| Show T THE HE MORMON PROBLEM M Y ya A ji I chuo injia wall ka that tile I I majority of anti Mormon ormon writers s have treated tho question bially and from a jart partisan isan standpoint I t A t iU grat ratify p 11 know ow that w fair minded inan men I men ofil I f I avi lity ity the cour ago to clain inq the tile subject philosophically sop hi tail q bealin calmly jy in its iti various I bearings religious civil civilly lk and socially and then to give the flo t result of their investigations in a manly fali e I ily y arbough h they do ao not themselves y es keel u under j obligation I to I I I identify j themselves rith th tile mormon mon church aan among aug ac tl fd for e w of tills thi class of wr I feinS P if t a n w lio ha written an ah particle article on the mormon formon problem to the hampshire Hamps bire county A mass lass deserves to be read an ana aitu di studied tu abed I by all who arc are the ue mormon question whether they tl I ey be jew or gentit p entile Mpr moa or non Mor jr flo T k ai V is the I article artick I tl VM thomas thoms jefferson effler ibn to whom this coughtry ry is indebted dd forthe for the incorporation liber liberty into the or I garp ganie ia JiW said slid th asunder 11 er perfect rc r liberty I if i f tf sect arises i whose tenets boull would subvert morals morais good sense has fair play and beason L laughs it out of doors without suffering the state to be troubled with mth it I think that thorulf tho rulo may be safely applied to tho the cormons mormons Mor mons in dealing with thi this question we must be bo careful an and d no not permit our actions to be dictated by pre prejudice judice or bigotry the polygamous mormon believes that his it liepe opeland and association in the resurrection of the just kildunn bis his I tion s stoward war his s fainot family but to Again quote qu jefferson legislative power may re 11 actions in violation of social duties or subversion of good order does polygamy come under this head what alethe nie the facts I the population of utah has ever shown an I excess of males alib although ough the non mormon n population ia only f th the bhole I the immigration records show that with mormon immigrants the proportion of male or female is the same a with non iN mormon formon immigrants that they aro arc sought in families that hrc turere l is S a ariex X cess coss of leaann e im with 64 d to sin single le H laic I or to eilf fill tho ranks of prostitution in every one of these states the social evil prevails d an utah the social evil is isun un knon except as an importation the tile brothel being an accompaniment of the advance guard of our christian civilization I I the plural marriage is is contracted with consent or approval of the first I wife who must be present at the ceremony m on y and place the hand of lier her colleague C I legue I in in that of her husband the strongest defenders of polygamy aro are women who go and come wit with h as much freedom as in new en ens land landt f fj t I r morman wives cannot be obtained I to prose prosecute clite their husbands I for bigamy though money bribes entreaties prayers an and threats aia hwe ve been employed I ae 14 b by ar united astuti icv al aalthe the machinery of behind them to secure protection no laii underground der ground railroad exists for oppressed wives being no demand there as s no supply the number of ill sorted unions being no greater than with monogamists or in no way affecting the system 19 it 11 is a dogma of lk mormon lormon faith that preceding p and during lactation the wife shall hayo haye absolutely control I of her iler aad her husband is I guilty of eiff sin in in sharing her bed a dogma binding on all whether I or not and olmer observed ved by th tho I pluralists I I these aro are facts well to bearin bear in I mind now let ud ug ask in what the crime of illo mormon consists con sits to say that polygamy is is wrong a return of barbaric conditions does riot answer the question toleration docs does not involve fia volve approval ao we may blay re gr gret et their regious views their social lia habit bits fiFthe the question is not arc are their institutions right rig t or wrong but are they subversive of good goba order in a free country granting the broadest I toleration let us again appeal to 11 A facts only too often in thia th iq I A discussion doce tile wind to consist I in the cohabitation of boneman one man with several woman S evidently wt not coif in kew york the tile law la does not recognize fo fornication as a crime at alli all and all its pulpits are silent sile fit while w bile each howling dervish points his finger at a I nearly every everngam daml eler ler and blackleg drunkard and rum ruin seller land shark hark and speculator icher every prostitute andauer patron isa pa 11 coadjutor in hi the crusado against again sti tho th I I cormons mormons Mor mons I I if therefore a single si man may way cohabit m new newyork york with as many man single women as he lie pleases acknowledge the fact and be free from legal crime abb mormon believes that par madriago mar riago isa sacrament hi in entering cn terin into marriage ho he assumes all the r responsibility of his action he guarantees society from expense through I any thine resulting inthis Is this the crime if he be threw aitay away all religious I ii ious obligations the tile consecration onse cration of afa a religious ceremony