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Show HURRYING TESTIMONY IN THE SMOOT INQUIRY ; 3. W N. Wltecotton, it E. ootlj and . Arthur Pratt Wera Iha witnesses before. ' the Bmoot Investigating - committee at Washington Friday. lng sessions of the committee are being: held, and; it Ik fcppar ently the purpose .to cfcsa thl hearn'g i an early, date. .' '-' , , ; In continuation -of his testimony-tn.B : swer to a qucatlon as to whether Senator : Smoot had to get Consent Of the church to - become a candidate for United States Senator, 4ir. Whlteeotton said -At never had been understood that Mr. Smoot was the candidate of ths ch arch, -but that It was necessary for him to hare ths consent because of his church position or get In trouble with the church. He declared that this consent was not In ths form of a permission to enter poll ilea, but that It was understood-to be merely a leave of absence from his church duties. ' , Mr. Worthtngton asked concerning' tM attitude of polyg-amists In public toward their plural wives, and tha witness said that he had not known of any case whers these wives were exhibited In publio. . " What Is tha standing of Senator Bmoot as to his morals and upright character T" asked Senator Foraker.' ''No man In the State, or out of It, stands better.'' said Mr. Whtlecotton. "Hav yow ever heard of any charts against him that would affect his standing?" stand-ing?" the Senator asked. v "I never have.- I hava known hltfi In iimately for fifteen years, and for a num ber f rars have been associated with him In business. I have been the counsel for the bank of which he the president, and have been employed by him .person Ally as counsel." During the testimony of Mr. Whltecot-ton Whltecot-ton he was asked concerning prosecutions, and said that unlawful cohabitation was the charge invariably made against the . idnrmona. Senator Dubois inquired why tha po " :ygamtsts had not been charged with polygamy, po-lygamy, adultery or bigamy, and tha wlt-I wlt-I ness replied that no convictions could be had on those charges, 'Do the same conditions xlst nowr asked the Senator. "I thin they do was ths reply. "X - think it would be impossible to convict except for unlawful cohabitation." Mr. Whltecotton admitted that he had known of the relation of oma plural families, and Chairman Burrows asked why he had not prosecuted these cases. , "Because I am not in the business of prosecuting "my neighbors. It I were elected Prosecuting Attorney, I would do riy duty." the witne.es snswervd. A recess was then taken. ' At the afternoon session Judge Tayler. couneet for Ah Protestants, cross-examined Mr Whltecotton. The witness, when arked If President Joseph Smith had bald If -he observed the -custom Which pre Veiled generally on the subject of mar rlage relations "'he Would ' be eternally damned," replied It ) would not Surprise him, because Smttlfwas a "thorough fa' natic" ' The -witness ald the act of Apostle Morrill, who Is the husband ot several wives, in performing the ceremony uniting unit-ing his son to a plural wife met his hearty disapprobation, and that tho . "whole Outfit ought to be prosecutad.MUs had no dOubt of the marriage of Abram Cannon to Lillian Hamlin and said tha controversy waged was not whether there had been such a marriage, but who performed per-formed the ceremony. The witness said that if eleven ot the apostles should perform plursl marriage ceremonies on tho -highways or la. out-of-the-way places, and Mr. Bmoot. the other apostle, did not. It would not involve him In moral, legal or' any sort of culpability. He said he understood that President Woodruff and President Snow continued to 11 v in polygamous cohabitation after 1890; and Understood, too, that the basis Of ths plea tor amnesty was a promise not to continue In polygamous relations. He gave tae opinion that th Mormons were responsible for the manifesto, and said If It had not been issued there would have been a revolt. If the apostolats now would bring out a revelation saying polygamy po-lygamy should be resumed there was not an apostle who could be sustained by his conference. H. E. Booth of Sslt Lake City, a non-Mormon non-Mormon lawyer, who went to Utah from Iowa In 1885 and has been active In the politics of Utah, asserted that the Mormon, Mor-mon, church, as a church, did not Interfere Inter-fere in poliUcal affairs; but that Individuals Indi-viduals took an interest In politics . ths same as other citizens did. On the subject of Mormons obtaining consent to run for political .. office, Mr. Booth's understanding was that all apostles apos-tles were on a salary to servo the church hnd had duties to perform and owed something some-thing to the church. He said he believed the church opposed the election of Moses Thatcher for Congress, and was glad ot It, because Thatcher was a polygamlst. It was his Judgment that President Joseph Jo-seph F. Smith had kept the chvrch out of politics. As to polygamy, tha witness said! . I believe polygamy is as dead as slavery. slav-ery. Ninety-eight per cent of the Mormons Mor-mons themselves art opposed to plural marriages." Mr. Booth testified that the sympathy was with the women who wre married In polygamy, and that there was a disinclination dis-inclination to prosecute the polygamlsts for thst reason. He said he thought polygamy, would die out soon of Itself, and that It was better to permit this rather than to prosecute husbands and leave their plural wives as. outcasts. His observation was that there had been ho plural marriages with the sanction of th church, except perhaps th case o Abrm Cannon. He asserted that there Would be an Immediate revolution In ths church If the president of It should sanction sanc-tion plural marriages. The withees said that Senator Smoot's Candidates for the Legislature would have been defeated It It had hot been for th Gentiles. There we no question that Mr. Bmoot received church consent to run for Senator, but he believed Mr. Smoot would have been nominated and elected had that consent been refused. He thought if con dlttons were allowed to to m u thee were now. In a few years nothing would be heard of the Mormon question. Mr. Booth, in conclusion. Insisted' that he had been a constant opponent of polygamy all through his residence In Utah, but said that conditions could not be changed any more rapidly than they Were changing. - Concerning- non-prosecutions, Mr. Booth admitted, on cross-examination that on both tides of his home President Smith maintained houses for his wives, but until the Smoot hear-ng hear-ng he had never heard that polygamous cohabitation had been- practiced since the manifesto. Asked by Senator Dubois If his syrt-athy syrt-athy for children born in polyramy "is great enough to put a stop to bring-In bring-In them Into the world." the witness replied: "It Is. If a stop could be put to It without vesting penalties and hardships hard-ships on those women who bring them Into the world. If you can suggest a way to meet this problem; I. will adopt It and carry It out." ' -.- Chairman Burro wn feakrd Mr, Booth It h thought a constitutional amendment of the United States prohibiting polygamy polyg-amy would avail, and received the answer that It was not necessary. But witness thought It would put an end to polygamy. Arthur Pratt testified that he had served eix years as Chief of Police at Salt Lake City, and under the Territorial Government Gov-ernment he had been IThlted States Mar-Bhal Mar-Bhal and deputy United States marshal. Angus M. Cannon, the witness said, bad a bad reputation and his word could not be credited. Mr. Pratt denied that at the time th politics of Utah was divided along party lines some Mormons were feet apart to be Republicans and soms to be "Democrats. He said in ths three year Joseph F. Smith had be?n president the church had been kept out of politics, but before that time It ned been a factor. |