Salt Lake evening Democrat. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1885-1887, 1885-09-17
4 PLEASANT SIGHT.

Pountful, say she did not know VINO WIS
the father Of her two youngest children.
A man is to be pitied when his wife &C.
knowledges the paternity of one OF her
children but says she does not know who
the father of two OF her children is. That
answer was all the Grand Jury could get
from this woman and they had TO be
satisfied with it. as Judge Zane told them
it was complete answer to their ques-
ton. OF course, ii woman does not
know who the father OF her children IS
she cannot tell, but as such condition OF
things in any community is disgrace
and shame and an injury to society,
there should be some laws passed to meet
the cases OF this nature. Among such
laws there should be civil marriage law
requiring every legal marriage to be
solemnized by an officer of the law, and
record of the same should be
kept. Not only should this be
done, but it should be made
a crime for any ecclesiastical functionary
to perform a religious marriage ceremony
unless the parties wishing their marriage
to receive the sanction of religion first
present the certificate OF civil marriage.
Many religious societies consider mar
riage q sacrament, but the plan above
suggested would in no wise deprive such
societies of the right to solemnize mar
riage ceremonies and rites they might
deem essential to the occasion. It is
thus in France where all have to first go
to a civil magistrate to be married, and
Immediately after the newly-married
couple repair to church to have their mar
riage sanctifed by the ministers OF God.
There Is no trouble there about marriage
in this way, for the requirements OF the
law are complied with and the blessings
of religion upon the union are invoked
and received The right TO have narri-
age solemnized as a sacrament is in no
wise infringed. A marriage law should
be supplemented with law requiring all
births to be registered, and imposing s.
penalty upon all parents who neglected
TO register the birth Of child born TO
them. As the entire field of
needed legislation is surveyed, the
thought irresistibly comes 10 the
mind that Utah needs moral
code enacted and made compulsory.
Upon the statute book of Utah is no law
against adultery and kindred crimes
against the marriage tie and chastity.
But still stranger than this disgrsceful
fact is the reason that the Neigs, the organ
of the Mormon church and the chief
organ Of the Peoples party, gave some
time ago for the absence of such common
and wholesome laws. 1T said that they
had been upon the statute book, but that
the Legislature repealed them because
they were being used as an engine Of op-
preston to break up the marriage rela-
tons Of the very people who enacted
them. Such in substance was the excuse
offered in extenuation of their repeal and
absence. From this it would appear thai
the laws in question were right and
proper in themselves, but that their en-
forcement was wrong So it is always il
Utah. The people here have no objec'
ton to the law of 1862 or the Edmunds
law as laws, but they do object
to the enforcement of them. Occasion
ally they murmur against Congress fol
passing them, but it is upon the officers
of the law who enforce them that they
visit their wrath and pronounce anathe
mas. The laws are all right, but their en-
forcement is all wrong.
Is there man or woman in Utah whC
can look upon this Birmingham case anC
see woman come into court and swear
she does not know the father OF two o
her children and not feel humiliated fo
humanitys sake? There is no doubt il
the world that the woman, Ella Birming
ham, came into court and periureC
herself to shield her polygamou
husband 1t is to be hoped
that the evidence of the perjur.
may be obtained, and that it may b,
punished to the full extent of the law
Heretofore there have been two method
of avoiding the consequences of viola
ton of the law against polygamy and un
lawful cohabitation, which have been 70
b the wife to refuse to answer and suffe
ipoy,riSoDrnapt for poptamnt of court n
for the man and woman to plead tht
statute, but it is new and still more
disgraceful method for a mother to com,
into court and on her oath swear that sh,
does not know who the father OF two O
her children is. And this is done that al
unrighteous system may live and brinI
misery and disgrace into the world, ant
bitterness to the lives of those born in it