The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1910-06-06
the grafters who complain that they die
not get all that was coming to them.
GIVES US A BAD NAME.

On Saturday evening the Deseret News
editorially said: "Prize fights can be
stopped if the authorities are sincere,
So can the other evils that are now
giving our fair city bad reputation III
the world They can be stopped when
the citizens get together and put In a
demand for public morality
So far so good. The Tribune has for
months past come out cmphatically IN
favor of stopping prize fights. 1t op'
posed the coming of the Jeffries-John-
son prize fight here, and naturally und
inevitably it is opposed to the lesser
and even less reputable prize fights.
But what are the t'other evils that
are now giving our fair city bad repu-
tation in the worldf Undoubtedly they
arc the lawless lives and criminal
teachings Of the leaders of the Mormon
church When the world comes TO un-
derstand, as 1t is coming to do, the
public official report of President Jo"
seph F. Smith Is testimony in the Smoot
case in Washington, that he is living
man and intends to continue so to live,
what could be more scandalous7 He
who is sustained twice year by a
great so-called religious sect as
" Prophet, Seer and Rcvclator," giving
out under oath defiance like that, is
nothing less than the most shocking
blasphemy. One might expect such
kind of testimony from ribald unbe~
lever, an atheist, loose~liver, a con-
temptble glutton, lecher. and drunk
ard; but when man lives life which
he openly proclaims to be Of the sort
which Smith proclaimed he was living
and intended to live, the idea of consid-
ering such a man as that 4 religious
scandalous that the mind is hardly able
to conceive of it. There is no doubt
but that Smith continues to live that
lawless life. There is no doubt but
that he continues as he said he intended
to do. ''to take his chances against the
law" Just as any professional criminal
necessarily does.
To add to the scandalousness of the
declaration and practice of lawless liv-
ing made by President Smith, there
must be added the similar testimony of
Francis NJ. Lyman, president of the
quorum of the twelve apostles, and the
direct successor in line for the church
presidency after Joseph T, Smith; this
I h. ~,
at the Smoot hearing, openly and
sauarely said that he also lived and
intended to live life in defiance of the
laws of God and man. He did not add
as Smith did that he preferred "to
take his chances against the law -
rather than to obey the law, but the
effect of his testimony was precisely
the same,
The record OF broken homes, of bro"
ken hearts, Of dissolute lives, of en-
gendered lecherous proclivities, is such
n horrible one here in Utah, growing
out of this lawless sensual living, so
long proclaimed as revelation by the
church, and enjoyed by the church
leaders, is an appalling one. Nothing
has given Utah one-tenth OF the evil
notoriety that that awful, sensual, law"
defying, polygamous record has given
II is idle to talk about anything else
giving the city or the State bad name
as long as that fostering. shocking,
scandalous and notorious evil exists ana
is perpetuated by the leaders of the
church,