MORMON PROTECTIONISTS
Utah Will Have Two Republican Senators, So Says Ben Rich.
One Mormon and One Non-Mormon. Democratic Purpose in the Church Contention.
Ben Rich, a Utah politician and member of the Mormon church, but at present the business manager of the Silver Hammer, a Republican weekly published in St. An-thony, Idaho, is in town in the interests of his paper and, incidentally, to say an en-couraging word to his fellow-churchmen in this City.
Remarking yesterday on the political situation in Utah and on the Mormon con-nection with the Congressional campaign he said:
It is generally conceded in Utah that one Senator will be a Mormon and the other a non-Mormon. I think that Frank J. Cennon, Utah's present Congressman, will be the Mor-mon Senator.
As to the church's influence in this campaign I should explain that the Mormon church has certain salaried officers, The apostles and the presiding presidents of the seventies draw sal-aries and they are the only officers that do.
About two years ago the political question was talked over in the Mormon priesthood meeting, and the high officials were then re-quested not to become political candidates without first notifying the heads of the Mor-mon church; for the church did not wish to have any of its salaried men make political arrangements that would deprive the church of their services.
The last Democratic convention nominated one Mormon apostle as a candidate for Senator and one of the presiding presidents of the seventies quorum as a Congressional candi-date.
At the priesthood meeting referred to, and made so much of by the chairman of the Democratic State committee, and which has caused so much press comment, the authorities of the Mormon church simply reiterated what they had said two years previously. In order to illustrate the importance of this stand, they drew the members attention to the fact that in case of the election of the two Mormon officers who had accepted political nominations, the church would lose their services. They thought it only just that such salaried men should first consult with their superior officers before making any plans that might result in the church being the loser.
When I was on the stump I used to tell a story of a man who was in the habit of cross-ing a field in which a cross bull was pastured. One day, when he saw the bull making for him, he made for the fence, but not soon enough to avoid the bull, who threw him clean over it. The man got on his feet, bruised and bleeding, covered all over with sore spots, and as he turned round and saw the bull on the other side of the fence pawing the earth and tossing his head, he looked steadily at the beast and said: "You can bow and you can scrape and you can apologize, but you meant it, you, you meant it."
And that is about the way the Mormon Re-publicans look at the scare created by the De-mocracy to influence them into voting the Democratic ticket.
The Mormon people are naturally protec-tionists. The Republican party has had a gradual, I might say a rapid growth in the Territory. The Democratic party will never carry Utah again, and this year the State will have two Republican Senators, whoever they may be.
Elder Rich addressed a congregation of the church of Latter-day Saints in Pythian Castle last night and explained the doc-trines of the church, its faith and teach-ings. He said that the teachings are from the Bible and that there is nothing in that book from Genesis to Revelations that is in conflict with the doctrines of the church. He said that the church usually called the Mormon church is the least un-derstood and the most misrepresented; that it believes in God the eternal-father, in his son Jesus Christ and in the Holy Ghost, and that in order to obtain salva-tion it is necessary to have faith, believe in repentance for the remission of sins, and the reception of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands.
He announced that two young men, whose names de did not furnish, had come to this City to teach the doctrines of the Latter-day Saints.
