Show A Political TricK Our contemporaries in the surrounding states and territories should not be too ready to take alarm from anything which the Liberal organ in this city may seek to disseminate The numerous fakes and absurd exaggerations of which it has been convicted ought to be sufficient evidence evi-dence outs unreliability Its great effort just now is to prevent statehood In order to aid in that delectable delec-table undertaking it has started in to convey con-vey the impression that polygamy is still rampant in Utah The effect of this it fondly hopes will be the incitement incite-ment of public feeling to such a pitch that there will be a religious and popular protest against any measure to admit Utah into the Union We are pleased to note however that a number of papers in neighboring places see through the motive of the obstructionist obstruc-tionist paper and size up the polygamy matter in its proper dimensions They should all understand the situation and not be imposed upon by a sheet that is hostile to Republicans and Democrats alike on the question of Utahs fitness for selfgovernment By using1 the term polygamy when it really means the association of men with the plural wives whom they married many years ago the Tribune artfully seeks to mislead people and papers not familiar with its methods The offence of polygamy polyg-amy that ist e marriage of persons who have a husband or wife living and undi vorced is notcharged nor even suspected by rational people in this territory No evidence to establish such an offence is pretended to exist As to the attempt to make an anti statehood scare out of the stories told by anonymous correspondents the Denver News takes very sensible ground Explaining Ex-plaining the plural marriages that were once contracted and their cessation because be-cause of the church manifesto it says There Is now small doubt as to the entire en-tire honesty of the church in that act and goes on remark But that certain individual Mormons should cling to the old customs and not accept the new revelation is not unnatural unnat-ural Let an attempt be made to revise the faith and practices of any other creed ana see how many will reject the revision It is undoubtedly the same among the Mormons in Utah There are probably some who will continue to practice prac-tice polygamy if they can but on the individual cases it cannot be alleged that polygamy is still alive in Utah It would be a very farfetched conclusion and one that the country will not accept The JYeics concludes a very reasonable article by declaring that the attempt to create a sensation over this will fall flat on the country and that the Tribune is only exposing the weakness of its cause by resorting to such sensational tactics to uphold it Th Evanston Wyoming devotes de-votes nearly a column of editorial space to the subject and takesupcritically the story published in the Tribune as it relates re-lates to that city and state and says The article is strictly political one and was not written or pub ishedto abate an unlawful practice if such exists The lictjtstcr also explains the relations existing exist-ing between some of the older people of Utah but affirms that Not oven the Tribune the most bitter foe of the Mormon people even pretends to say that polygamous marriages are being consummated con-summated at the present time or have been consummated for many years and adds lithe attempt of that paper to get up a polygamy scaraat this time is either for a sinister purpose indicated or is proof positive that the author isa fool The purpose indicated by the Register is this 4 On its face is apparent only the statement state-ment of alleged infractions of the law with the evident design of scaring the people of the United States into opposing statehood for Utah but reading between the lines there appears almost as plain as if printed acovert threat to the Mormon Mor-mon peple The threat is that persecution persecu-tion will be their reward if they do not uo what is demanded themthat is join and affiliate with the Republican party The Tribune is not opposed to statehood for Utah when it can come In as a Republican Repub-lican state but it is opposed to Utah as a Democratic state There is another purpose which is behind be-hind the publication of the storied which that paper delights in printing it is a mercenary one Such yarns make the sheetsell It i a paltry motive but it goes Itwill not pay in the end nor will the political object in view be achieved We agree with both the jour i I J tIt i iiij nals from which we have quotedthe scheme will prove an ignominious failure I |