Editor’s Table: Congress and the “Mormons”

EDITOR'S TABLE. CONGRESS AND THE "MORMONS." The Fifty-seventh Congress, which has just adjourned, has to its record many substantial achievements for the public good. It provided civil government in the Philippines; a permanent Census Bureau; created a new Department of Commerce and Labor; gave government irrigation to the arid land in the West; and provided for the building of the Isthmian canal; and in its trust program provided for an anti-rebate law, for expediting suits brought under the Sherman anti-trust law, and for the appointment of two Assist- ant Attorneys-general. A law establishing a national militia was enacted, and a general staff was created for the army; the Spanish war revenue taxes were repealed, a new bankruptcy act was adopted; the gold standard was extended to the Philippines, where, also, a system of currency was provided for, while three millions were given to relieve distress in the islands; the personnel of the navy was increased, and five new battle-ships were provided for; the Alaskan treaty was ratified, and a host of other laws were en- acted not forgetting the record-breaking appropriation acts which aggregate over a billion, five hundred million dollars. Many important measures failed, and the President called an extra session of the Senate to ratify the Panama canal and Cuban reciprocity treaties. The swearing in of new senators at this extra session, among whom was Utah's new senator, Hon. Reed Smoot, as well as the discussion of the omnibus statehood bill, brought prominently before the country the "Mormon" problem, so called. Notwithstanding the many important measures considered, and the many' others that failed of consideration, the senators found time to spend days in discussing the alleged danger there is

470 IMPROVEMENT ERA. to this country in the spread and growth of the Latter-day Saints. Almost every feature of our belief and spiritual and temporal prac- tice was handled for and against. Pages of the Record are full of discussion and long quotations from the revelations and from our history, may be found, including the articles of faith, as well as many stories true ard false concerning us. Undoubtedly the under- lying motive in much if not all of this talk was political. It was de- sired that the statehood bill should be killed; and it was evidently considered that no question could so divert the people, and at the same time serve as a splendid time-killer, and excuse for delay, as discussing the "Mormons." One pleasant feature, however, show- ing that a more favorable view of us is being taken by the intelli- gent leaders of the nation, was the tendency to view the evil and exaggerated charges of church domination and polygamy with a spirit of mock-earnestness. This was evident even in the language of our most unreasonable opponents. Another point was the favorable words from senators who appeared to be the most earn- est in advocacy of the statehood measure, and who transmitted that earnestness to their remarks about the Saints. Senators Stewart of Nevada, Teller of Colorado, Warren and Clark of Wyom- ing, and Dubois of Idaho, were especially and in all truth, compli- mentary. A few truths from the first named must suffice here: Here is the "Mormon" church. Its founders constituted a devoted band. 1 have been familiar with them for more than fifty years. I have visited repeated- ly in their homes. I have traveled through their territory. Whatever may be said of them, they live more closely to their own creed and their own ideas of morality, and maintain them with more rigidity than almost any other people I ever saw. As they understand morality, they have always been moral. * * * * They have their own religious sentiments. They have their own creed which they observe and believe in as fervently as do the adherents of any other church. They attend divine services regularly. They have their Sunday Schools. They have their means of disseminating religious information, and they have dropped the one thing Ihat the American people condemned as immoral. Now, there is another thing about the people of Utah. I do not want to sit down until 1 have borne my testimony to the great good that they have done to this country. Those people went to Utah on account of their religion. They went to a country where irrigation was not known. The Anglo-Saxon had never prosecuted agriculture by irrigation. It never had been done. We came from a country where we relied only on rainfall. The "Mormons" went to that great desert region and they suffered hardships which can scarcely be described until they worked out the experiment of raising crops by means of irrigation. I was at an irrigation convention at Salt Lake City some ten or twelve years ago, and President Woodruff and Mr. Cannon stood in the rear of the audience,

