Mr. Roosevelt to the “Mormons”

Mr. Roosevelt to the "Mormons." Published by special permission of the editors of Collier's, the National Weekly, with an explanatory note by Isaac Russell. [In this letter former President Theodore Roosevelt not only refutes many anti-"Mormon" falsehoods, but vigorously arraigns magazine slanderers, gives his testimony as to the character of the "Mormons," and advises them concerning polygamy. The note and letter appeared in Collier's, April 15, 1911. Mr. Isaac Russell, an attache of the New York Times, wrote to former President Roosevelt as to certain charges in magazine articles which implicated Mr. Roosevelt in certain alleged "deals" with the "Mormons." His spicy and characteristic reply with Mr. Russell's introduction, make a highly attractive feature of Collier's, and will prove of great interest to readers of the Improvement Era: to whom the letters are here presented with only this comment, that what is said by our ex-President as to the magazine libels against himself, applies with equal force to the whole array of tirades against the "Mormons," that have recently disgraced a number of the American magazines in which they have appeared.—Editors.] Mr. Russell's Explanatory Note. I have asked Collier's to become the intermediary in making public this letter from Mr. Roosevelt upon the special problems of the "Mormon" people in what among them is a difficult era of reconstruction, because it deals with matters that concern equally all those with whom the "Mormons" share a citizen's responsibilities, and because Collier's long ago assumed toward the complicated sectional questions of the Intermountain West an editorial attitude that was at once enlightened, hopeful, and fair. It called attention to the manifest presence of unwholesome bitterness in the dealings between "Mormons" and their neighbors, and at the same time urged the need for the "Mormons" strictly to adhere to their public announcements as to their abandonment of polygamy. There was then in Utah a political group so anxious to oust Senator Reed Smoot from his seat in the Senate that they were willing to swear he was a polygamist when there was ample evidence readily at hand that he was not. There was also in Utah a

MBA ROOSEVELT TO THE "MORMONS." 713 ministerial group whose presence there meant that they had been able to raise, through the telling of stories of alleged "Mormon" conditions, funds on which to subsist, and whose hope of further continuance there rested on their ability to raise more such funds. When it became evident to these two groups that President Roosevelt was not working with their plan to have Senator Smoot unseated, there appeared in the Salt Lake Tribune, owned by the leader of the political group mentioned, a specific charge that Mr. Roosevelt had entered into corrupt collusion with the "Mormon" Church. Members of the ministerial group repeated the charge in pamphlet and in lecture tours on which they campaigned for "Mormon-fighting" money. Indeed, the copy of the charge that I forwarded to Mr. Roosevelt I clipped from a letter to a New York newspaper signed by one such solicitor. Recently in four sizable magazines material brought together by these groups has been given to the public at large. Some of the charges, if true, give the people of the country, in general, good cause to become seriously disturbed. How true the charges are, so far as they concern him, Mr. Roosevelt fully explains. In one of the magazines—McClure's—to prove that there is a conspiracy to break faith with the Government on the matter of polygamy, the portraits of seven men are printed, an accompanying text describing them as seven Apostles in a governing body of twelve, who, being banded together to teach and re-establish polygamy, jeopardize the "Mormon" pledges. Not only do none of these seven men influence "Mormon" destinies, as set forth, but five of them have been long dead and two have been long disfellowshiped. In the midst of the article, indeed, in widely separated sentences, the demise of three of them is noted; all belonged to a generation that has now largely passed, and their places have been filled for from seven to fifteen years by men of a newer generation against whom no complaint has been made, and who have a keen regard, as I fully believe, for the pledges that should keep the "Mormon" policy in accord with its plighted faith. Proving that polygamy is now rampant in Utah by printing the pictures of homes established long before the manifesto was issued has been a favorite device that has deceived many not fully informed as to the Utah situation. "Mormon" Political Conditions. Just so a magazine—Everybody's—"visualizes polygamy's present peril" by picturing the homes of Joseph F. Smith, the "Mormon" prophet. Utah people, of course, resent this portrayal, for, without regard to creed, they recognize that the last of these homes

