Show lARRtN FOSTER WONT CONTEST b Definitely States iIi Position in the llatter 4 IT WOULD TAKE WORK AND ALSO SOME MONEY t Neither of Which Are Forthcoming at This Time 4 lTx Foster Would Not rake a Religious Re-ligious Fight Against Roberts BeliEves the Bible Sanctions Io lygamy But Does Not Believe in the Infallibility of the Book Broken Pledges Would Be the Base of Contest If Made + j To the Editor of TIle Herald y In tompliancp with your request for a statement on the Roberta contest matteT 1 beg leave to submit the f l lowing With all deference to Mr Roberts ability as a churchman and statesman I have always regarded his nominaton and lectioll a5 an unfortunate and ill timed affair I have had no reason given me 8h yet that has caused me to change mr mind The expected agitation agita-tion in the eastern states has come ard viewl from every standpoint malte matters bad for our fair young state Several weeks prior to his election I found myself deluged with queries whnher or not I would be willing to luIHest his spat in the event of his ee tlul To this I replied nth publicly and pivately that if in the course of hum lil events tle duty of contesting fell upon mt in C01lSlUenle of my beg be-g an opiosing candidate I should not shirk the obligation So far I have had no occasion to change my mind up0n that subject I thought then and I think now that the muchmooted qUPStion of polygamy should for once and forever be settled I thin the good of both Mormons and gentiles demands de-mands it If to contest his seat is the proper way to settle the question then the contest should by all means be made If there be methods other than a contest by which this nd can he mon easily reached they should be usedRESOLUTIONS RESOLUTIONS OF KO AyUf However 11 takes more than a nere resolution tocostest a seat In consressJ It takes work and lot of money The former I cnnnot do and the latter 1 hap not And If 1 could do the ormt > rand r-and had pent of thp hatter of my own I would be very foolish to do the one fr or to spend the other on my own at I CoUnt for I am only a private citizen and Mr Roberts case is of no more interest mt than to any other citizen citi-zen If others lan Iiv under it I cer tainly can and if J cant the road over which I came to Utah is still open and I doing a passenger business SJ that I can get out of the state By this I I mean that while I am ready and willing will-ing to do my part I am not willing to do It aU or any more than woud equitably fall upon me as a private citizen citi-zen and as all opposing candroat Anticipating An-ticipating these facts several weeks prior to the election divers cItizens politicians statesmen and others in cuding sever11 leading Democrats did considerable talking accompanied with sundry extravagant statements and gorgeous pledges of money and other utnsls of warfare They made 5ev eal attempt to get together and 01 gadze their forces for the fight but from some cause or other they were unable I un-able tn get together and have not as yet so far as I have ever heard So all this flurry and bluster Iilte a great many other formidable undertakings bath resoled itself into talI and thin wind having neither body parts nor passions So that while IndiduaIl I stand where I have ever stocd nothing noth-ing seems plainer to me nfW than that Jf I made tliP contest at all I shall hays to do so on my own hook so far as those aforesaid citizens polititians and statesmen are COl1cerner Aesin the I time IF drain nigh when it will be too late to file a on test the limit I believe being thirty days after the otnciai count i ha been made If anything is don at al it must 1e don at once and Judging I th near futur by the recent past IIi l eel 1 warranted in saying that nothing 1 Jriil be done If there be those who I I He expecting me to file a notice of contest md then go about passIng the j hat like a mendicant to get a few dimes with hich to defray my en I jenses in Yashlngtm they will be mistaken for I wIll not do It If they want IL contest made Jet them get together to-gether organize their forces put up the money and th y will lThd me on i 1ydd hli tfig 1dm ready to do toy part Otherwise i not My attention is frequently called Ito I-to the fact that the government pays the expenses of a contest to the amount of 2000 So it does but 1 hall certainly cer-tainly not make an unsupported spiritless spirit-less meaningless contest for the par pos of raking in 2000 I dont need morey 80 badly as that What I mean to Day Is I do not belIeve In doing things 4n a halfhearted aimless fashion fash-ion If a contest is to be made make a contest md make it in earnest If not drop it altogether Enough upon that point WONT lAKE RELIGIOUS FIGHT There is a moement on foot among preachers find others of the Protestant chtrhes to send up a protest naillsL the seating of Mr Roberts 111 loot t the matter of protesting and of contest Inc seems to have simmered Iowa to this The religious organlzatlms and periodicals of the east are actually palng some attention to the case fore for-e quite frequently read of divers TH olutions being passed protesting against Mr Roberts being allowed to take his seat So It seems lhat the light is to be 3 fight betveen the I churches This may all be well enough t and may be successful but unfortunately Jlj unfortu-nately It is not a light in which I can consistently or conscientiously take part The only ground upon which I proposed to c ontest or could consistently