| Show CAN THE LAW BE ENFORCED that the effort j The church papers claim f f i fort to suppress polygamy in Utah will not succeed True it is that so far all polygamists have not ceased their practices prac-tices and defiance of the law but the first thing to demonstrate to any perSon I per-son or number of persons is that the law can be enforced at all and as they see it being enforced in one case and then in another and still another those upon whom the law has not yet laid its heavy hand will pause and begin to think that perhaps there is something in the law although they have long held it in contempt and been in the habit of thinking it merely an expression of hatred put into print It is said that only about half a dozen men have so far been convicted and placed in confinement and it is triumphantly asked if any polygamy has been suppressed Yes at least six cases and those six cases have nearly scared the life out of some thousands May be the six men who have suffered punishment for violating the law against polygamy and unlawful cohabitation are still saying that they will never surrender but those six men should remember that there is no necessity neces-sity for their surrendering as they are already in durance vile It may be that those who have preferred to defy the law and go to prison will never conform to the law but so often as they violate it just PO often will they be punished for so doing The church papers and people lay great stress on the idea that no law can be successfully suc-cessfully enforced where the community is against its enforcement No doubt such a feeling in a community tends to hinder a rigid enforcement of the law but the church papers and people of Utah seem to overlook the fact that there is within the United States a very large community are in favor of an enforcement en-forcement of the law and that the officers offi-cers who are here trying to enforce the law represent the legal expression of that communitys sentiment Suppose it is conceded that the prosecutions for polygamy and unlawful un-lawful cohabitation have not as yet I succeeded in totally or to any great extent ex-tent suppressing polygamy is that any reason why the Government should desist de-sist in its endeavor to enforce the law Mingling with these six men are some hundred other persons who have been convicted of other violations of the law and still men violate the same laws for which those hundred men are confined but is that any reason why there should be no effort made to bring to punishment those who violate those same laws The very fact that men persist in doing as they choose in defiance of the law is a strong reason why a more strenuous effort to enforce the law should be made If the conviction and imprisonment of six men is so insignificant a matter why were mass meetings called in every Stake throughout Utah to exercise the constitutional consti-tutional right of petition and draw up a Declaration of Grievances and Protest and send the Delegate from the Territory one apostle and one counsellor to the presiding bishop of the Church to Washington with it If these convictions are so insignificant and are having no influence upon the suppression suppres-sion of polygamy was it not somewhat bombastic at least for the Declaration to I declare in the very outset that a condition condi-tion of affairs imperilling the vital int rests r-ests of the vast majority of the people of Utah and their coreligionists in the neighboring States and Territories impels im-pels us their representatives to address you Our rights as American citizens are trampled upon and believing it our imperative im-perative duty in the presence of such a danger to protest against the gigantic evil which threatens not only our liberties liber-ties but the liberties of every freeman we in mass meeting assembled in the name of freedom justice and humanity make this appeal for relief and protection protec-tion Now this was sent Ito the world before three of the six men had been sentenced and et it is yet said that no progress is being made in the suppression of polygamy The people of Utah have set up a unit of the State which the State says shall not be and when the State undertakes to assert its rights the people of Utah appeal ap-peal to the State for relief and protection against the enforcement of the very laws and regulations which that people have enacted for the preservation of their own political existence It is a rule of law that he who seeks equity must do equity and would it not be as well for the people of Utah to obey the laws of those to whom they appeal for relief and protection pro-tection before making their appeal The people of Utah have long nourished the idea that they had a special mission to do as they choose and that God created the I United States to protect them in their right whether the United States liked it ornot The United States I are no longer I willing to submit to such an arrangement I and they have not been notified by God 7that it is to continue any longer j and so it Juts at last come down 1 to the simple question of which is 4 the greater in the United States 8 the United States or a small part of 1 them But the interest which the church papers here take in the expense which the enforcement of the laws is to the Government is truly wonderful Why this unselfish interest no one can teJh1J ne ially as the Government does not complain The Government cannot possibly tare what theories religion or right and wrong men hold so long as they render obedience to the laws It is k no part of the business of government to inculcate right ideas or suppress wrong ones but it is the business of govern J i < c r It I l > ment toSnforcq the lawsj wiether it uu settles Yatuesorn t arid henaws j are tbnthcidus the pe pffiw1 f > suffer from them should agitate for their repeal but they should not defy them and if they do they shouldjiot call jt persecution when they are punished for that defiance Yes the laws can be enforced in Utah and should be if it costs the Government Govern-ment millions and takes years to bring about submission to the law All that is needed to do this is i a constant neverceasing endeavor to make the laws respected and so often as men violate law just so often they should be punished pun-ished for so doing All who are punished will not be made martyrs of by the people peo-ple as they will be too common for martyr mar-tyr like precious jewels are yaluable chiefly on account of their rarity make them too common and they lose their value There is another thing essential to martyrdom which is that to be a genuine true martyr the ma who seeks to be one must suffer death Six months in jail is too much like a common criminal to throw around it any halo of glory There is no excellence without labor and so jt may be said there is no martyrdom without with-out death |