EDITOR'S TABLE. 471 and without consulting the audience, 1 announced that it was the unanimous de- sire that they should be heard. I did not put it to a rote because everybody was against "Mormonism." It was a Gentile convention, composed of a thousand or fifteen hundred people. I brought those gentlemen right forward, and the story those two old men told of the inauguration of irrigation, and the hard- ships they endured, brought tears to the eyes of more than half the audience, and when they were through it was necessary to adjourn, and the audience asked to shake hands with them. The old gentlemen told me that was the entering wedge which brought communication between them and the Gentiles. This friendship and communication has banished polygamy. Those people by their industry and economy have built a great State in what was denounced as a desert. It has enabled those people to enjoy the blessings of free govern- ment and enabled th« people of the United States to enjoy the fruits of a great industrial people in the heart of the desert. That has shown to the world what can be done. * « * * Now, why speak of those people as if they had com- mitted some crime ? If they had not given up polygamy, it would be different. But in this question of States, why bring them in collaterally and discuss their conduct ? Outside of polygamy, they compare favorably with the conduct of the Puritans or any other people who ever landed on these shores. If you go and see their homes, see their thrift, see their industrj% see their domestic happi- ness, you will not have it in your heart to raise j-our hand or your voice against them. ***** The suspension of the practice of polygamy has not killed the energies of the "Mormon" people any more than witchcraft killed the ener- gies of New England and prevented i<s growth. The industrious people who came there built up New England, and they have gone on, and they are now among the most enlightened people on earth. So it is coming to pass in Utah. They educate their j'oung men and their young women, and when they come here they are able to cope with the brightest young men and women in all the United States. Do not speak ill of them. The}- do not deserve it. It will not do any good to denounce them in this debate. And then, these remarks are made concerning the political in- fluence of the Church which, I am free to confess, is a wild fantasy in the brains of ministers and political malcontents, who, for lack of patronage and place, delight in sensation and lies. The Church is not in politics. The "Mormons" individually are free to vote as they please, to join any party that they please, and are never disciplined or brought to answer for any political act or opinion that they may perform or sustain. That is the position of the Church. Here is what Senator Teller has to say: We have had in the state of Colorado for twenty-five years a considerable population of "Mormons." I do not myself believe that there has ever been any interference politically by the "Mormon" Church with these communities. 1 think those of them who came from Utah had their political ideas very largely formed before they came to Colorado. * * * * * * ** In Colorado they divide politically, with a preponderance very largely to- wards the Republican party, and I understand very well why that is. The founders of the "Mormon" Church were great believers in the doctrine of pro.

472 IMFKOVEMENT ERA. tection. That was one of their cardinal economic ideas. Their purpose was to manufacture and produce everything in the community in which they lived that it was possible to produce or manufacture, and to buy as little from the outside as possible. And notwithstanding at one time they felt there was very decided persecutions on the part of the General Government,which was then in the hands of a Republican administration, very distinguished members of that Church maintained their allegiance to the Republican party. 1 agree with the Senator from Idaho that the Church is all-powerful, and whenever the Church does speak through its first presidency I have no doubt the great body of the Church would respond to the demand made. But that such a demand is made or ever has been made, so fT aj our people are con- cerned, I very much doubt. That powe.- v.hich th ^ Church secured to itself in its early days has been a great agent in colonizing and supporting that section of the country. Mr. President, I had an opportunity of knowing the very first founders of this Church. Some of them came from the immediate neighborhood in the State of New York where I was born and brought up, and nearly forty years ago I came in contact with these people in Utah. I think in all the history of this country there has never been gathered together a more remarkaole class of men than that which gathered in Utah in the early history of that territory. They were men of great ability, many of them men of fine education, some of them classical scholars of note. I believe 1 do not exaggerate when I say that at one time the finest Hebrew scholar on the continent was a member of the "Mormon" hierarchy. They were Greek scholars; they were historians; and they had that enthusiasm which alone carried success in an enterprise of that character, * * * Now, as to the power of the Church, that cannot be destroyed by legislation. It is undoubtedly a misfortune that it should prevail, but to some extent it pre- vails in every religious organization on the continent. In a political contest I have seen the power of pretty nearly every great church in the United States influencing the voter, undoubtedly with the thought that it was a proper thing to do; and I do not mean to say that sometimes that interference may not be a good thing in the interests of the morals of the people. ****** The "Mormons" are not people who devote themselves much to politics. They are as industrious, debt-paying, law-abiding a people as there are any- where on the continent. In view of all this, and many more truths that have been and could be told of the Latter-day Saints as good citizens, what shall be said of ministers and politicians who profess to tremble and fear because of the influence that such a people might exert in the councils of the nation ? One is constrained to pronounce them hypocrites. Are not a people with the religious, moral, intellectual and industrial endowments such as the Latter-day Saints possess and exercise, a power for great good in the nation to which they belong ? Then why should their ablest and strongest men be de- nied any right to which the best American may aspire ? There is no legitimate reason why.