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Show SENSATION CAUSED III CflMECTIOII WITH SPBTSVETO I Salt Lake, April 8. Much com- , ,nrnt waf caused yesterday when I copies of the Kane County News con taining an alleged signed statement I by Senator William W Seegmtller re lating to the veto of the prohibition ' bill -wore received in Salt Lake. In the purported statement Mr Seeg-mil- I ler is quoted as saying that Governor Spry had told him that he had vetoed the WoottOD bill after he had had a consultation with President Joseph F Smith of the Mormon church and Presiding Pre-siding Bishop Charles W. Nibley. President Smith. Bishop Nibley and Bishop David A. Smith, all of whom were mentioned in the statement, last I night refused to make any comment on the matter. Governor Spry declared de-clared that his reasons for vetoing the bill were fully explained in his letter of disapproval of the measure, and on record in the office of the secretary sec-retary of state. Seegmlller Statement. I1 The statement as printed in the Kane Countv News is as follows ( "The day following the Hotel Utah incident, in which Governor Spry berated be-rated the 'indignity' which had been perpetrated and did it in a perfectly undignified manner the governor sent for the three stake presidents in the senate, Joseph Eckersley, Don Colton and myself, to visit him in hi6 office, at which time ho went over the early Mormon persecutions of the : Liberal and American party days, and ( showed what damage those persecu- j lions had done the state, the church and especially Joseph F. Smith. I "Ho stated that he loved President f Smith better than any other man on I earth, and held the church dearer than anything else. "He said that President Joseph F Smith and Bi6hop Charles W. Nibley could see very plainh that if the prohibition bill wee passed. this same ami Mormon persecution would be repeated and that it had gone so far already that it could only be stopped by his offering himself as a sacrifice to the church by vetoing the prohibition bill. "He said that he knew what that ould mean to him and his family and what humiliation they would have to suffer, but that he was will ing to stand in the gap for the gos pel's sake." He then continued " Now. brethren. 1 come to vou as your brother in the priesthood not as gov ernor of the state: and 1 bring a message from the president of the church to jou as stake presidents and the message is that President Smith desires you to sustain ray veto nn the floor of the senate and defend mc in m action when you go home to vour people.' " 1 told the governor that neither he nor President Smith nor anybody else had any right to attempt to make a polliwog of me. My people knew what to expect of me when I was elected, and I refused to become a traitor to them and to make a hypocrite hypo-crite of myself. "I told iiim emphatically that I would vote to pass the biil over his head and that I would repudiate him before m people when I arrived home " I also told him that I considered i: is actions in the Hotel Utah vorv ! I undignified and very much uncalled for. which he admitted to be the case. "When I had finished telling him these things and that I refused absolutely ab-solutely to obey the order, be said, "Well. T have performed my duty, and have delivered you the message.' "He also said that Bishop David A. Smith was appointed to verify the instructions in-structions he (the governor1) had brought from President Smith, and terminated the interview by saying that he had no intention of shirking his responsibility by using his constitutional con-stitutional time before acting upon the bill, but that he would return It in plenty of time, before tho senate adjourned, to permit the senate to take anv action the members saw fit ' Some two or three days after this incident I talked to Bishop David A. Smith and he told me that what the governor had said was not true and that President Smith was very, very much in favor of the prohibition bill. WILLIAM W. SEEGMILLER." Governor Spry was in Provo attending attend-ing a meeting of the State Mental hospital board last night and as he waa not feeling well, he did not answer an-swer long distance telephone calls John K. Hardy, his secretary, who was with him, issued a short state- I ment for Governor Spry in regard to I the statement. "So far a the governor is concerned con-cerned he says he has nothing to add to bis reasons for vetoing tho statewide state-wide prohibition bill and tbat the statement which he made at the time In writing is all he cares to say at this time," said Mr. Hardy, speaking for the governor. Senator Colton, who is in Salt Lake, did not care to discuss the statement. "I will say that tho statement is Incorrect," said Senator Colton Seec-miller Seec-miller is a radical on the prohibition question and If he made the state ment which appeared in the Kane County News he broke a confidence not only with Governor Spry, but with members of the senate who were called into conference with the governor. gov-ernor. I do not care to go into the details of tho statement "It is true Governor Spry had a conference with us In regard to the prohibition bill. He had a conference with practically every member of the senate in regard to different matters of legislation. Those conferences and what was said were supposed to be confidential. I will not discuss this matter because it would be breaking a confidence." |
