The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1888-10-20
MAKE THEM TELL.

The majority of the Utah Commits
sion, Messrs. Godfrey, Williams and
Thomas, say in their report: "We con-
clude our reference to this subject by
stating that the registration officers ap-
pointed by the Commission have re-
ported the names of twenty-nine per-
sons, males, whom they say they have
good reasons to believe have entered
into polygamy since the close of the re-
vision of the registration lists in June,
1887 Four of the cases are classed as
doubtful.
Now, so far as these registration Off
GERS know whereof they speak, We be-
lieve they could as we'll have reported
that twenty nine hundred as
twenty.nine men had "entered poIyg-
amy" within the year. We don't
bel eve that one of the registration
officers has the slightest knowledge of a
single polygamous marriage during the
year ended June, 1888. Furthermore,
We don't believe one of the regis
trass has any shadow of reason, not
to say "good reason" to believe that
twenty pine or any number Of persons
have become polygauiets within the
time specified. # We are right in our
supposition, then the registration Off
GERS who have reported that twenty
nine persons have violated the anti
polygamy laws, are slanderers, and the
majority of the Utah Commission are
like slanderers for repeating aud pro-
mitigating the lie.
There is entirely too much of this
reckless assertion in regard to the de-
fiance Of the statutes in tho matter of
polygamy. Newspapers openly assert
that these unlawful marriages are cele-
brated almost daily, when the writers
know absolutely nothing of solitary
marriage that has taken place for years,
| Correspondents send it abroad that po-
lygamy is practiced as of old, which
every man and woman in Utah
knows is a lie. And now that the Utah
Commission goes out of its way to help
along the cause of those who are doing
all in their power to retard the progress
of Utah and delay the benefits which
ought to follow the solution of the
problem which has so long agitated
this country, it is time for something to
be done. In the Commission Office are
the names of the twenty-nine men who
are said to have married polygamously
| together with the names of the registra-
ton officers who have reported these
alleged violations of the law. 1t seems
to US that it is the duty of the marshal:
and of the grand jury to take cogniz
ance of publicly alleged infraction o.
the statutes of this magnitude. Thu
Commission should be called upon tc
surrender the names of the reported
polygamists, and the re ,istrars ought II
be made to tell under oath what are the
reasons" upon which they charge mer
with defying the law. If the registrars
have any other reason than their imag-
nations and proneness to SANDER, the
courts should be given the facts; if the
officers have maliciosly conspired to
injure the community by declaring
that polygamous marriages are beinf
celebrated as of yore, they should be
exposed aud their lie shown up to thu
world. 1t seems to us that it is the
duty of the courts to protect the
community in matter of this kind,
even if to do so places such important
personages as the members of the Utah
Commission in an awkward and ugly
plight.
The LOUISVILLE Co@rier-Jour,aal sug-