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Show A DIFFERENT TONE. I We regret to note that In a portion of his testimony yesterday, President Smith departed In a degree from his candor of the previous day. Wo refer to that portion of his evidence which relates re-lates to the manner In which the Supreme Su-preme Court decision affirming the constitutionality con-stitutionality of tho anti-polygamy law, was received In Utah. The report of his evidence on this point Is that while tho Mormons fought that law In tho courts under the belief that It was unconstitutional, they wero "Inclined to obey" when tho final decision was rendered. ren-dered. President Smith may havo had such Inclination himself at tho time, though his prior testimony shows that he didn't lose much time In getting over It. But there was no open sign of any such Inclination. In-clination. On the contrary, the church organ entered upon an elaborate "refutation" "refu-tation" of the Supremo Court's decision on that case, and no attention was paid to the decision by way of compliance. It would, in fact, havo been much moro in accord with historical verity If President Smith had said that this decision de-cision was received with defiance rather than with Inclination to obey. It was only flouted and pronounced a wrong upon tills people that should not bo borne. And afterwards, when Georgo Q. Cannon was ousted as a Delegate from tho House, he preached a defiant sermon in the Tabernacle, in which he upheld polygamy, and said that the po-lygamisls po-lygamisls were the elite of this people. At tho conference at which thl3 sermon ser-mon was preached, It was stated at the time, was commonly believed, and was never denied so far as we are aware, the decree went forth that the high officers of tho church who were not already al-ready In polygamy must enter that state or give place to thosa who would do so. This was not only after the Supreme court decision, but after the special legislation of Congress was passed that Is known as the Edmunds acL And the Woodruff manifesto, which President Smith refers to in this connection, was not Issued until eleven years after the Supremo Court decision, and eight years afjcr the passage of the Edmunds law; and It was Issued for a reason wholly disconnected with either event. We do not see how President Smith hopes to help his case by an attempt to show a spirit of inclination toward that decision contrary to what in fact existed. exist-ed. In doing this he Jeopardizes the good impression made by the candor of much of his testimony". On another point, Senator Dubois did the country' a servico yesterday by turning new light on tho point of the percentage of those who havo gone into polygamy. It has been commonly stated 2 to 3 per cent. President Smith gave it as 3 to 4 per cent. It is evident that a, computation like this must be taken from the whole population; pop-ulation; as the number of polygamlsts compares with the aggregate population, of the (then) Territory, so must tho percentage per-centage be. But Senator Dubois pointed out very Justly that in order to arrive at an appropriate ap-propriate percentage on this matter, there must be eliminated thoso not computable for polygamous purposes. First, fifty thousand Gentiles must be counted out. Second, the Infants, the youths, all incapable of entering into the polygamous condition. This is perfectly per-fectly evident, and the point is most pertinent. per-tinent. President Smith renders Important aid in tho solution of thiB problem whon he states that tho Utah Commission caused to be stricken from the voters' registration lists something like twelvo thousand names. He is correct in this; tho Commission very unwisely failed to requlro the registers to state specifically tho reasons why they struck nanies from the lists, but sent out supplemental supplement-al instructions to make returns of the number stricken off as being polygamists. polyga-mists. Full returns on this supplemental Instruction In-struction were not received, but enough were received on which the Commission Commis-sion could base an estimate that twelve to fifteen thousand names had been stricken off the lists by reason of polyg--amy. Now, this nrcsonts an approximate basis on which a fair reckoning can bo made. The lists, as we recall the facts, contained less than forty thousand names before being purged of tho po-lygamists. po-lygamists. Take oft twelve- to fifteen thousand, and you have, approximately, one-third of tho adult population in polygamy; po-lygamy; that Is, if all were Mormon. But the Gentile, voters must come out of the computation, Deducting them, some six thousand all told (men and women voted then as now, here,) and wo have a pretty good idea of tho percentage per-centage of Mormon adults who in 1SS2 (the year the Edmunds law was passed, disfranchising polygamists) wero in polygamy. po-lygamy. The true ratio is a little over one-third, or say something like thirty-flvo thirty-flvo per cent, and we believe that is about right. |