714 IMPROVEMENT ERA. was established more than twenty-seven years ago—six years be fore 1890, which made as sharp a dividing line between the future and the past in Utah as the surrender of Lee in the controversy between North and South. They recognize that the youngest wife in them has sons who are grown men, and that Smith himself has already outlived the Biblical allotment of threescore years and ten. In politics the "Mormons" have rarely indeed had a chance to choose between candidates except under the conditions that one or more have been afield with platforms and policies which, if enacted into law, would spell "Mormon" disfranchisement and annihilation. Heeled in as a flock of sheep might be by coyotes on the range, they have attained their present unhealthful political compactness quite as fully by pressure from without as by blind subjection to leadership within. The result of this compactness has been that clever politicians who are "Mormons" have been able to organize the "Mormon" fear of the Gentiles quite as completely as the same kind of politicians, without, have been able to organize the Gentile hatred of the "Mormons" whenever they have been able to stir it up. Bad men, in consequence, have gone to Congress; progress has been hindered; and for intelligent "Mormons" to find a common cause in the industrial upbuilding of the country with unembittered Gentiles has been made increasingly difficult. That the "Mormons".have made a perfect score in cleaning up their polygamy problem, they can not truthfully claim; complete obedience to the edict abolishing it was not to be expected without the invoking of police powers and the administration of punishments. These powers, tardily organized, perhaps, have long been at work, and recently more aggressively at work, punishing offenders who have tried through various subterfuges to avoid the manifesto. One such method—that of depending on a construction of the manifesto limiting its application to the United States—resulted seven years ago in the disfellowshiping of two Apostles. Another such method, depending upon the secret connivance with a private agreement unblessed by any formal ceremony, resulted disastrously for four members of a single powerful and reactionary Church family, through a period of from six to a dozen years ago. The Purpose of the Letter. These were the unfortunate contributions of the "Mormon" side of an awkward reconstructive period. When, often through "Mormon" action, and sometimes through Gentile disclosures, such cases became public, opportunities were offered of which full advantage was surely taken. For home consumption, where there was per-

MR. ROOSEVELT TO THE "MORMONS." 715 spective and view-point, one kind of literature was provided; for the export trade another, and if Mr. Roosevelt's letter can result in spreading generally the conception of "Mormon" conditions that now generally prevails except in a small envenomed circle in the Far West, it will do much toward closing channels through which innocent susceptible persons are now fraudulently imposed upon. It was for this reason that he consented to prepare it. Mr. Roosevelt's Letter to Mr. Russell. New York, February 17, 1911. My Dear Mr. Russell: I thank you for your letter calling my attention to the charges made against me in connection with an alleged bargain with the "Mormon" Church of Utah. The letter you enclosed contains a quotation from a magazine which states that "Theodore Roosevelt himself made the bargain with the "Mormon" Church which exists to this day." It then continues that "the Church agreed to deliver to Roosevelt the electoral votes of Utah, Wyoming, and Idaho in exchange for three things: (1) A cessation of the movement and agitation within the Republican Party for an amendment to the Federal Constitution giving to Congress the power to legislate concerning plural marriage and polygamous living; (2) a defense ot Reed Smoot, apostle and representative of the "Mormon" hierarchy, as a Senator of the United States, and for his retention of his seat in the Senate; and (3) a disposition of Federal patronage in Utah and surrounding States in obedience to the wish of the "Mormon" hierarchy expressed to the Federal Administration through Smoot." It is a little difficult to know how to deal with a story like this, which is not merely an outrageous lie but one so infamous, so absolutely without the smallest particle of .foundation, that it is utterly impossible that the men making the charge should be ignorant ot the fact that they are lying. I never heard of this magazine article and do not know who wrote it. But whoever did knew perfectly well that he was lying. I have never heard of the writer whose letter you quote, but he also must know that he is repeating baseless falsehoods. The other two magazine articles you quote I have not seen, but if they, in any shape or way, resemble the one from which you quote, they are equally false. The accusation is not merely false, but so ludicrous that it is difficult to discuss it seriously. Of course, it is always possible to find creatures vile enough to make accusations of this kind. The important thing to remember is that the men who give currency to the charge, whether editors of magazines or the presidents of colleges show themselves in their turn unfit for association with decent men when they secure the repetition and encouragement of such scandals, scandals which they perfectly well know to be false. Not only was no such bargain made by me, but equally, ot course, no such bargain was made by President Taft or by any one who could speak for any portion of the Republican national organization. No such bargain was ever in any way, directly or indirectly, suggested to or considered by me. It is not merely an atrocious falsehood, but it could by no possibility be anything but a false-

