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Show COMMISSIONER RAMSAY INTERVIEWED. A reporter of the Omaha Herald interviewed ex-Secretary of War Ramsay chairman of the Utah Commission, during his brief stay in that city, and this is the Herald's account of the conversation. It exhibits a good common-sense view of the situation: "Do you not expect any trouble, or any resistance at elections by force?" "Oh, no. They are too sensible out there to attempt anything of that kind in the face of the nation. They know now what the law requires and they will not wilfully attempt to evade it." "How will the commission prove that these men are married and how much they are married?" "I cannot say," answered the governor, laughing, "how we will get at that. They are honest; perhaps they'll confess. Now, wouldn't you confess." The reporter protested that he had never been in a position to realize such a situation. "The committee has no power, has it, to investigate the records of the endowment house?" "None at all sir; we must simply rely on what we can ourselves discover." "Can the delegate to Congress this fall then, elected under such circumstances, be a ‘Mormon?'" "He may be a ‘Mormon,' but not a polygamist. Why, not over ten per cent. of the ‘Mormons' are polygamists. We don't care how many ‘Mormons' vote, we cannot interfere with their religion, but they must not be polygamists if they want to vote. "But do you expect that one of those much-married men will sacrifice his wives for his franchise?" "Young man," answered the jolly chairman "would you?" The young man again bashfully protested that he really didn't know anything about it, as he had'nt even one wife yet. "The truth is" continued Mr. Ramsay seriously and vigorously. "The Gentiles would have run the ‘Mormons' out of Utah long ago if it had been a state worth settling. It is not much of a state. It is irrigated a little, but has no grand farming districts like Nebraska and Kansas and Iowa, and -Minnesota," (with a merry twinkle) "and no state can be solid without that. Its mines are its only greatness, and I fear they do more harm than good to a country." |
