| Show A SHAMEFUL PUBLIC DOCUMENT the report of the utah commission for 1890 is at last printed in pamphlet form and made public it is dated august ansi and has tle therefore remained remitted remit ned about three and a half months in ia comparative ob security ity but portions of it carefully selected for the purpose were culled and given to the associated press before the report was filed with the secretary of the interior this was managed by the commission om before they left this city the major portion of the report was published in the i liberal organ omitting such parts as did not serve the purpose designed and the dispatch tend fiend in this city manipulated ted those portions ali that at could be used to defame the mormon church and they were widely published sad and commented upon by the papers it is too late to take up the report and deal with it in detail much of it is now dead matter notable events have occurred since the date of its compilation which w aich render a great part of it i coln pointless aless the statistics and cefere references aces to polygamy are of this character the declaration of president woodruff and the aati action an of the general conference of the church show allow that the commission are not to be numbered among the prophets tile the only items ju iu that pait of r their report which touches on the polygamy question to which reference need be made are a number of isolated sentences picked out from discourses by the apostles and leading E elders iders and the repetition of the speculations indulged in by u unnamed n named registrars in regard to recent plural marriages the sentences and parts of sentences thus selected are quoted by the commission as illustrating the tenacity with which the mormon church adheres to all the tenets of the church including polygamy the truth is that they have no reference whatever to the subject of polygamy and compari comparison aon with the reports of the discourses from which the commission culled these extracts demonstrate the fact that plural marriage was not treated of either directly or indirectly and that the commission have indulged in the most despicable and cowardly misrepresentation which in our view is a great deal than bold and deliberate falsehood As to the forty one cases cam of ai 1 lebed polygamous marriages the statement about which was so in circulated throughout they are simply this thie the commission is in receipt of reports from its registration officers which enumerate forty one male persons who it ts is believed have entered into poly gamio relations since the june revision of 1889 11 thus the whole story is nothing but rumor the authority for which la Is not given for even the registrars who are said to have made the report are not char charged gd with holding this belief anci ana thi the whole thing is a mero mere bit of baseless gossip Rs as will be seen from the words we have italicized italicised sed which the utah commission om mission ought to have had too much dignity to dilate and enlarge upon and publish as though it was of vital national import importance ce the political part of the report calls for some comment from us because reference is made therein to the D and to the editor personally that should not be passed by in silence after giving some home account of the controversy last winter over the conduct of the registration officers for the municipal election elett lon who defrauded many 0 of f the people peoples s party voters of their rights at the PO polls and were were duly whitewashed by the commission reference is made to some correspondence between the commission and the editor of the te NEWS and the report saye Z asseo ha at one time named one of the registrars in connection with a questionable transaction but before the commission had time to investigate the charge was publicly and explicitly withdrawn as to the registrar named and a majority of the in members embers of the commission were of the opinion that the gen general eral charge as reiterated without naming the persons person claimed to be engaged in the work was probably as devoid of foundation as 08 the former explicit charge was confessed to have been this statement is entirely and most shamefully false the DESERET NEWS did not name one of there the registrars as described neither did it withdraw any such allega allegation tiou either publicly or privately or in any manner we here publicly and explicitly deny the charge and challenge the utah commission to produce from the columns of the deseret NEWS either the ite item m which named the registrar or that which withdrew the accusation the object of the falsehood is seen by what follows in the report allusion is made to the correspondence between the commission and the editor and while the importance of the DESERET NEWS is dwelt upon the evident effort of the re port is to cast ca st doubt upon the veracity of the NEWS and to exonerate the commission from the stigma that ought to attach to that boby boaty for its failure to investigate the charges that were subsequently made against the registrars who were engaged in the notorious rio grande western railway registration As the latter part of this correspondence has not before been 7 made public we here reproduced it from pages 16 and 17 of the report SALI SALT