716 IMPROVEMENT ERA. hood. Neither the Church nor any one on behalf of the Church evei agreed to deliver me the votes of the States mentioned, nor to try to do so; nor was any allusion to the matter ever made to me. Neither Senator Smoot nor any other citizen of Utah was, as far as I know, ever so much as consulted about the patronage in the States surrounding Utah, nor did the "Mormon" hierarchy, through Sen ator Smoot or any one else, ever express a single wish in connection with that patronage. The appointments were made in Wyoming and Idaho precisely on the same system as they were made in New Jersey and Massachusetts, and no more attention was paid to any candidate's religious qualifications in one set of States than in another. Moreover, the same policy precisely was followed in Utah. One Senator was a Gentile and one a "Mormon." I consulted both. Generally I found Senator Smoot more favorable to the cause of conservation than the majority of his colleagues in the Senate, and on this matter I consulted him more freely than I did most other Senators, although there were some I consulted even more freely than I did him. As to there being a cessation of the movement for Federal control of marriage, including divorce and polygamy, so far as I know there never was such cessation; personally I have always favored such control. There was a strong agitation to give the national Government complete control over marriage and divorce. This was strongly opposed bv a majority of the Representatives in the two Houses of Congress from the different States, and in but two or three instances is it possible that those opposing it, whether Democrats or Republicans, could have been influenced by any thought whatever concerning the "Mormons." Personally I then favored the proposal, and have always favored it since, because I believed and still believe that this is one of several directions in which the power of the general government could with advantage be increased. Whether or not it is especially needed as regards polygamous marriages in Utah, I am not able to say. On one occasion a number of charges were made to the Administration while I was President about these polygamous marriages in Idaho and Wyoming as well as Utah, it being asserted that a number of our Federal officials had been polygamously married. A very thorough and careful investigation was made by the best men in the service into these charges, and they were proved to be without so much as the smallest basis in fact. It was finally found that a fourth-class postmistress, whose earnings a year were about twenty-five dollars, and who was an old woman, had been plurally married some thirty years previously, but had long ceased living with her husband. Not only was it found that there was no basis for the accusation as regards the Government officials, but incidentally it developed that the investigators were unable to find a single case of polygamous marriage entered into since the practice had been professedly abandoned. 1 can not, of course, on this point speak generally; there may or may not be foundations for the charge of which I knew nothing; but i can speak positively as to this investigation made by thoroughly competent and upright Government officials in Wyoming, Idaho, and Utah. My memory is that on another occasion, either in Arizona or New Mexico, or both, our attention was called to cases where there had been polygamous marriages, and that the offenders were promptly prosecuted. No man ever suggested to me not to

