at
home 10 do the suffering were beguiled
iuto state of passiyity by means of
the pharisaical apology that The seed
of Joseph must be preserved in the
church, that everything must be done
TO save Smith because he was a dc.
sceudapt of the first prophets; that the
Lord would be augered at His people if
they refused TO make any and every
sacrifice to defend and protect the
Smith lineage to the church,
Surely the day ought not 10 be far
away when the Mormon people will
wake up to the rank fraud that is being
pcrpetrated upon them, AMI when they