Morning journal and courier., 1881-12-12
Monday Morning, Dec. 12, 1881.
THE P0LYGAMY OF THE MoRMoNs

THE POLYGAHIY OF THE HORIZONS.
 It seems probable that at last something is really going to be done against the polygamy of the Mormons. The President has recom- mended that the law of evidence should be so far modified as to enable wife of biga- mist to testify against her husband. He has also recommended legislation by which any person solemnizing marriage in any of the Territories should be required, under strin- gent penalties for neglect or refusal, to file a certificate of such marriage in the Supreme court of the Territory. Representative Vest has introduced two bills embodying these recommendations. One of them provides that whenever any marriage according to the forms, belief or practice of any religious de- nomination shall be solemnized in any Terri. tory of the United States a written certificate of such marriage containing the names and residences of the parties married shall be
 filed in the office of theeierk of the Supreme court of the Territory, and that the certified record of such marriages shall be admissible as evidence upon trial of any cause in any court of the United States. The provisions of. the bill are not to apply to marriages be-
 
 bill provides that no woman shall be disquali- fled as witness in any trial for bigamy in the Territories by reason of her marriage to the defendant in the case . This is practical and encouraging, but, as 8 writer in the New York E0e'atns Post points out, there are difficulties in the way of mak- ing such laws as those proposed effective. Mormon women may be qualified to testify against their polygamous husbands, but if those women are contented with polygamy it will be difficult if not impossible to get them to testify. It is asked in this connection in what manner it is proposed to compensate the wife witnesses for the social and domes- tic ruin which must necessarily follow the trial at which they appear. 'sIn this part of the world a wife who prose- cutes her husband for bigamy does not mean to live with him again. Moreover, she has the community on her side Whichever way she turns she finds sympathy and encouragement. In Utah, on the other hand, a Mormon wife on leaving a Gentle court after prosecuting her husband to con- viction would find every door closed against her, and respectable livelihood among her old friends and associates no longer possible Her position, in short, would be very simi- lar to that of 8 woman among us who had eloped from her husband with paramour
 It is also pointed out, in regard to the pro- posed compulsory registry.of marriages, that l we are here again met by the fact that Mor- mon marriages being secret, even if we make l the registry of them imperative we have, in l order to punish failure to register, to prove the celebration of the marriage In doing l this we should be met by precisely the same difficulty which meets us in attempts to pros ecute for bigamy; the marriage cannot be ] proved except by persons present at it, and | nobody is present at it but Mormons.
 These difficulties, and others which might l be mentioned, indicate the magnitude and l of the Mormon problem. Still, l something must be done, and the legislation 1 seems as we'll calculated to be etfec- tive as any that has been suggested ss= 4zssz