RECENT DISCUSSION OF MORMON AFFAIRS.

FOREWORD.

The justification for publishing the three following papers consists in the importance of the subjects which they treat. The first paper, "An Address to the World," was presented to the General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, by the First Presidency of the Church, and by that conference unanimously adopted on the 5th of April, 1907, and sent forth to the world. It was conceived and written in a conciliatory spirit, and was intended to form the basis of a right understanding of the attitude of the Church of the Latter-day Saints with reference to a number of subjects concerning which there had been bitter controversy. The "Address" explained the past. It expressed the intention of the Church to give strict adherence to its obligations to discontinue plural marriages, and with that, in time, would pass away polygamous living. It also declared the intention of the Church to abstain from interference in politics. That this was the spirit and intent of the "Address" cannot be questioned by those who read it. It presented, as the writer then believed, and as he now believes, a fair basis of understanding and settlement of our local difficulties. The manner in which it was met by the Ministerial Association, with distrust, misrepresentation, unfair criticism and sly innuendo of evil intentions, went far towards defeating its purpose, and gave occasion for the Answer to the Ministerial Association's Review of the Address to the world. The papers themselves tell the rest.