afi foi wha whatever tover we may think of the still remains a fact and simply tided fornication are we not justified from the silence of united states pulpits to conclude at least that there would be no legislative action n does it not also follow logically chatin that in assuming the thy responsibility I that may arise from tho the acl relation aaion in I guaranteeing gu sli to tho comai I I and her offspring I andin antin vowing to love loveana a cherisol cheri bet as irvino irv ax HO ifo t the crime cri md exists M ats arid tha tin persisting like a miserable e fanatic to abide by I I I I I I his solemnly solen contracted religions obligation I i g i t n instead of N coming a sim if p plo i fornicator or ii cator and leaving the woman without sup support ort lie has bas merited the execration of every citizen and the terrors of a frea goy government emment before wo ire whet our knives for 11 11 mormon formon scalps in daring to depart from the christian custom of new york and hedging the sexual relation with both religious and legal safeguards gua let us its try and di digest diest est a few more facts the anti Mor mormon mori stomach has full room fur forth them cna though they may not long iong bo retained where they I V r cannot ca be assimilated le under tho the mormon la law oddi f d it th voce it i aho woman woI nall not tho man who has tho largest I liberty where marria marriage is once or entered in into to no ina matter ater ho rv friendless the woman the bus husband band enters enter sinton into ft lifelong life lire long obligation for fora a man mail to seek a divorce is 1111 almost moAt unheard of but woman if her ier position should become irksome or distasteful to her cw even and she should tIld desire a separation not only is the husband bound to respect the ex brassal kd of her ber wish to that effect but ho I I is bound also abo to give her and her t Ws proportionate share of his w hole whole proper property they are no longer property tK under his yo yoke but while he and they live they have a claim upon him from which ho lie is never completely absolved aco Q cannon 10 entire religious liberty prevails in irl utah andi ands every struggling christian an church has bas been in some som way in indebted to 11 mormon formon liberality aej and gene generosity sometimes in money fora church ZIf edifice iceA a lot for church or burial purposes free or a ila biall 11 free for tacit service 11 the tile monopoly of land held by the 1131 mormon ormon church is limited to a tan ton acre lot it in salt lake the temple lot and lind 95 05 percent of I live ivo in t beirow the irown n I kiouses lio bouses uses on t their r own lands linds to which they hold titles in their jovn names I 12 in the three important fe features of education enrollment of school population amount per capita invested in school property and the percentage of daily attendance at school utah is far in advance of many of f our oldest states and of ofilio the general average of the tile vion union 13 in the ir percentage ceno of school attendance churches and printing establishments utah ia is ahead of massachusetts while in the percentage ot of illiteracy c convicts paupers haupers pau pers insane and idiotic massachusetts carries off the palm over utah and is welcome welcome to the laurels so earned t 14 salt lake city in ift tile words of ot bayard taylor is one of the most quiet orderly and places in the tile borla world and the people the most temperate pera teof of Americ americans ansa a elf city y in which the brothel the rum shop shap and gambling lin den have been forced on them an and protected against mormon lormon A municipal law by government officials 15 A few years since they blasted that thirteen counties out of twenty mast mostly I populous were 11 without a brewe brewery gambling or biot brothel fiel house I ing or billiard ea sa loon lawyer doctor parson beggar politician or place hunter and t lies e were the tile counties almost exclusively mormon 11 IG 10 they have curbed pors personal onal greed by introducing the operative cooperative co system and trade is largely conducted on that hysten offering the largest exhibition hibi tion of co tho the world where religious duty has bat become a profitable on enterprise f or arise i in which the people are the shareholders 17 mormon hormon women have introduced relief socie societies tieT wherever mermon settlements exi stand have over branches es bowin i n as many towns cities and wards 18 it is a point of the church to have a library in every Wo mormon rmon town with special caro care lor for books on farming stock raising architecture etc As american citizens the question is not is polygamy right wo have no right to discuss it in that point of view as a basis of legislative action does plural marria marriage hedged around with the most solemn I em ge of religious obligations ligat ions entered into as a sacramental relation tend to such a degree to the subversion of good order that it becomes tho duty of if tho the government to suppress it that they may m ay be substituted for it our system of civil marriage ria e or the simple partnership co of two persons of opposite sexes for sexual and other relations canao can wo on an art assumption which we w e refuse to disc discuss take so grave a step agthe as the denial f the right to the pe people ople of utah to regulate their own domestic practices |
