MORMON PROPAGANDISM.

Evening Star, Issue 14607, 1 July 1911, Page 1

MORMON PROPAGANDISM.

] r comes somewhat as a surprise to read in recent Home exchanges that there is an increase of Mormon propagandist!! observable in the United Kingdom, and as a consequence the movement is being deprecated vehemently. A tipple of the same proselytism has been felt here in Dunedin, and lias led to letters of remonstrance and alarm appearing in the correspondence columns of the Press. Some of our writers have taken pen in hand under the impression that Mormon missioners had just started on their enterprise, hut as a matter of pretty general knowledge a smockfaced, bcgloved, morning-dress-attired young man has been paying domiciliary visits all over .Dunedin and its suburbs for the past two years. His method of proceeding has been to first leave pamphlets plentifully besprinkled with texts of Scripture, and mildly requesting that the literature be carefully read, and intimating that he would cal! again later. On his second visit, if doors were not slammed in his face, as they frequently were, the smooth-tongued evangelist would volubly point out the deficiencies of other creeds than his, and the all-sufficiency of the gospel of the Latter Day Saints. It is to be presumed that converts have not been many, or wc would have heard of an exodus to Salt j.ak© City before now, Th© temptation '• 0 emigrate is minimised by the prosperous conditions of life in the Dominion. Then, again, there is the suspicion fd polygamy ■ that taints the very itnno of Mormonism, no matter how persiistent is the endeavor to glaze it over, tins accusation was a feature in the contioyersy that lias been going on in London of late, and it was met by a denial from Joseph Fielding Smith, a nephew of Joseph Smith, the founder of the sect. He wrote to ■ The Times’ challenging investigation, but unfortunately for the amount of credence to be attached to protestations from such a source the editor was able to point out that this same man, wnen giving evidence before a -Commission that was taking evidence on the question of Mormon polygamy, confessed that m March. 1907, be‘was fined 300 do! for breach of the- law against polygamy, after having pleaded guilty to the charge* The whole history 'of Mormonism shows that this carnal lust has been characteristic of the sect._ In 1847 Brigham 1 oung, the most skilful organiser thev ever had, treked into the Greet Salt Lake V alley in Mexican territory to escape the restrictions of American law, but at the close of the Mexican War that portion of the country was transferred to the United iStatss by the Treaty of Guadalupe, consequently the new settlers again became subject to the jurisdiction they had sought to avoid. When the Morrell Art was pasted in 1862 to prohibit polygamy its pi ovisions were so defective that it became inoperative. The Edmunds-Tucker Act of 1537 disfranchised all male adults who could no!, or would not, swear that, they were guiltless of polygamy or cohabiting with mote than one woman. 11ic Mormons were so stiougly opposed to (he vestrictmrs ©ought to he imposed on Hi cm that they tested its validity in the Supreme Court, but the Act was upheld. ’Many then dodged the law (as beer-drinker© do in Prohibition districts! by •• going tinder gjo and," as it was termed. hi consequent e oi throe evasions property to the value of a million Jo ints was confiscated in Utah, and one Prrndent (John Taylor) died in concealment mar S.Jt Lake City in .’.887. was not- Id 1870 that P •-side.nl. • ■ '■■■ f .hi. 4 . . ‘S. -.... • . • i , -. - rTiifTng (fiat members of the .Mormon Chun.-h should conform to the laws passed by Congress, and the edict was approved by (he Church Congress ; but, nevertheless, 17 years after the nephew of the Prophet was fined for a breach of the. statute that tried to make Mormons moral by legislative enactment.

It might naturally hi l sapjicsc-d that cute Yankee people 80 rears ago would have been about the Inst people on Owl's foolstool. as they phrase it. to he led away by such transparent frauds and delusions as that promulgated by Joseph Smith in 1830. He did not- drop from heaven as' a fullblown prophet, seer, and translator of .1 new evangel, but was a local production. His father was a well-known character, subject to fainting fits, n water diviner, and a revealet of lost property and hidden trensme. His con was all his life subject; to cpileptoid seizin cs. saw visions, reed set rets by crystal gazing, and claimed to be the vehicle for direct revelations from the Almighty. He grew up in ignorance, binhad the cunning to play with consummate shill upon the weaknesses of those surrounding him. At- 55 ho received a visit from tbs Ang'-I Moroni, who directed him where to find the gold plates on which the tenets of Mormonbm are supposed to be written in u bat the illiterate Joseph desrrihed as reformed Egyptian “ enracters. These hieroglyphics lie professed to lie able In read by means oi a pair of supernatin.il spectacles. .Ml these marvels, and many moie that had ;,i he invented to bol-K-r up the new dispensation. were swallowed in gloim bv the early di.-.ciplce. They receive tho mi me amount of credence to-day ins unthinking people ill all quarto ns give to elinrch iniraeiets. the «u Ted tiers of relics, and the saving effiraev of charms and ikon.-. In soil-- of these transparent ab-snrrlii-iiv the Chinch of the Latter Day Saints nnnib', red 350.000 adherents iu the I'nitcrl Stales three years ago. and their ranks are increasing, not only' by reason of then- natural birthrate, lint- heea.u.se of the energetic mission-ii-y propaganda that is being i arrifd on. Mormanism first saw the light at a time when America was awakening from the dull materialism common to .ill new countries, where tho future is being hewn out from ba-ckwoode : lfim ,! y pvairks. and primeval fastnesses. The psychological pendulum took its inevitable swing in a contrary direction, and the pioneer.? were beginning to realise that they could not live by bread a. hi no. About this time the Fox family began their -spirit-rapping prank?. Jemima. Wilkinson was founding her -New Joruealem in Yates County, and Mit. Eddy war. pi-epari.ng iho way for her Christian Science doctrine. Wonders and portents were in the air, and spirit visitations earnsat the bidding of anyone who chore to summon the departed back to earth through the manipulations of paid or neurotic medium.". Mormouism came in with this Hood of credulity, and to this day American soil is a fruitful arena for all the cranks and faddists that weak intellects can find room for and support. It must, however, in fairnetii be, conceded to Morrnonbm that on the practical side of life they have done good work. Their indurlri.nl policy has been one of co-operation in trade and manufactures, ar-rl intense cultivation in their rural occupations. Their large irrigation works have been successfully carried out, and 91 per cent, of the people are tillers of the soil. They have an immigration policy that is a model of perfecljisss. The properly accredited converts that find their way to Utah are taken by tlv- hand, put to work-, at the trades they bwre acquired elsewhere, or placed upon small farms and taught the best means of making the soil yield its increase. They arc taught to pray for bountiful harvests, but to keep their hands on the plough at the same time. While thus employed to good purpose it is a small matter that their absurd doctrines teach them to believe that the second advent will take place on Mormon territory, as the centre for the new heaven and the new earth wherein right.eons.nere will tabernacle for ever.