Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1882-04-12


the Legislature petitioned Congress to con-
struct . railroad and telegraph line across
the continent via Salt Lake. Later the
Mormons graded and tied soEe four hun
dred miles of tho Union s. Central Pa
cific R. R. over the Rocky Mountains" and
west of Salt Lake, a very difficult part of
the route. They also built about six hun
dred miles of the first transcontinental
telegraph line. In addition, they have
constructed over five hundred miles of
process Of construction, and can boast
that they have no debts on account of rail-
road construction. They have some fif.
teen hundred miles of telegraph lines, like
their railroads, built without subsidies OF
any kind. The business statistics of Utah
show an immense development in CONNER
cial relations.
The value of the yearly imports and ex-
ports is about sixteen million dollars.
J0bbers and retailers do q yearly business
of ten million dollars. The manufacturers
of Utah have grown from $500, 600 in value
in 1850 to s5, ,0OO, 600 in 1870. There are a
hundred -four mills, more saw mills,
twenty tanneries, twenty boot and shoe
factories, ten furniture factories, woOlen
mills with five thousand spindles, cotton
factories, foundries, machine shops, etc.
The manufacture of bullion from ores,
employing one hundred and fifty stamps
and score Of smelling stocks, doubles
the above value, making it ten millions
easy at the present time. Utah has about
three hundred and fifty district SCHOOLS,
~.,l aud
versity; private and public libraries every-
where may be found. They have a maya.
zine, also The Woman's Exponent, edited
by Mormon ladies, cooperative stores, in
dustrial institutions and ladies' relief so.
cieties. The latter in 1880 numbered three
hundred branches. They have young mems
and young women's Mutual Improvement
societies in almost every settlement,
literary and choral unions and CLEO clubs.
The taxes are lower than in any other
state or territory, and in Salt Lake
City are only five mills the territory
has no bonded debt, or any municipality
except Salt Lake City, which has only
$1,000 of outsta nding bonds, issued to
construct canal twenty miles long to
bring water for irrigation from the river
Jordan, twenty miles off, and the city
owns an extensive water works system,
and part of its gas works, clear of debt.
The figures of criminal statistics we
take with some allowance because they
may be compiled by Mormon authorities.
and because it is vehemently claimed
that the criminal laws are more strin.
gently enforced against Gentiles than
Mormons. But while the latter have
five sixths the population, not one sixth
of the criminals come from among
them, and this pamphlet declares that
out of the two hundred saloon, bill
lard, bowling alley and pool table keep.
ers, not over dozen even profess to be
Mormons. All of the bagcios and other
disreputable concerns in the territory are
run and sustained by anti-Mormons.
Ninety-eight per cent. of the gamb
lers in Utah are of the same
element. Ninety-five per cent. of
the Utah lawyers are Gentiles, and
eighty per cent. of all the litigation
there is Of outside growth and promo
tion." 'Of the suicides committed in
Utah ninety odd per cert. are non-Mor-
mon, and Of the Utah Lomicides and in
fanticides over eighty per cent. are per
petrated by the seventeen per cent. tout
siders.' OF ,O2O arrests made in Salt
Lake City last year only 169 were of
Mormons. 'The per centage of total
white population who cannot write in
Utah is 5.71. Sixteen states and terri.
tories show far higher per centage.
eight being above fifteen and two above
twenty. Rhode Island presents US with
a per centage of $50 and Massachusetts
5.l4."
We must admit that these facts and
figures are we'll calculated to make re-
Elective minds pause before they "indict
a whole people, or assault with ruthless
hand social system that has produced
such moral and material results. Even
conceding this testimony to be one-sided
and that the truth is only half way. be-
tween it and the familiar narratives OF
Gentle missionaries, the offense of the
Mormon people against Christian civili-
zation, polygamy, appears venial when
their exemption from 50 many of the
vices Of modern society is given fair con.
sideration. 1t will hardly be claimed
that the marked social results set down
to the credit of Mormonism are due to
polygamy, or that they could not survive
its extirpation 1t must have some in
herent qualities which have enabled it
to thrive under persecution, to survive
the death Of its characteristic leaders, to
meet and take advantage of the develop
ment of the great West - something
which will, therefore, continue its exist
ence as a system even when the plurality
of marriages shall have been suppressed
by law or moral pressure.
But while this is coming about, the
Anglo Saxon instinct of fair play de-
mands that Mormonism in all it's fea-
lures should have an equitable hearing !;
and even with regard to this most objec-
tionable characteristic of polygamy there
seem to be some mitigating circumstan-
ces. If at most not ten per cent. of the
Mormon males are polygamists; if there
is no surplus of women in the territory,
as there is in twenty-five states if
" the most intellectual, the most moral,
the most untrammeled of Mormon ladies
indOrSe the system of pOlypamv ~ If the