Wrong Again: and “There’s a Reason”

EDITOR'S TABLE. 269 covenant between him and his God. This applies also to children who have arrived at the years or accountability. Joseph F. Smith. Wrong Again— and "There's a Reason." Frank J. Cannon, the erratic ex-senator of Utah, is writing a series of articles against the authorities of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the first of which appeared in the December number of Everybody's Magazine. His purpose is not new, at all, because he says: I propose, in this narrative, to show that the leaders of the "Mormon" Church have broken their covenant with the nation; that they have abused the confidence of the Gentiles of Utah, and betrayed the trust of the people under their power I undertake, in fact, in this narrative to expose and to demonstrate what I do believa to be one of the most direful conspiracies of treachery in the history of the United States. Following this vicious and false thrust against the authorities, he pens a glowing tribute to the "Mormon" people themselves: Not that I have anything in my heart against the "Mormon" people! Heaven forbid! I know them to be great in their virtues, wholesome in their relations, A capable of heroic fortitude, living by the tenderest sentiments of fraternity, as gentle as the Quakers, as staunch as the Jews. I think of them as a man among strangers thinks of the dearness of his home. I am bound to them in affection, by all the ties of life. The smiles of neighborliness, the greetings of friends, all the familiar devotion of brothers and sisters, the love of the parents who held me in their arms — by these, I know them as my own people, and by these I love them as a good people, as a strong people, as a people worthy to be strong and fit to be loved. It is surpassing strange that the leaders, from the beginning of the history of such a good people, should have been such bad, wicked men; and particularly, that the present leaders should be worse than all the rest. It is the old reason for attacks upon the Saints, prevailing from the beginning; the people have always been good, but they have always been misled by their wicked leaders.