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Show COMMENTS OF THE ! NATIONAL PRESS ON j THE Sr.OOT CASE j ... SHOOT'S SIDE OF IT. sjsse"e"" Butte (Mint) Evening News. . The Tight of Senator Smoot, of Utah to retain his se.t In the United Slates Senate is attracting- the attention of the Nation not that the result of the Invesigatlon now being conducted will affect the country materially; the Ben-ate Ben-ate can attend to the affairs Intrusted to it whether Smoot stays or not. What concerns the public In the affair. af-fair. Is that polygamy has not been abolished In Utah. This much the probing prob-ing Into the Smoot case has already shown,' the next step wlU be the proving prov-ing of Smoot's connection with it. If be had any. As far as the trial bas progressed it la onlr fair to mt that nothlnr in the form of evidence has been produced to show that Mr. Smoot Is a polygamist or that he has encouraged or sanctioned polygamous practice. - Many are prone to Judge too hastily, in matters of this character. On the other hand, many are getting very weary of the apparently irrelevant character char-acter of the testimony which the men who are seeking to put Smoot out of the Senate are bringing into the case. Perhaps it may be shown later that notwithstanding the notoriously flagrant breaches of our moral and national law by President Smith and other mem bers of the Mormon hierarchy. Senator Smoot had no certain knowledge of the . practice or that such conduct was carried car-ried on without his approval and even in opposition to his wishes and judgment. judg-ment. In .such an event it would be most unjust to punish him. If, on the other hand, Smoot as an apostle of the Mormon church has tacitly tac-itly or professedly indorsed polygamy, then he should undoubtedly be expelled from the United States Senate for transgressing the law and violating the agreement by which Utah was admitted admit-ted to Statehood. Until evidence of either of these conditions appears, however, how-ever, it is wise to suspend judgment and not to condemn a man for the crimes of his co-rellglonlsts for whose conduct he is not responsible, SMITH FOR CHUBCH. Rochester Herald: To read the testimony testi-mony of this Smith, the loading character in the abominations of Utah, one is Impressed Im-pressed with the conviction that, in his own mind, he has not come to Washington Washing-ton to give his aid in clearing the way for a fellow apostle to take a seat In the United States Senate, but to carry on a crusade In the very halls of the Capitol of the Nation and, by means of the public pub-lic press throughout the country, in behalf be-half of the licentious .theory and practice prac-tice of his church. Thus far he has had little to say about Smoot, nothing which can serve as a defense against the charge of his unfitness to sit in. the Senate. Substantially the entire mass of his testimony tes-timony has been in defense of polygamy and of himself as a polygamist. In this line of testimony he has been unblushing and unashamed. So far as Smoot Is concerned, we are greatly mistaken If the voices of his friends and associates do not cause the doors of the Senate chamber to be fhut against him. it Is true that no evidence haj thus far been Introduced to convict him of polygamy. But It Is clear that he has been in constant con-stant association with polygamlsts, that he has Joined with them In the exerrlse of ecclesiastical authority and that neither -in the performance of the duties of his spiritual office nor In his conduct as a citizen has he ever sought to bring to an end the criminality of his associates. asso-ciates. Nor has he made the least endeavor en-deavor to bring any one of them to Justice Jus-tice and punishment. There is no escape es-cape from the conclusion that Smoot Is an accessory, just as Smith and others o "the twelve" are stubborn and defiant de-fiant criminals. PLENTY OF PBOOF. New York News: The Senate committee commit-tee Inquiring Into the rij?ht of Reed Smoot of Utah to retain his seat in the United States Senate, has elicited plenty of proof that President Smith of the Mormon church has several wives, but It has not heard -a scrap of evidence tending to show that Mr. Smoot has violated vio-lated any law. Mr. Smoot has but one wife, and he has not ben a party to violation vio-lation by others of the law forbidding polygamy? His opponents seek only to show that he has not protested against the unlawful conduct of other members of the Mormon hierarchy, and they argue that his silence makes him an necessary to the offenses of his associates. The practice of polygamy Is unlawful, but DIlpf in the moralitv of nlural nnurliim turned apaint the church he Is foolish -to think Smith has given It desirable ad- vertislng. Philadelphia Inquirer: A rule In each house that none but Gentiles shall represent repre-sent Utah In Congress would go pretty far to prevent Mormonlsm from be com- ' ing a national disgrace. Augusta Chronicle: Perhaps President Smith feels that after a man has mar- -rled five women he needn't be afraid of a little thing like the law of the land. 81. Louis Globe-Democrat: President Smith owns up that he is stiU living with . a majority of his plurality. . thousands of people now alive who can remember the beginnings of the Utah community. In so short a time Mormonlsm Mormon-lsm has changed many of its original features. So primitive an institution could only have been successful mong an agricultural people of limited intelligence. intelli-gence. With the Inpourlng of Gentiles It has constantly suffered In prestige and power. A FAR-REACHING EFFECT. Washington CD. C.) Star: From the testimony tes-timony given in the case of the Investigation Investi-gation of the qualifications of Senator Heed Smoot of Utah today doubt Is raised in the minds of very many persons who have paid close attention to the proceedings proceed-ings whether any official of tho Mormon church will be allowed to occupy a seat in the Senate so long as polygamy exists In the form In which It has been acknowledged acknowl-edged by President Smith of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The situation today makes it appear very doubtful whether Senator Smoot can be allowed al-lowed by the committee and by the Senate la not an offense against the law and cannot be forbidden or penalized without with-out violence to the Constitutional guarantee