consist-ently contest Mr Roberts eat was that of breaking faith with the gov ernment Statehood was granted Utah on the exuress condition that rolyga mous practices should cease Tt seems that it has not ceased Those h31inJ plural wives have continued to lIve with them and Mr Roberts is one of them I consider his election to congress to be in open violation of that sacred compact and for that reason 9nd for that alone should he be called to an accounting As I have stated open and unCUt the Question of whether or not polygamy is morally or religiously right is not at all Involved In-volved in the issue The Question is did the Mormon > eole did Mr Roberts Rob-erts as their spokesman pledge themselves them-selves to abandon the practice In order to obtain statehood And have they so abandoned it The fact that no one but members of other religious denominations denom-inations are taking any hand in the matter naturally brings to the front the susDlcion that it is to be a fight based solely upon a difference between the Mormons and other church peoDie upon tIle interpretation of the scriptures scrip-tures Let us see If that is not true Protestants and Mormons alike be liee to a greater or less degree in the inspiration of the Bible Many of the people who are proposing to fight Mr Roberts believe or claim to believe that the Bible from kiver to kiver is tOe inspIred word of God that it was given by inspiration that It Is an infallible moral guide that itlays d3wn proper rules of faith and Dractice that as precepts are good and hat its injunctions injunc-tions are binding in every particular These eoDle insist that the Bible opposes op-poses polygamy and for that reason they oppose It Now if these same people could be made to believe that the Bible enjoined or even endorsed II polygamy they would favor it it would be sacrilege for them not to do I so Now the question is does the Bible favor or enjoin polygamy Mr Roberts says it does His o1posing religionists say it does not So you see tht In the last analysis the question resolves itself into a question of Bible interpretation interpreta-tion nothing more nothing less Now even though I believe in both the Bible and the Book of Mormon the grounds are too narrow for a liberal man to I stand upon But as I do not believe in the inspiration or the infallibility of either you can readily see the untenable unten-able not to say ridiculous position 111 I which I would be placed Besides to I be consistent it would be necessary I that I should believe that the Bible condemns potvann and frankness m neis me tt s tlat I do not belIeve it does If the Bible is right polygamy Is right One of the principal reasons why I cannot accept the Bible as my moral guIde is because it teaches DO 1ygamy So I cannot consistently join Issues with those who stand on the Bible to accuse Mr Roberts for taking what I consider to be a rational inter pretation of the Bible Inother words the only reason why Mormons are any I worse than Methodists Is because they stick closer to the Bible than do the 11Hhodlsts That Mormons do stay I closer to Bible teachings than do other denominations permit me to call attention I at-tention to this in i theEpistle of JameS Is any sick among you Let him call I for the elders of the church and let him pray over him anointing him with I oil In the name of the Lord And the I prayer of faith shall save the sickand the Lord shall raise him up etc Joseph I Jos-eph Smith taught the same doctrine so did President Young and so do they I all and what is marc they practice It to this day So persistently do they practice it that a doctor friend or mine I once srI to me that Utah Is the ddst place on earth in which to practice I prac-tice medicine for if the patient e swell s-well prayers cured him and if he die the doctor killed him Again suppose that it was heaven at whose gates Brother Roberts was asking ask-ing admittance instead of the United States congress and he should be refused re-fused admission on the grounds of being be-ing a polygamist and he rhoul appepl the case to a jury composed of David Solomon and Abraham what do ypu I think 1ould bp his chancew a seat Think of Abraham refusing Brother Roberts a nlace on his bosom on the I grounds that he is a polygamist Eh How do YOU think that would look Now candidly if Brother Roberts is I goat enough to enter heaven to recline I Abrahams bosom < nd to play on harps of everlasting 911 is he not I I good enough for congress I think so OUGHT TO BE CONTESTED I Now Mr Editor in conclusion allow me to say that I think Mr Roberts 1 seat oucht to be contested I think t tlln I i Ufl the vehlbeing of Utah demands it I think the interests of the honest Mormon Mor-mon people demand it but such contest con-test should be based solely on the grounds indicated above 1 Ilm still willing will-Ing to do my share towards it but it must b C done on higher and broader grounds than are involved In a difference nce of ointon on the interpretatirn of the Bible Again this protest to c10 I Utah any good should go up from Utah I fall to see any good that could come from having Utahs congressman refused re-fused a seat by the congressmen from I other states while the acerb of Utah endorse 11im as a whole because they are too cowardly to protest against it Let the cowards either go to work themselves or else for once and forevur stop disgracing he state by furnshng 1 scandalous Stuff for he eastern JTIII < WARREN FOSTER |