MR. ROOSEVELT TO THE "MORMONS:' 717 prosecute any offender in such a case; and I may add that every "Mormon" with whom I spoke assured me that since the public renunciation of polygamy, the law had been observed in this respect, just as in others, and no one of them ever so much as hinted to me any desire to plead on behalf of any possible offender of the type. I am, of course, speaking of marriages entered into since the Church pronunciamento in question. If it were ever shown to be true that such marriages have been entered into, I should even more strenuously than hitherto urge giving the Federal Government power to deal effectively with polygamy. As for the case of Senator Smoot himself, he came to me of his own accord, and not only assured me that he was not a polygamist, but, I may add, assured me that he had never had any relations with any woman excepting his own wife; and I may also add that it was the universal testimony of all who knew anything of his domestic life that it was exemplary in every way. He also assured me that he had always done everything he could to have the law about polygamy absolutely obeyed, and most strongly upheld the position that the Church had taken in its public renunciation of polygamy and that he would act as quickly against any "Mormon" who nowadays made a plural marriage as against a Gentile who committed bigamy. I looked into the facts very thoroughly, became convinced that Senator Smoot had told me the truth, and treated him exactly as I did all other Senators—that is, strictly on his merits as a public servant. I did not interfere in any way as to his retention in the Senate, save that where Senators came up to speak to me on the subject, I spoke to them freely along the lines I have here outlined, taking the view which I believe is the only view that an American can consistently take, namely, that if Mr. Smoot or any one else had disobeyed the law he should, of course, be turned out, but if he had obeyed the law and was an upright and reputable man in his public and private relations, it would be an outrage to turn him oui because of his religious belief. I have thus gone over point by point the infamous accusations made by the writer, whoever he was, whom you quoted; accusations which brand with infamy the man who made them and also the magazine editor who published them, and any one who quotes them. There is a peculiar infamy in this species of slander, and tht men engaged in it do not stand one whit above any men who have really taken part in the practices which they affect to denounce. So much for these slanderers. Now a word to the "Mormon" people themselves. If the accusations made against the "Mormons" are as false as the accusations upon which I have touched above, there is no need of my saying anything. But let me most earnestly insist on the vital need, if there is the slightest truth in any of these accusations, of the "Mormon" people themselves acting with prompt thoroughness in the matter. Any effort, openly or covertly, to reintroduce polygamy in the "Mormon" Church would merely mean that that Church had set its face toward destruction. The people of the United States will not tolerate polygamy; and if it were found that, with the sanction and approval or connivance of _ the "Mormon" Church people, polygamous marriages are now being entered into among "Mormons," or if entered into are treated on any other footing than bigamous marriages are treated everywhere in the country, then the United States Government would unquestionably

718 IMPROVEMENT ERA. itself in the end take control of the whole question of polygamy, and there could be but one outcome to the struggle. In such event, the "Mormon" Church would be doomed, and if there be any "Mormons" who advocate in any shape or way disobedience to, or canceling of, or the evading of, the manifesto forbidding all further plural marriages, that "Mormon" is doing his best to secure the destruction of the Church. Those "Mormons," on the other hand, who occupy the position you uphold in your letter, and who insist that the "Mormon" Church shall turn its face toward the future, take a position which if generally taken will mean that the Church will be treated precisely on an equality with all other churches. The "Mormon" has the same right to his form of religious belief that the Jew and the Christian have to theirs; but, like the Jew and the Christian, he must not practice conduct which is in contravention ot the law of the land. I have known monogamous "Mormons" whose standard of domestic life and morality and whose attitude toward the relations of men and women was as high as that of the best citizens of any other creed; indeed, among these "Mormons" the standard of sexual morality was unusually high. Their children were numerous, healthy, and well brought up; their young men were less apt than their neighbors to indulge in that course of vicious sexual dissipation so degrading to manhood and so brutal in the degradation it inflicts on women; and they were free from that vice, more destructive to civilization than any other can possibly be, the artificial restriction of families, the practice of sterile marriage; and which ultimately means destruction of the nation. The loss of the paternal and maternal instincts among men and women, the deification of a cold, calculating selfishness, the failure to understand that there are no other joys and no other duties as great as the joys and the duties connected with the happy family life ot father, mother, and children—all this represents a far worse evil than even the worst of purely political evils can be. The evil influence of divorce and all kindred evils are merely subsidiary in wickedness and evil results to this great and central evil. If the average man is not most anxious to be a good father, performing his full duty to his wife and children; if the average woman is not most anxious to be a good and happy wife and mother, the mothei of plenty of healthy and happy and well-trained children; then not only have the average man and the average woman missed what is infinitely the highest happiness of life, but they are bad citizens of the worst type; and the nation in which they represent the average type of citizens is doomed to undergo the hopeless disaster which it deserves. In so far as the "Mormons" will stand against all hideous and degrading tendencies of this kind, they will set a good example of citizenship. If, on the other hand, the "Mormon" Church openly or secretly endeavors to reintroduce polvgamy, then it has marked itself for destruction, and has become an ally of the forces of evil so potent as to oblige all decent citizens to join against it. The "Mormons" who realize this fact and stand as you do, and as I have every reason to believe Senator Smoot does, on these matters, are not only fighting for the best interests of the "Mormon" Church, but are performing well the highest duties of American citizenship. Very sincerely yours, (Signed) Theodore Roosevelt.