Show HUNTING by reason of remoteness from the centre of population lattion and the fact that the incidents of the war upon polyp polygamy amy are not very closely followed in the press dispatches the people of the united states are not as fully acquainted quain ted with the nature of the governments ern ments operations in that quarter as they should be an occa occasional sidnal paragraph me mentioning a sensational episode 1 in tae the arrest trial or imprisonment of a mormon is about the extent of the information is to be had bad through the regular news channels so that the practical workings of the law remain essentially in the dark so far as the vast majority of the people whose representatives have enacted that law are concerned this is tho the more to be regretted because it is probable that further legislation will be needed in time and also because toe the exercise of powers so asual those which have been conferred upon territorial officials there ought to bevigl be vigilantly watched bathe bv the entire citizen of the republic I 1 the penitentiary of utah now contains twenty or thirty more P prisoners is 0 ers than can be decently accod accommodated 0 d t e but budr the campaign against offos offenders id continues with as aa n moan ua vigor as a ever under the edmunds law the mormon criminals are divided into two classes men who are arc guilty of polygamy y and wen mea who are guilty of unlawful cohabitation the former bal being ing such as have taken plural wives since the passage of the law are not numerous the latter bating such a having more iban tb anone one wife when the edmunds law was passed have not noc renounced all wives but one are inacy for offenders offender ii against the interdiction of polygamy famce t can be no reasonable reabon aole excuse 1 itye I hey deliberately violate iti it when they tacy take additional wives and in setting up up their private views as superiors superior t to 0 the ile law ol of the land they y cannot unjustly complain ol of the con consequences s As to the latter ho however we ver to t o ni uch caw not be said under the rulings oatlie oi abe court unlawful i is made loade to coxe r a great many things thiu gs aud a it is to this feature of the crusade crus sade thal thai the at of the people shoula lie be directed erected to that end ena a thorough un ders of the situation drevlou lou to the passage of the Edmu laas act is necessary the time when the federal supreme court declared this act counti tut ional it was held by the mot Morn woos ioos as well as by m many an elILI Dent lawi lawera ers of the states that no power existed iu congress under the constitution ja to prohibit polygamy Y which was as a part of a religious creed confident of their safety in this respect a generation of men and women entered into plural marriage many of these people are now middle aged and some ate aie old and most of them bave large families of children old men with two three or four wives all mar marred rid long a ago 9 0 and the mothers ot of children found on tile the passage of the edmunds law that they must not only cease recognizing these families as legitimate but that even a casual visit was likely to be construed as a criminal oft offense euse unlawful cohabitation has been held to obtain when a man has taken a second wife to a theatre when a daylight call has been mado made when the bedside or the coffin of ef a child has been visited when the hiness of an old wife of the long ago has induced the former husband to take the risk of the boffl officer 1 I e r the court aud aad the judgment in attending lending her and when ane li hundred undred other things liable to spring from domestic ties have occurred proof roof of actual co habitat ionas it is known and defined in other parts of the republic has not been bee n necessary any of these and others even ev enless lees objectionable and 4 mote mole natural have served as excy excuses sea for the infliction of penalties comprehending both flues fines and I 1 imprisonments of course it is not to te be denied that in 11 some cases these apologies have been offered merely for t the h e purpose VA n covering up the real object of visits which may have been in themselves unlawful but the fact remains that proof of nothing more than the sets acts named is necessary to send men to prison and perchance to deprive die many helpless lidI pless human beings of their natural protectors Relieve dof the necessity of obtaining proof of actual crimi criminality nali the marshals and other officers swarn swarming aing over the territory are not at great pains to secure serious cases many an old man with white loeks locks has been sent to the penitentiary in utah atah of late on evidence that went no further than chaa to show that lie be may have called in broad daylight dayh P perhaps or h apa in the company of athard a third person on an old wife with whom the be may a have livid for nearly forty Y years a ra and y d many any a younger young er man has been sent over 0 t the same am road oad for yielding to a natural desire to see I 1 his child children ren eb children ildren none the less his bis though not born in lawful wedlock here may be seen the possibility and in fact the certainty that the amerl ameri 1 can people in undertaking to uproot one great eat wrong are committing another other r th their air eyes are not afi on the dragooned goo d te territory they do not see the herded prisoners or the thronged thron ged courts in their ears the wails of sobbing robbing women and children themselves toe the victims of circumstances in many cases do 40 not fall they only know that with a mailed hand band and an iron heel an effort is making to strike down and to grind down an evil of great proportions HB it is a fact patent to every one jone who has followed these prosecutions that must most of the energy of the united states officials has been expended upon men charged with unlawful cohabitation the reason is plain under the courts rulings it is an easy matter to convict such alleged offenders whether they are morally guilty ox or not the new polygamists are not so easily caught nor are they so easily convicted when they are caught proof of recent marriage is necessary in their case not much proof of anything is in necessary in the case of the others Is this a state of affairs which promises to put ar an end to polygamy and is it one which the american people wish to continue chicago herald |