LAKE CITY may 1 1890 col 0 L godfrey chairman utah commission gentlemen on the ath of february I 1 had the honor to receive from youa yoa you a communication of which the annexed is a copy SALT LAKE CITY fe banary nary 7 1890 mr charles W penrose Pen roae editor DESERET EVENING NEWS dear sir in your paper of yesterday evening in an clit eilt orial headed beaded questionable sincerity you make among others this direct charge that two of the registration officers of this city made a trip on a special car over the rio grande western and registered by wholesale gang after gang of employed emp loyes found at various points between here and the colorado line y and further charge dihe members of the utah commission it is presumed have full information of this flagrant crime the commission and each member thereof emphatic emphatically ally denies having such information will you have the kindness to furnish the he commission immediately with the names of the registration 0 officers referred to in your article and oblige yours re respectfully by order of the commission G it L GODFREY chairman 11 to this thi I 1 at onoe once replied at as follows OFFICE OF taz NEWS COMPANY SALT february 7 1890 col G L godfrey chairman utah commission gentlemen your favor of even date in rel aion to an article which pearel ap in the EVENING NEWS of the ath th instant is received I 1 although I 1 never wrote or inspired the article referred to and did not see it until it was in prim I 1 do ilot wish to avoid any which attaches to me as editor of i the he DB ER ET NEWS I 1 therefore re clyto your assertion directly ayou you say that I 1 make among others t this is direct charge that two of the registration officers orthis of this city made a reel tr trip p in a special oar car over the rio bio grande western and registered by w wholesale hole sale gang after gang of em aloyes ec I 1 clip from the article the exact language used as follows it is believed to have come to be a as a well understood to every citizen as is the season of the year or the state of the weather that two of the afon officers of this city made it a trip in a special oar car over the rio grande western and registered by wholesale gang after afier gang of employed emp loyes found at various points between hew here and the colorado line the members of the utah commission it is presumed have full information of this flagrant crime you will observe that instead of making any direct charge of the kind you mention the DESERET NEWS simply imply commented upon something t that hat is a topic of con common imon conversation the charge did not originate with the debe NEWS nor with any 0 of f its writers it is fair to presume that the utah commissioners present in this city have as full information of this flagrant crime as is current in the corn com and I 1 must confess my surprise at your statement sta ement that the commission and each member thereof emphatically denies having any such information I 1 also respectfully suggest that if th the e commission really desire to go to 60 the bottom of this notorious affair there must be better means of reaching it than through newspaper channels the names of the appointees of the commission who are said to have perpetrated one of the most shameful attempts at frau faaui I 1 ever committed in the country are bandied about by the pai public bit ic and as the DESERET EVENING NEWS has intimated must surety surely have come to the ears of the commission I 1 am gentlemen very respect respectfully faily yours CHAS W PENROSE editor NEWS i at that time I 1 was satisfied that the reports commonly circulated concerning illegal registration along the line of the rio orande grande western kail railway way were true but the direct evidences which have been obtained in proof of those reports were not then within my reach even it if they had bad been at DI my disposal it is probable that I 1 should should have deemed it prudent to withhold them for a time in consideration of the intense party feeling that then pre availed and the indisposition to de deal plo I 1 justly cited estly with the peoples party exhibited by all who possessed power to correct the wrongs that were being perpetrated i As the contes conteri is now over and the bitterness it provoked is somewhat allayed and as I 1 think you yon should be iri formed as to some of the disgraceful fichs known to many members of the he peoples party parky who coq amp ier thoy they have been defrauded I 1 submit to yon certified copies of a lew few out of a large cumbe numbe of affidavits which I 1 have examined which are bona fide and which will toe be carefully preserved for future ie reference ference the affidavits in regard holthe train registration some of which I 1 send you coupled with tho the fact thit the names of the men illegally registered appear on the registration luts without a any address and chiefly in the second precinct precinct established in the minds of those who have well clod considered eted the matter the assur ance that throe three at least ot of your registration officers were parties TO the traudi I 1 also send yo you d a few out of a very large of affidavits concerning the conduct of the registrars billing as a court of first and last resort and de p riving hundreds of legal voters of 8 the ie