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Show TELLER A SPECIAL PLEADER. In the debate on the statehood bill in the Senate Sen-ate last week Senator Teller was in full evidence on the side of his old friends. He declared that in the old days here, men were sent to prison for no crime except feeding and clothing polygamous wives and children. The Senator has been misinformed; mis-informed; he knows no such thing; it is not true. Had he been as anxious to reach the exact truth es he was to believe the falsehood, he would have been prevented from impeaching the integrifcv ; Utah courts and the humanity of the Americans who live in Utah. That charge was more than once made in the old days, it was every time absolutely ab-solutely and conclusively disproved. There was a law providing punishment on conviction for the crime of unlawful cohabitation, which meant the living with two or more women as wives at the same time. No man was ever convicted under that law unless the proof of the charge was completely com-pletely established; established, too, notwithstanding notwithstand-ing the appalling perjury resorted to in order to evade conviction, and not one man was thus convicted con-victed that could not have escaped all punishment punish-ment by simply promising to henceforth live within with-in the laws the laws that Senator Teller has all his life lived under. It is enough to say that for twenty-five years Senator Teller has wanted to Delieve every roor back of attempted persecution of Mormons by the Americans here who worked to make Utah an American state. He could not have done the work better had he, too, been an apostle of Utah's dominant 'church. He declared further that Mormonlsm is not v and never has been a factor in Colorado politics. 11 Had he desired to tell all the truth he would have 11 added this : "It is true that a majority of the pec M pie in three counties in Colorado are Mormons, M and for twenty years it has been unnecessary for Jll me to visit those counties, for I have known that, fl no matter what my politics might be, on election Hl day I woujd, through orders from Salt Lake City, have the united votes of those Mormons." ifl Again, to the question by Senator Piatt, "If in BH the case of a Mormon official his duty to his of- twH fice were to clash with the requirements of the HH church would he follow the requirements of the fl church rather than his official oath and his ot- IH ficial duty under his oath"? the Colorado Senator jH responded: "I have no reason to suppose from my rH acquaintance with the Mormon people, that that f condition ever existed." kl That can be construed merely as ignorance or . worse. Had Senator Teller kept up with current fl Utah literature he would have read where plenty lll of times the chiefs of the church had thundered 8 their decrees that they and their people were m M not bound by mere man-made laws; if Senator Sil Teller has read any of the requirements of the Hl creed ho cannot have helped to understand that tlM absolute obedience in the primal requirement of ff 11 the system and were he curious enough to investl- al gate he would see that in Utah from the first no jl legislature has ever dared to pass a bill which jl the First Presidency has disapproved or to refuse 1 to pass any bill which the First Presidency de- Sl sired to have passed. i Throughout his whole speech Senator Teller tH simply poses in disguise as a special pleader for iH the Saints and repeatedly flies in the face of jH truths which are known to every old resident of iH Utan, and which if the Senator is not cognizant of, Nfl he should not attempt to discuss. No one cares 11 how much he may eulogize the Saints, or how 111 much he may parade the virtues which his vivid fH imagination may clothe them in, but he has no nl right while doing that to shamefully assail bet- IH ter men and better Americans than he ever was, lH or to misstate history which is as well known as tll A, B, C, to every man and woman in this state. mM In the same debate Senator Rawlins tried to 1 state the situation here as it is and partially sue- M ceeded, but only partially. For Instance, he said: iiH "The Mormon leaders have proclaimed that they lIH do not interfere in political affairs." We believe W that is an error. At least we do not remember to I H have ever heard or seen that. What they say is, I H "The Church is out of politics, and as a church H does not in the least interfere." That has a plaus- JH Ible look and sound. But when we reflect that the H Church, in its daily presentations consists simply J of one principal and two advisers, then we get the ffl true inwardness of the business and see how easy uiH it is for our Poo Bah as the church to Ignore i J politics, but, individually, as God's vicegerent, to Hfl raise merry thunder among the male and female . IfH voters in conventions and on election days. For 31 Instance, when Apostles .Patriarchs, High Priests, JH Seventies, Presidents of Stakes, Bishops, Elders JH and Teachers all thronged the conventions last H summer to Insure the nomination of Smoot men flH to the Legislature, Poo Bah, as the church held ' H himself entirely aloof, but Poo Bah, as the indi- I H vidual standing in God's stead, passed the word h H out that there must be no 'mistake. Then the even- PH H H ing before election the same power was invoked and we are informed from a very high Mormon H source that one of the teachers in his zeal called I upon the venerable mother of Senator Rawlins and B informed her that if she could vote for the Re-H Re-H publican legislative ticket the next day it would "be most agreeable to the First Presidency. I What Mr. Rawlins says of Gentiles beseeching H the First Presidency for help to acquire office is H- all true, and the more shame to them. It can only H " be accounted for on the ground that the atmo- H sphere of Utah and the conditions which have H ruled here so long have demoralized men who once H were self-respectful and had some original manly H pride. |