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Show SlIEBECEAKIS IMAf iUKETMffl 800 . POLYGAMCUS FAMILIES BUST; YOUNG MEN : Mffi NOT FOLLOWS)- PRACTICE 'Senator Dubois Questions the Statement of Mormon President Pres-ident and Calls Attention to Inconsistency in Figures -0 0- 000 0 0 I HERPS THE BILL FAVORED BY SMITH. : ! ' ' wTl Following is the text of the Evans bill, passed by the Utah. Legisla- ' ture in 1898 and vetoed by the Governor, the veto being sustained. Presl- I ,dent Smith in hia testimony at Washington yesterday said he favored the ! EVctlon'l. That section 4611 of the Revised Statute of Utah, 1898. be ! and the same ia hereby amended to read aa follows: 4611. That every person who has reason to believe that a crime or publio offense has been committed must make complaint against auch ' person before some magistrate having authority to make inquiry of the ' same; provided, that no prosecution for adultery shall be commenced ex- cept on complaint of the husband or wife or relatives of the accused, with- in the first degree of consanguinity, or of the person with whom the un- lawful act ia alleged to have been committed, or of the father or mother of ' said person, and no prosecution for unlawful cohabitation shall be com- ? menced except on complaint of the wife, or alleged plural wife of the ac- ' cused; but this proviso shall not apply to prosecutions under section 4208 & of the Revised Statutes of Utah, 1838. defining and punishing polygamous t 5 . V "BUT IT IS TO THE LAWS 01" UTAH THAT I AM ANSWERABLE, AND IT IS THE LAW 07 MY STATE THAT HAS THE BIGHT TO PUNISH ME. THE COURTS OF UTAH AEE OF COMPETENT JTTRIS- diction, ccr.rcs xiASro-rrrrrr to nrrrzrriLS -with tn PRIVATE AIAII-iT IF THH C0UL.I3 02 UY STATE DO UOT EZ3 FIT TO CALL ME TO ACCOUNT FOB MY CONDUCT, I CANNOT HELP IT. NO CONGRESS 7 THE BIGHT TO INTERFERE IT HAS NO BIGHT TO PBY INTO MY MARRIAGE RELATIONS AND CALL ME TO ACCOUNT." PRESIDENT SMITH'S STATEMENT TODAY. - mist. He Is one of the twelve apostles. ' The first counsellor now is John R. Winder. He and his fellow counsellor and two apostles have been appointed since Mr. Smith became president. Hs said he could not say whether these men are cohabltatlng with more than one wife, but that "they are reputed to be the husband of more than one wife." I . In regard to John Henry Smith, a couBin, Mr. Smith said that their families fami-lies are Intimate and "I am strongly inclined to believe that he is cohabiting cohabit-ing with plural wives." Manifesto Is Bead. ! Referring to Senator Bailey's questions ques-tions yesterday in regard to the manifesto, mani-festo, Mr. Worthington read from a sermon of President Woodruff, delivered deliv-ered a year after the manifesto against plural marriages, in which President Woodruff declared that he was moved and 10,000 Latter-day Saints were moved by the spirit of God, to abandon the practice of polygamy. Senator Bailey contended that it was in obedience to the demands of the law or fear of the consequences of the law that provoked the revelation. Continuing Continu-ing he said: . "For my part I don't have much faith in a doctrine that does not get a revelation reve-lation commanding the change of conduct con-duct until there is a statute compelling it." WASHINGTON. March Calling President Joseph F. Smith of the Mormon Mor-mon church to the stand today. Attorney Attor-ney A. S. Worthington resumed cross-examination cross-examination for the defense in the in-vestigation in-vestigation before the Senate Committee Commit-tee on Privileges and Elections in the case of Reed Smoot of Utah. He asked Mr. Smith if he had any statistics show- Ing the proportion of polygamists in the ' Mormon population. ' ; i Number of Polygamists. Mr. Smith said his recollection is that 'When the Utah commission was created 1 In 1882 and undertook to administer the ! laws of the. Territory, 12,000 polygamists j were excluded from voting. 'As Uhe women vote. In Utah," he aid. )fend as It requires two women to . jfcne man to form polygamy in the State, ' probably the number .of males excluded j as polygamists would not be more than now." : Dubois Challenges Figures.' Foraker and Bailey Clash. "All that, of course, is a matter of opinion," said Senator Foraker. "I don't think it is a matter of opinion opin-ion either." said Senator Bailey.' "I myself have been compelled to submit to certain rules because it was the law, and vicious law at that. Just how far I would have submitted if I had received re-ceived a revelation from God to do something else I am not prepared to say. I think the whole thing was more a matter of law than of revelation." Bowed to Supreme Court. "When the laws were passed which were not in harmony with the teachings teach-ings of our. church," said Mr. Smith, "we held that they were unconstitutional. unconstitu-tional. Of course our own rules commanded com-manded that we obey the Constitution and the law. but we fought the validity of the new laws from the lowest to the highest court and when it was settled by the Supreme court of the United States that plural marriages could no longer be Indulged in, of course we were inclined to obey." Blessings Were Needed. "But we had a revelation on our own statute books In regard to plural mar-; mar-; rtages and it was necessary to obey that In order to obtain certain blessings bless-ings that could not be received without with-out obeying It. Whether we should obey the law of the land or continue to practice the law of the church was a serious question. Woodruff Was Inspired. "We hold that the president of the church is entitled to receive revelations inspired by the Almighty God. President Presi-dent Woodruff sought guidance in the Lord and the Lord made it manifest to him that it was his duty to stop (Continued on Page 4.) " ! IV l Senator Dubois exercised his right to : question the witness at this point and said the population then was about ; 520,000, and of that number there were about 60,000 Gentiles. He wanted ex-,' ex-,' eluded from consideration the number 'riot in condition to enter a state of polygamy. , He said President Smith's statement Of the percentage, in polygamy included suckling babes and children, and that he objected to having Mr. Smith's statement state-ment go before the country unchallenged. unchal-lenged. More Than 800 at This Time. After a further statement of the number num-ber of polygamists in Utah Mr. Smith read from an interview he gave to a representative of the Associated Press In 1902 showing the following: In 1890, at the time of the late Presl. dent Woodruff's manifesto, there were 2451 such families. In October. 