right to cast their ballots at the salt lake city election and further I 1 add some samples of hundreds of other affidavits showing that the judges of election violated the law in rejecting votes offered under the provision of section 2007 revised statutes of the united states I 1 with this information at hand band I 1 feel it my duty to place so much at least as I 1 now send at your disposal not however with the view of maki making ng this correspondence public but that you may maj not through silence on my part be left in ignorance of the wrong that has been done to the majority majori tV of the voters of this city and the culpable conduct of those officers of your appointment who are now enjoying the pecuniary r ward reward e of their unlawful very T e ry respectfully CHARLES W PENROSE the report says further what purports purport 0 d to bo be affidavits of several parties accompanied the communication muni cation but as none of the parties purporting to have made them were known to or ever heard of by the commission with one exception the commission had no means of knowing whether they were deserving of weight and credence even if the facts alleged in them were worthy of notice the one exception mentioned Is the affidavit of james B ray which the commission singles out because he was said to have been a detective in the employ of capt bonfield and some reflections were cast upon his character but they made nai 40 L effort to find out the thesel sev eral parties who swore to the facts of the alleged registration and their identification of the registrars who conducted it many of these are well and reputable citizens tf if the commission had been A imbued with any desire to investigate this matter ample evidence would have been fu furnished ali dished by those who had bad it in their possession at the time As soon BOOD as it came within our reach wo we placed a portion of it in the hands of the commission sufficient to convince any ordinary mind we could not do so before we reserved some for good and sufficient reasons we did not expect any e effort 0 rt from the commission in the t proper direction we say te madl tested bested throughout throughout the whole shameful bush ipsa of the eleo tipa a uon shield their registrars to I 1 aid the c liberal A beril party and to defeat the aeple eplee op lee s op arty they were PA bately and offie officially tally we say further that J judging edg I 1 ug from the disposition of certain partied cartiea to lubov JA uy ope vao abs exposing tahe villainy of Iber alB and th he indie i were pointed te chani them we regarded their letter to the editon of bis paper aada trap Wll bend to be caught in ibi IL they ean can make wha tuse faey please of thi 41 i AuL sequent events halm demon 1 beyond question thai their laudation of thir deputy as aa all competent t nde nd of good repute repot that they W were are jen apen of character and landing in ahe and their sta statement tent that the election was obey anje and the liberal party fairly I 1 w won 1 on the day are most striking jin ain stances of what poor judges of character the Coin mission are aud and how easily they langloss can gloss losa over notorious liberal chicanery and crin crime one of their discreet men of character and stan standing dingY has berj habited such discreetness on on b behalf of his party as to call forth the animadversion nl mad malver version of chief ju justice salce ane in open court and the presentation of his name to the grand jury jur y I 1 ifor for investigation into his hia complicity with liberal frauds a the election another ot teem teem hasteen has been compelled to resign the he place bestowed upon hm him asa as a reward for his party work because of defalcations in his office six of the men who fairly won the day dar sico according to bathe ohp have usurp usurped em i W authority but still bola aoh offices and as ahme rolla an pa the corruption and fraud and villainy whole business which the I 1 hiyi auck so favor are being continually developed j the commission feels justified ift A pointing with some degree of pride to ehg th results that have been attained through its administration of afie elear elder tian laws itt id the Territory 11 indeed Under that tion fraud and corruption have been introduced such as were never known before in the territory in connection with election affairs tricks krieks have been played by election judges perso nations have been made at the polls Hund hundreds of legal voters have haie been robbed of the to allot A and aad ad these defrauded catl zons zens are all of one party parly the party that some of these commissioners Commisa loners have hav done their best to defeat alij arid which they rejoice to have seen defeated if this gives them arde ade and satisfaction we do not euay them nor do we entertain very high respect for any officers who in order to retain a lucra lucrative Ovil position one with large pay and scarcely any work will publish an un truths exaggerate facts garble and misinterpret religious discourses and seek to foster prejudice and inflame public sentiment against a people whom itis it is easy to defame Weare we are gratified to see that th atone aoe member hember of the commission does not append lits his name to this disingenuous and part izan report for that |
