The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1911-08-01
AN APPRECIATING MINISTER.

by FRANK finlng f1sner, pastor VI 'ho
First Methodist Episcopal church at
Ogden, This article is in highly
eulogistic strain of the Mormons, and
especially of the Mormon religion and
practices. A Mormon elder could not
have put the Mormon claims more
audaciously than Mr.. Fisher does
However, as TO the religious fea
lures we have no purpose TO dis
cuss them. A matter personal TO
The Tribune, however, is carried
in Mr. Fisher s article where he
says that The Tribune represented
President Smith as saying "Eleven
hundred marriages were contracted last
year not in accordance with the law of
God AS announced time and again
plural marriages have ceased in this
church" And then Mr.. Fisher pro-
ceeds TO say that the Los Angeles Ex-
aminer construed this to mean eleven
hundred polygamous marriages in a
year. If Mr.. Fisher had taken the
pains to be accurate in this matter,
he would have stated that what he
gives as a quotation from The Tribune
was, in fact, an exact quotation from
the Deseret Evening News, the official
organ of the Mormon church, which
first printed it SO, The Los Angeles
Examiner did not get its quotation
from The Tribune at all, but from the
Deseret Evening News, as other papers,
including The Tribune, also did.
Mr.. Fisher claims that polygamy is
dead. And yet The Tribune has
printed list Of two hundred and
thirty-two new polygamists, not one of
whom has ever denied that he is a new
polygamist; that is, a polygamist since
the' Manifesto of 1890 forbidding
polvgamy For Mr.. Fisher to say,
therefore, that polygamy sis dead
issue in Utah. is simply to say that
he does not know what he is talking
about.
With regard to the seeking of politi'
cal power, Mr., Fisher states that as one
OF the charges against the Mormon
leaders. He undertakes, however, to
soften it down by the statement that
Mormonisn dreams of a worldwide
Christianity, bound together in great
restored church. the old mediaeval
dream AS n matter of fact, that is
not the political dream of the Mormon
leaders at all; nor does it satisfy their
ambitions. They demand po-
litical power now, and they get it.
1t is pleasant to see that an edi
torial in the same issue Of the Outlook
takes square issue with Mr., Fisher on
practically all of his points. That edi-
torial says: "Wc do not recall ever
to have seen from the pen of a mis-
sionary so warm a commendation of a
religion, the errors of which he was
supposed to counteract." We can Sec
ond this proposition most heartily; we
have never seen the like either.
The Outlook editor agrees with Mr.,
Fisher that polygamy is dead; sat
least in its moribund, and not likely to
return TO any vigor of life" But as
we have shown, it has already re-
turned, And in spite of the pretenses
of the church leaders that the church
no longer countenances it, it does
countenance 1t by protecting these new
polygamists from prosecution under the
law. withholding the evidence necessary
to convict them, and treating them in
every way as worthy members Of the
church and good citizens.
The editor of the Outlook considers
that the peril to America today from
Mormonism sis not social or theologi-
cal; i, is POLITICAL; which is quite
true, besides the polygamy menace.
Treating of Mr.. Fishers communica.
ton, the Outlook editorial says:
or course In State largely peopIed by
Mormons, Mormons are In politics. as In
a community largely peopled by Congre-
politics. But in New England; though
Congreg gattonalists are In politics, Congre-
gatiEnalism ,a Is not though II was SO for
Mormonism is in politics. When a great
body OF citizens do not vote. but are
voted. the political combination imperlls
the community, whether the active agent
whose orders they obey are a Tammany
club. n Republican ring. or a Mormon
hierarchy.
That states the case accurately and
truly; and when the editorial writer in
the Outlook proceeds to say further
that the remedy for this is not persecu-
tion or vituperation, but education and
friendly cooperation, he is quite right
The difficulty, however. is to get the
friendly cooperation on the Mormon
side. The church leaders have been in.
sisteut in proclsiming their gospel to be
the only true gospel, and their people a
peculiar people withdrawn from the
world and better than the world, that
they resent any advances, and are
contemptuous of any one claiming
equality with them. The Nation
time after time would, in the
spirit of the scriptures, have gathered
this people to its bosom, but they would
not
With the statement as made, as il is
made both in Mr.. Fishers communica
tion and in the editorial in the Outlook
Il A,A r..A 4