1899, it was found that this number had been reduced, as follows: By death, 760; by removals beyond the confines of the republic, 63; by divorce, 95. leaving at that time 1543. It is now ascertained that the original number has been reduced by 1554 or 63 per cent, leaving only 897 still living and the great majority of them are at an adv sed age. His"t-Jn Not a Polygamlst. Mr. Worthington asked regarding Mr. Smith's son. Hyrum Smith., and waa told that be is 82 years old and has a jrlfe and children, but is not a polyga- ui 1J STILL Gil . ' : -THE STAND. Continued from' Page 1. plural marriages. He proclaimed that revelation and it was submitted to the entire church and accepted by the en tire church and thus became binding and from that day to this the law of th&land has been kept so far, as plural marriages are concerned. ' ' "But there is a great difference between be-tween taking a plural wife contrary to law and Iq taking carp of the wives takenbefore ta-kenbefore it was a violation of the law. I would not desert my wives.. . 1 would not abandon my children. ' I will run my risk before the law." ; Smith Shows Emotion., r President Smith's voice showed his emotion. . He showed more feeling than he had- at -any previous time exhibited as he leaned forward and said: "But it is to the laws of Utah that 1 am answerable and It is- the law of my State that has the right to punish me. The courts of Utah are of compe-tent compe-tent Jurisdiction. ' Congress has no business bus-iness to interfere with my private affairs. af-fairs. Defiance to Congress. ' y . "If the courts of my State do not see fit to call me to account for my conduct I cannot help it. No Congress has the, right to interfere it has no right to pry into my marriage relations and call me to account." Pointed Question Asked. Chairman Burrows at this point questioned ques-tioned the witness. He asked: "You say you would not abandon your wives or your children. Why lo you consider it necessary to have issue, by your plural wives, in order to clothe and care for your children that had been' born before unlawful cohabitation became a crime?" r "like All Other Women." 1 : ; . "Because my wives are like all other women. . It ls necessary to maintain peace, harmony and good will between myself and my good wives. That is the ' kernel in the nut. That Is why I have chosen not to obey the laws of my State prohibiting pplygamous cohabitation. "The church gave me my wives and I do not think the church could be consistent con-sistent in taking them away," said Mr. Smith in answer to a question as to why he did not agree to the Woodruff manifesto. Bailey Quotes Scriptures'. ' "The Lord giveth, and the Lord ta-eth," ta-eth," quoth Senator Bailey from the Scriptures. Continuing, the Senator said it appeared that polygamous 00-. habitation is forbidden by both the law of the land and the law of the church as laid down in the Woodruff manifesto, and addressing the witness he asked: "Then as head of the church you are violating the laws of the land and the ordinances of your church as well?" "Not the ordinances,'.' 6aid Mr. Smith. "Well, the law. then." , "No. the rule," saldjthe witness. Senator Bailey Explains. '. "The rule, after all. Is the law for conduct," said Mr. Bailey. "I was only trying to emphasize what the revelations revela-tions are. I don't know as much about the nice .distinctions In religion as I hope I do about the law, but it appears that both the rule of the church and the law of the land forbade polygamous cohabitation, co-habitation, and you as the head of tho cjiurch violated both." "I will not quarrel with the Senator about that,'' the witness replied. Later he said that Senator. Bailey's assumption assump-tion waa cordial. In answer to Senator Overman, Mr. Smith jsald that the revelation of the manifesto of 1890 had not been published pub-lished in the latest edition of Doctrine and Covenants, but that this was an oversight, and Tould be corrected. Replying to C.irman Burrows, Mr. Smith said that ne does not teach polygamy po-lygamy and added: . "I am not openly and obnoxiously praclcing . polygamous cohabitation." : "How could you better teach polygamy, polyga-my, than by practicing it?" Mr. Burrows continued. The reply was: . "I am not practicing polygamy. I am practicing polygamous cohabitation, which is not polygamy. Polygamy is plural marriage and I have taken no plural wives since the manifesto of 1890." Replying to a question from Senator Overman. Mr. Smith said that the pampthlet contalning(the manifesto did not state that it was a revelation from God, but that the statement was made that it was published by authority of the church, which was sufficient. It then appeared that the manifesto had not been put in as evidence and Mr. Tayler then, introduced it with other documents.. , A few minutes before the time for adjournment arrived av photographer appeared and was about to focus his camera upon the committee and its distinguished witness, but Senator Dillingham made a strenuous objection Chairman Burrows stated that Bo photograph pho-tograph of the committee or of the room would be taken without the consent con-sent of the committee. The photographer photograph-er then folded up his apparatus. The committee then adjourned until Monday. x |