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Show H APOSTLE SMOOT A FALSIFIER ; IL Idaho Soimltur. Apostle Smool. Senator :ml Mormon, ; las Riiincfl :i hen ring through the North Amcricau Review. There would bo nothing to complain of in Hint if the magazine had held the .-ipostlo. to the kW truth. Giving him the privileco of ad; -I 5' dressing untruths to tho audience ol 1 The Jtcvicw is as mueh of an attack on 2 J national moralilj- as would have been . u Lis defense o the institution of polyg-'i polyg-'i & nniy in that publieatioii. . . t fc' Having recently emerged with flying k colors from a trial before the Hinted ?i 1 States Senate, thanks to the prostituted 2 '' partisanship of that body, Mr. Smoot Si lias " acquired n reputation for probity I that will incline main' a listening ear ( to him as he discourses upon the topic j of polvguuiv. It will not be known to . those 'far uway from the si-eue of his apostolic labors thai he dealt in the misrepresentation ihai is the common stock in trade of !Morrnoudoin in assorting assort-ing that polvgamy had bceoinc a thins of the 7ast "in Utah and the surrounding surround-ing .States. , t Hut The Tie view eould have ascertained ascer-tained that Mr. Smoot was contumaciously contuma-ciously untruthful when he said: ,Tlie Senate inquiry established clearly llmt polygamous marriages in Utah became be-came a tiling" of Ilia past more than sixteen yuars ago and no polygamous relations re-lations assumed since JS'.0 have received the sanction of the church. The evidence lakou beforo thc Senate Sen-ate committee on privileges and elections elec-tions during the inquiry into the right of Mr. Smoot to a &ea't in the Senate recites many specific insnnces of pobg-amous pobg-amous marriages sinco IS90 and all the evidence was printed for public information. infor-mation. That tho church has not sanctioned sanc-tioned these violations of law and morals mor-als is un impossibility, i'or all such marriages mar-riages must bo performed by representatives repre-sentatives oT the church elders :ind other officers of the church. ftor reciting a list; of ten prominent Mormons polygamously married after the issuance of the manifesto of 1S90, the majority report of the Senate committee com-mittee on privileges and elections says: It Is morally lmposslblo that all these violations" of the laws of tho Stale of ."Utah by the contracting of plural marriages mar-riages could have boon committed wlth- C"Wit out the knowledge of the llrst presidency and the twelve apostles of the Mormon .! church. In two of the above cases, that I of George Teasdulc and that of Benjamin I duff. Jr.. the fact of plural marriage I was directly communicated to the president pres-ident of the church, Joseph F. Smith, 'and In tho other cases, with the possible exception of James Francis Johnson, the fact of a plural marriage having been telebratcd was so well known throughout tho community that It Is not conceivable that such marriages would not have been called to the attention of the leaders of tho church. Indeed there was no denial I on the part of the first president or any I of tho twelve apostles that they learned 5 of the fact that plural marriages were f being contracted by officials of the Mor-ufimon Mor-ufimon church and that no attention was : f paid to tho matter. y "When it becamo lcnown that Mr. J ijr Sraoot was to be investigated by the ) jfi Senate, it was also conveyed to tho m ; hierarchy at Salt Lake, through so mo i a' underground passageway of informa- ii 'ft tion, that the committee proposed to 'S prove the recent plural marriages of It four of the apostles and two other high olfleials of the church. The -persons by which such marriages could have been established wore sent out of the country coun-try and the committee was unable to procure service upon them. These circumstances wern commontcd on by the committee in iti roport and the magazine editor who accepted Mr. Smoot's article could have assured himself him-self .that his contributor was placing misinformation before the public. As an apostle, Mr. Sinoot knows that, polygamy is still one of the cherished institutions of his religion and that it is-now under concealment through fear of I he penalties that law and sentiment might indict. Mr. Smoot; understands that .loseph F. Smith, president of the church, testified tes-tified before the Senate committee on privileges and elections: Question The revelation which Wilfonl Woodruff received In conscqnonco of which tho command to take plural wives was suspender! did not, as you understand, under-stand, change the divine view of plural marriage, did It? President Smith It did not chango our boiler nt all. Question You continued to believe that plural marriages wuro right? President Smith We did. I did at least. I do not answer for anybody else. I continue to believe as I did before. As the president believes, all the rest of the Mormon establishment believes, including Apostle Smoot. .Believing otherwise, he would cease to bo an apoatlc. for tho man no.t to God does not tolerate any weakling in fealty. The magazine' article under discussion says that "tho Stale of Utah and the people thereof have kopt faith with the National Government with respect to Statehood." Tho promise was that polygamous practices would be abandoned aban-doned and it wan understood that the church would cease, to exercise political supervision over its members. Polygamy, new and old, exists today in Idaho and Utah and tho Mormon church exercises political supervision so completely that, through its alliance with tho Republican party, it is able to protect itself from penalties that would normally attach to its misdeeds. It has kept faith in nothing. Tn Idaho Mormonism induced tho people to repeal laws enacted for tho suppression suppres-sion of polygamy and the disfranchisement disfranchise-ment of polygamists, asserting that it had departed permanently from its evil ways, and as soou as danger of punishment punish-ment was removed, tho devotees of the church returned to their shameful practices prac-tices and have sinco flaunted their sins in the face of a betrayed Commonwealth Common-wealth and defied constitutional law aud public sentiment, Mr. Smoot has the floor. He has been declared pure by the United States Senate, along with the hierarchy ho represents and the followers it represents. rep-resents. Having been placed in a position posi-tion from which he can work upou the crcdulty of the people of tho United States, "he is natural' making the most of his opportunity. What he says through the pages of the Norlh American Review is the studied misrepresentation of a church alliance that docs not hesitate to employ em-ploy falsehood in furtherance of its in-lquitous in-lquitous schemes. |
