Show SO CESSATION A recent issue of the Detroit FreePress contained the following special dispatch WASHINGTON September 9 I Judge O W Powers formerly of Knlamn 200 at present United States Judge in Utah I had a two hours talk with President Cleveland Cleve-land today The President requested Judge Powers to give him a full statement of the condition of Mormonism and the workings of the Edmunds and other laws against < polygamy Powers talked for about two hours and thinks ho made the condition of things pretty plain He says tho President is very much interested in the matter and will bring all the power he can muster into play to wipe out the twin relic President Cleveland was pleased and surprised when Powers told him of the great number of indictments in-dictments now hanging over the leading Mormons George Q Cannon and Tohn Taylor the head men are both fugitives from justice and all polygamy is carried on strictly on tho quiet Powers says the law is being enforced much more rigidly than is generally surmised Mr Cleveland will make a strong recommendation on the subject sub-ject in his annual message and has instructed in-structed Powers and other officials to carryout I carry-out the law to the fullest extent and spare nobody That telegram should be read by every person in Utah whether Mormon or Gentile The people of Utah have been indulging in false hopes in regard to the Utah question believing that because they have ever protested that they were Democrats hut ever unquestioningly obeying the commands of their ecclesiastical I ecclesias-tical lenders that such a hollow sound would strike honest cars as truthful and that on account of their professed political politi-cal affiliation with tho Democrats they would receive a special indulgence and sympathy from a Democratic Administration Adminis-tration Disappointment has come where relief was looked for But why should the people of Utah expect any political party to sanction a violation of a law that is not only valid and so declared by the Supreme Court but one that was enacted in i accordance with sentiment of the age on the question of tho martial relation and one that was deemed essential to the preservation of the family as the unit upon which all civilized nations have erected the superstructure of the State Mr Cleveland was placed in nomination and elected by the Democratic party because be-cause of his known fidelity to the law and not because he would enforce Home laws and neglect others If laws arc upon the statute book they should be enforced if they are improper and unjust they should be repealed These are the only alternatives alterna-tives as to any law The people of Utah who are claiming a divine and Constitutional Constitu-tional right to violate a Constitutional law would do well to heed one part of the above telegramit is that part which states that Mr Cleveland will make a strong recommendation on the subject of polygamy polyg-amy in his annual message to Congress What that recommendation will be no one can tell but that it will be strong direct unevasivo and to tho point no one will doubt Perhaps the strongest characteristic char-acteristic of the Presidents mind is the power to see the real point in any issue and to be ready to meet it unhesitatingly The issue in Utah is this To whom belongs be-longs the right to define the status of the family and to say upon what basis it shall be founded the United States or the Mormon church The same issue maybe may-be presented in another form by saying that in Utah there exists a conflict of authority between the civil power of tho United States and the ecclesiastical power of the Mormon church Both claim it under the Constitution but one adds to it the claim of divine sanction If in all the controversies which have been between the State and the Church in the past or < that aybe in the future the talismanic cry of divine authority is to outweigh human rights then liberty is gone and anarchy and tho rack will reign Shall an undue deference bo paid to a claim of right because those who make it assert they have n higher authority for their claim than the Stato itself It certainly should not But to return to tho recommendation that the President will make Any attempt to say what it will be is at best but uu idle conjecture although it must be patent to all that the Edmunds law is inadequate to accomplish tho object for which it was enacted If tho construction of the cohabitation clause of that law which VGhiof Justice Zane placed upon it and which was concurred in by the Associate As-sociate Justices is correct and wo presume pre-sume it is then that law was enacted to extirpate polygamy no mutter what form or name it might assume It is desired to extirpate polygamy because that form of the marriage relation is inconsistent with the best interests of the family and upon the excellence and interest of the family must be based the excellence and interest of the State If a given condition produces a certain result wherever that condition arises will be seen its results The polY lmic system of family in Oriental Ori-ental countries where it has obtained has always resulted in destroying the unity of the family and causing a rivalry between the brothers of tho halfblood and from this has come an intorminablw series of feuds and internecine plots Polygamy in Utah has destroyed the unity of the family and has engendered 1 undue jealousy among children of the halfblood and often hostility Such a condition of things can have no other effect than to destroy the peace and material and moral welfare of tho riUite Now the law punishes the formation form-ation of the polygamous relation with heavy fine and imprisonment that it may Accuse If the same relation continues after the statute has run against the original dime why should not the continuing con-tinuing crime bo punished to the same extent as the original crime It illogical arid unwise to punish the initial crime severely d to punish the subsequent I to 1 and continuing one lightly Another rea unlawfulcohabitation under the son why i i Edmunds law which may be defined as i i polygamy continuing and thriving should meet with the same penalty that the I formation of the polygamous relation does is tho fact that it is the rule in Utah I now to conceal all evidence of I such a marriage until the statute has i run against it and if it had not I the evidence in such cases is much harder to obtain than in cases of unlawful cohabitation I co-habitation So long as the crime of entering en-tering into a polygamous marriage is 1 committed but once each particular crime cannot be revived by any subsequent i subse-quent act while the very contrary is the case with tho crime of unlawful cohabitation cohabita-tion At least three things must be done to meet the oxegencies of the case in Utah Abolish the statute of limitations thus closing one avenue of escape and an avenue von much used make the punishment pun-ishment for unlawful cohabitation coextensive coex-tensive with the punishment for polygamy polyg-amy make tho jurisdiction of the District Courts over tho crimes of polygamy and unlawful cohabitation concurrent and we may add a fourth thing to be done Give the District Attorney a fixed salary and a good one and furnish him enough assistants to investigate and prosecute cases in the various towns and counties simultaneously Witlttheso changes and Mr Cleveland to enforce the laws things in Utah would wear a different phase in a few months |