CENTURY OF MORMONISM.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXV, Issue 18620, 16 July 1930, Page 12

CENTURY OF MORMONISM.

THE PAST RECALLED. TWO VIGOROUS LEADERS. Salt Lake City celebrated last month the hundredth anniversary of the founding of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. This “city” has been the capital of Mormonism since the historic day when Brigham Young halted his mi-; grating hosts with the terse declara-. tion. “This is the place.” church was exactly 100 years old in April, and the town that Mormonism built on the shore of Salt Lake was filled with Mormons from all parts of the world. Distinguished speakers and dignitaries of the church recalled the struggles of the pioneers and pointed with pride to the achievements of the church to-day. More colourful and impressive were the evening pageants in the tabernacle. in which more than 500 scenes re-enacted the 100-vear history of the church. Every important event in that sensational history which stirred a nation to bitter protest was depicted. But no tableau can hope to catch all the impending drama of the obscure little meeting on April 6. 1830. when the “prophet” (Joseph Smith > and two score of his followers gathered in Peter Whitmore’s farmhouse at Fayette, Seneca County, N.Y.. and organised the Church of Latter Day Saints. No combined religious and economic movement such as the Mormon Church represented could have lived for five years, let alone a hundred, had it not been for real leadership. Joseph Smith, the “Prophet,” set the fires of religious zeal blazing when he announced his discovery of the goldep plates which he claimed to be the foundation of the Book of Mormon. He gathered thousands of converts to his new religion. He established polygamy, even when it ran counter to the approval of a majority of his followers. In twelve short years his fame had spread over two continents. He astounded even his own followers by becoming a candidate for President. He destroyed a newspaper that had dared to challenge polygamy. He was imprisoned, and finally was immolated as a martyr, in the eyes of his followers, when he was shot to death by a mob which stormed the gaol in the little Illinois town where h,e was awaiting trial for inciting to riot. Then came a happening which was outside the rules of chance—the discovery of a second leader, whose administrative abilities were even greater than those of the man who had founded Mormonism. Brigham Young, a polygamist of the polygamists, led the Mormons to a new Zion in the far west. He was dominant, truculent, and farvisioned. He drove his people into the fields and factories on the theory that work would make them forget their numerous “grievances.” He brought prosperity out of desert poverty. He alternately threatened an cajoled his church membership into work —always more work. To-day the leadership is vested in Heber Jeddy Grant. Under Grant, who was a personal friend and intense admirer of Brigham Young, the Mormon Church has grown to a membership of JO. ooo a membership that is intensely proud of its temples, tabernacles, schools, and colleges. To-day, as in the days of Young and Smith, Mormon missionaries are sent round the world. In Hawaii more than half the population is claimed Mormon. Contrary to popular belief, the first “rows”' over Mormonism were not started by polygamy. Joseph Smith, the so-called prophet, in his own account of the origin of Mormonism, written in 1842, and now given out by thousands as a standard bit of church literature; says that on the golden plates on which the Book of Mormon is based, “false reports, misrepresentations, and slander flew . . . The house was frequently beset by mobs and evil-designing persons.” These plates were found by Smith in 1832, according to his own account, under direction of the Angel Moroni, in the hills of Cumoran, known locally as “Mormon Hill,” about twenty-five miles south-west of Rochester. But it was not until 1827 that the angel finally decreed that Smith should have the plates for translation. In the belief that they were to found a Zion elsewhere, and in response to “divine commands” to work among the Indians, the Mormons began their trek westward. They colonised Kirtland, Ohio. Then, grown to some 2,000 in number, they located another; colony at Independence, Mo., hoping to make this their “Zion.” Trouble developed there, however, and the Mormons were finally driven out. But wherever the Mormons moved, the shadow of trouble, cast by the cloud of polygamy, moved with them. For a few years this shadow was not noticeable. The Mormons, being isolated, were lulled into a feeling of false security. Colonisation proceeded. With the California gold discoveries of 1849 Utah found itself no longer isolated. Stories of polygamy and of the despotic rule of Brigham Young began to appear in publications in the East. Bitterness was intensified in 1852 when polygamy was publicly avowed at a church conference in Salt Lake City, and in 1857 came the “Mormon rebellion.” In 1882 President Arthur signed the Edmunds Law. under which polygamy was made punishable by disfranchisement and imprisonment for three years. Nearly 1,000 men went to the penitentiary rather than promise to obey the law. Mapy other Mormons gathered their families together and set out, thinking to establish themselves elsewhere. A large colony established itself in the strip of land between the Grand Canyon in Arizona and the Utah line. Their chief settlement was at Pipe Springs. Polygamy died out, chiefly because the younger generations of Mormons would have nothing to do with it.