The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1910-08-08
A GRAND JURY FUNCTION.

And now it appears that there should
be grand jury investigation of the
conduct of the members of the Utah
Legislature, if We are to believe what
Apostle Heber J, Grant said at Logan
last week. He was one of the speakers
at the Cache stake conference. and the
Logan Journal reports him to have said
this:
The people want no whisky. and they
said so last time they elected a legisla-
ture, but the legislators We're not salts
fed to do the VIII OF the people who sent
them there, but chose 10 obey the com
mands of the liquor men. They say they
did not sell out and OF course they ex-
pect US 10 take them at their word bu;
there is such a thing as Circumstantial
evidence and 1t all points to The other
conclusion.
Probably the thing that saves Utah
Legislators from investigation is the
statement added by Apostle Grant that
these Legislators are Mormons, - cou-
pied with the assumption that as such
they combined obedience TO the "com.
mands of the liquor men" with strict
observance of the admonitions of ono
who is greater to them than is the
sweetest singer in all Israel Because
1t will be remembered that when Presi.
dent Joseph F. Smith talked To the
saints at one of the big church confer
ences, April 6. 1898, he took advantage
Of that occasion to tell them of the
hypocrisy of some of his brethren or
the liquor matter He chided them
as being "pious Mormons" for having
demonstrated with upturned eyes
against the practice Of the big Coop
drug store Of selling liquors under the
sacred emblem OF the "all ll.seeing eve"
and the motto. 'iHoliness to the Lord. ,,
Joseph F. said that these very men
would sneak into the drug store and
guzzle whisky until they became too
wobbly to remember their natural
names. let alone those that had been
given them when they "received their
endowments 4" in the Mormon holy of
holes. Besides, Joseph f. Smith looked
upon liquor selling by the Coop drug
store as a matter of business intended
to catch the trade of the "pious Nor.
mons. as he called them, who thought
it unreasonable that booze should be
sold under the sanctiication of the
Mormon priesthood. He told the peo-
pie that if z. C, M. l. didn t keep in.
toxicating liquors for sale the "pious
Mormons' would ego somewhere else
to deal" And that, in the opinion
of the profit-secking prophet. would
never do. He is out for the cash. and
any little thing like supposed probibi
tion sentiment could not be permitted
to stand in the way of piling up big
dividends for the big Coop.
The truth of the matter was that
Apostle Grant was permitted to 90 out
and supposedly create wave of pro-.
hibition sentiment in Utah, while
the higher of the high powers
quietly and underhandcdly shot that
wave down into a handy sewer
hole, If Joseph F. Smith had really
wanted a prohibition measure passed
by the late Legislature that law
would have been placed upon the statute
books Of this State and wealthy as the
liquor interests Of the country may be-
they would have gone completely broke
If they had determined to stop it by
means of money expenditure. If any
body was bought, as Grant says is
truer he should turn his eagle eye upon
the man who above all other men in