Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1909-08-14
" asTE or EFFORT.

II w AISLE OF IIFFOltI.
: Several months ago the e News ans
4 nonnced that the Tribune outfit in
A tended to- publish u volume of defar,it-
4 ton of the Church at Sshe time of the,
Grand Army encampnient The work
has nov appeared in the form OF a boob
i of oyer 800 pages, written by one j. r..
Gibbs and copyrighted by the Tribune
i Publishing company. The author does
i not say whether ex-senator Kearns
paid him for his literary effort, but Us
\ one entire chapter is devoted to an,
oyer-sWeetened panegyric OF the OK
i senhtor, the reader will form his own
i conclusions as to that.
We have us yet not had time to per-
4 use the product OF Mr.. Gibbs literary
4 skill and careful study" but we no-
tice that in his preface the author Ill.
/ leges that the underlying motive [of'
\ the Writing1 was to prove that the con-
tinuous asseverations of the Mormon
/ press and speakers to the effect that;
the prophets we're not In politics are
absolutely false
One would naturally suppose tina +
! when a man goes 10 work TO write 600
pages with the 'underly Ing. " or over
lying, motive OF dlsproNing an as
severation," such affirmation must ac-3
tunlly have been made by somebody.
one would not suppose that the asser-
tion is merely a product of the phan-
tastic brain spiel Of a pen pusher. And
| yet such Is the case in this instance,
| whether the. motive Is underlying or
3oVerlying or nothing hut Lying. Neither
the Mormon press nor the speakers
nor nybody else has, to our knowledge,
ever asserted that srthe prophets We're
not In politics. to quote the exact
words Of the author. So the 800 pages
are utterly wasted If hey We're written
to refute any such statement
stance, that Senator Reed smoot is not
lin politics All the world knows that.
he Is. and all the world also knows
l3that he has been sustained at every
| conference for many years as an Apos-
tie of the Church. So 1t is evident that
Mr.. Gibbs alleges that he starts out to{
combat an assereration that was never
made. What waste of effort! School.
| boys dernolishing their own snow men
| at least get gS1od exercise and fun out
| OF their play, but what does Mr., Gibbs
get out of his? He Is attacking
| phantom of his own ina gination
M. one denies that some Church men
| as American citizens, have interested
| themselves in the political affairs OF
the state, or the communities In which
| they live. We even assert that under
the laws OF the land they have g per-
feet right 10 do so; and further, that
| 1t Is their duty, as good citizens, to
| do SO. We assert that Senator s;moot.
Hon Heller j. Grant, President Rob-
erts President Norris. President Nc.
| I.nchian and others, have Just as much
right to engage In politics and to use
their influence for good government,
| according to their Views, as have
! Messrs Kearns, Lippman, Martin and
Black, and some others that could be
mentioned. This proposition is unas--.
sailable,
|
| being used for the furtherance of poll
| ties We claim that neither Repub-
| lieanism nor Democracy nor any other
| political faith Is being enunciat-
ed from the ecclesiastical pulpits. We
| claim that the ChurnS organization is
| never being used for the furtherance
| Of political aspirations. We claim that
L 70 5fya.s nc ar pth In
vote and 10 use his political influence
as his conscience dictates, We claim
! that the Church believes in the separa-
| ton of church and state into two per-
] fectly independent spheres, and that
this distinction is observed in Utah to
! the fullest extent as far as the kat
4 ter-fiaS Saints are concerned.
/ This was fully established during the
. investigation of the right of Hon. Reed
| sInoot to his seat in the United States
Senate. 1t was proved that the Nor
| mon voters of the State adhere more
closely to party lines than the non
Mormons do" 1t was proved that since
1900, ut least. the Mormon Church has
not controlled or attempted to control,
elections in Utah proceedings Be-
fore the Committee, Vol. " Page 524.1
During the last county election here
some prominent Church men took a
more than usually lively interest in
politics and even occasionally brought
the discussion OF the questions at issue
into meetings of a purely religious
character. But the conditions here
we're exceptional at that time. The
Church was assaiied from the political
\ platforms, by so-called American"
leaders and orators One of them
threatened to use the county offices
for purposes of persecution. He an
i nounced the program of the party to be
to send twenty six men TO Jail. or into
exile, SRoush the only offense charged
/ against many of then, was that&they