guar-antee of freedom of religious belief. In the absence of personal participation by Mr. Smoot in unlawful acts, inquiry concerning con-cerning his attitude toward the doctrines of Mormonlsm amounts to the application of a religious test to his qualification for office, and that Is forbidden specifically by the Constitution. MUST BE NO COMPROMISE. . Leadville Herald-Democrat: With polygamy po-lygamy there should be no compromise. There is an element of the older Mormonlsm Mor-monlsm which still clingrs to this orac- St. Louis Post-Dispatch: With tho V question of conscience Congress has nothing noth-ing to do. The Senate may ask only whether Smoot Is himself guilty of unlawful un-lawful practices. If he obeys the law It . Is of no consequence to the Senate what Smith and the other elders do. Smoot may think and believe what he likes. That Is between him and his conscience. But he must obey the law. That Is the only question to be considered. ' Boston Globe: People who gaze upon the picture of Chief Apostle Smith and wonder what mystic charm there Is In bis personality that Induced five women to marry him, overlook, the fact that his annual income is said to be something like J76.000. Milwaukee Sentinel: Compared with Smith. Smoot Is evidently not much of a ladles' man. Memphis Commercial Appeal: The sentiment sen-timent of this Republic is heart and soul opposed to plural marriages, and as It has been cry'tallzed Into a law that law should be enforced. If Reed Smoot has violated It he should be ejected from th Senate. And being one of "the fifteen." the highest constituted authority, of the organization. It is not unjust to say that he has agreed to polygamy and every other tenet of his faith. tlce. President Smith, with his five wives and forty-two children is a concrete con-crete example of this. But the practices of Mr. Smith or any apostle can involve no one but themselves, so far as the law Is concerned. Polygamy must die out in time by the mere force of social pressure making for better Ideals. It is a purely passing phase of a peculiar religion brought Into being under strange circumstances. cir-cumstances. It seems that the organization organiza-tion back of the Smoot prosecution might be In better business than trying to unseat un-seat an American citizen elected to the Vnlted States Senate, who is not only an able man, but whose llf is pure and exemplary ex-emplary and typical of the hlshest standards stand-ards of decency and clean living. THE TIMES' OPINION. Washington Times: If Smoot were a polygamist, he might be expelled, as Roberts Rob-erts was expelled; but he is not one, and . nobody even asserts that he Is. As the case stands now It seems to be a question ques-tion of turning a man out of the Senate on account of his religion, which is contrary con-trary to the principles on which our Government Is law-d. If the right of a man to hold a st-at In the Senate is to be determined. nt by his acts, but by his thoughts, or if the Senate can expel at will any man whom It does not consider fit to be ft Senator, there will be several other heads in danger besides that of Mr. Smoot. The good people who are urging this Investigation .are rittht in their feeling that a religion which commands com-mands or sanctions so gross an offense against rlvilized sentiment as compulsory compul-sory polygamy Is a disgrace to our land; but they make a mistake In supposing that the Senate can do away with it bv the simple act of forbidding it. The real enemy of polygamy is not the law of the land, but the custom of the land, and this will kill It far more surely than any manifesto. Imagine a boy or girl growing grow-ing up In Mortnondom and going away to school or coll.-ge or to work in some Gentile city. Imagine the position of such an unfortunate young person when obliged to undergo the half-veiled suspicion suspi-cion and slights which V'nuhl Inevitably be encountered. It is easy t see that the younger generation In Ltah will not be polygamlsts. and that a large percentage of them wlU not be Mormons. There are to occupy a seat In that body, ne testimony testi-mony today was really sensational In its nature, as President Smith declared he did not think Congress had any right to Interfere, Inter-fere, with the family affairs of the people In Utah, and that the courts of the State of Utah were amply sufficient to deal with all such matters that should come up. This declaration on the part of President Smith of the Mormon church Is regarded as more offensive than It would otherwise be because of the fact that It Is believed here, and people from Utah verify this belief, be-lief, that, as now organized, and as they will probably be organized in the future, the State courts of Utah are under the control of the Mormon church, or at least dominated in such a way that a polygamist polyga-mist could not be convicted In them. , Many persons who are carefully watching watch-ing the proceedings here declare It would be Impossible for tho committee to report favorably on the right of Senator Smoot to continue to hold hia seat, unless Senator Smoot, in language forcible and Impossible of more than a single interpretation, should absolutely disavow this declaration on the part of President Smith. If he should do so with that earnestness that would be rewarded as essential In order to place him In a proper light before the committee, com-mittee, he might improve his chance to retain re-tain hia seat In the Senate. But even such action on the part of Senator Smoot while be Is an apostle of the Mormon church might not be conclusive evidence to the committee that he In no way shares the views of the church, and President Smith's declaration Is regarded as the official view of tho church, so as to relieve him from responsibility for the attitude of the organization. or-ganization. It will be a question to determine deter-mine whether Senator Smoot as an apostle of the church and one of He highest officials offi-cials can disconnect himself with the declared de-clared policies of that organization without with-out disconnecting himself with the organization organ-ization itself. SNAPSHOTS AT SMOOT. St. Louis Globe-Democrat: Go to Utah and commit bigamy, call It "religion," and the law can't touch you. Houston Post: Brigham Roberts' Is glad that Smith got an opportunity to tell of Mormonlsm. Brig must have turned against the church. If he hasn't |