The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1889-07-30
THE DECAY OF MORMONISM
Loss Of Property and Power to Collect
fittings Has Given 1t Death-Blow.
A Look at the Uncompleted Temple and Other
Noted Places in Salt Lake City-How Bishop
Cannon Lost Caste with the People.



and social differences Such was the ex-
clamation of Congressman Burrows. OF
Michigan. after we had been driven around
the environs of the once famous put now
extinct Brigham Young. After spending
two days in Salt Lake City with the lead
ing Morrnons and gentiles. and seeing every
part of the city and its vast inter
ests, and talking with the members
OF the Utah Commission and with
Bishop Cannon-the latter the head of
The Mormon Church. have come
to the conclusion that polygamy has re-
ceived It's death blow, and that the Mormon
Church is on its last legs. If the church
did not depend upon recruits from Europe,
1t would make an assignment within two
years About every three months a mis-
sionary or elder arrives from Europe with
q small band of benighted individuals,
mostly an extremely ignorant and unat-
tractive people. who have been proselyted
and captured for the church. These are
distributed around the Territory, and go to
fill up the links made vacant by the opera
ton of the Edmunds law. Very few are
dropped here.
The tithing system is entirely broken up
by the law. so far as can be seen, although
it is supposed that it is carried on to linz
tied degree under the guise of voluntary
contributions" The federal government
confiscated the valuable property belong
ing to the Mormon Church. and occupied
by the Deseret News as a tithing office. 1t
IS an immense square. partly covered by
building for this publication office and
Offices for clerks. There is an abundance
of room. where the poor, Ignorant people
duced. and which was sold to regular Gus,
toners. the same as general
merchandising house. Every fourth
load of wood, grain or wool, or
other products of the farm or factory was
brought here and given over to the church.
Some other buildings belonging to the
church organization and used for business
purposes were confiscated, placed in the
rented to the church; but they are not used
for the purposes they were once. Nothing
tending to the teachings of the poly gamOus
branches of the Mormon faith is permitted.
The federal officers at the outset of the Ed
munds law, five years ago, took charge Of
the great Temple, which the MOrmons be-
gan to construct forty years ago. which has
cost 50, 0OO,0O IS to cost as much more and
be the fines religious edifce in the United
States, but it was soon found that it could
not be confscated. 1t was church property,
and although the business concerns of the
church could be taken the edifce could not.
When l asked the superintendent OF con-
etruction when the Temple would be conf
pleted he smiled softly, and In his good
Mormon regulation way, said:
I'VE do not know. You see, sir, the
church was cut OF from its regular and
honest fittings by the Edmunds law,
which gave it a backset in money matters.
1t may be quarter of a century yet. 1t is
20 be used. not as place of worship. but
as place for ceremonies, marriage and
other rites, ordinations, and so forth, and
there Is no hurry about it.
1t is my honest opinion thai the Temple
will never be finished by the Mormon
Church 9Fsanization. for 1 believe the
nnmart,'I IN trranr;cnI IVA ar,S;t;ors 10 ;ts
way, as was Rome under the Caesars; but it
viii be remembered that the Roman en-
pire fell. The building of railroads here
was the first black eye. to Mormonism. If
a century longer no one knows what sst
and property would have been nee
essary to dislodge the Mormons. for they
trenchment which would be invincitle ex-
cept to the Invisible Brigham Young
opposed mining. because it would tend to
bring in strangers not converted to his
Being for him more productive of both peo-
pie and tithes. The railroads brought In
those who exposed him.
In tue Tabernacle, at concert the other
: day. l sat beside George Q. Cannon. who is
have known very well since he served in
the Forty-seventy Congress. He, it will be
remembered, was the very first who was
sought for by the federal authorities under
the Edmunds law. He was finally placed
habitation and polygamy. He was con-
vieted of the former. the liGhtest charge.
Before sentence, however, he es-
capped. remaining in hiding for
Cleveland put upon the federal bench a
good Democrat who was not hostile to the
cause, Cannon reappeared, paid his bail
bond, $4,000. and stood up for sentence:
He got seventy days in the penitentiary!
Great guns. The sentence given beggars
in police courts for stealing loaf of bread!
But Cannon had six or eight wives, SO
many children he did not know them all.
and besides he is rich. and has the millions
of the church behind him. He got out of
the penitentiary a short time ago. and tells
me he now occupies the pulpit at the Tenn
pie and the Assembly as of yore. But Can
non as lost his old caste. 1t is the doc
trine of the church, and when under in
dictment the council ordained, that ''for
the good of mankind and the glory of God"
he should receive his sentence and serve
his term. If he had done that he would
have been canonized upon his entry from
the penitentiary. But he demonstrated by
his actions that he believed that what was
good for the goose was not always relish
Tor the gander.
One intuitively inquiries after he looks
about the city and admires the beautiful
surroundings: do the Mormons have plu-
raj wives yetp asked General Robertson,
one OF the new members of the Utah COM
mission, that question: and In answering he
SAID: oh yes, q great many of them un-
doubtedly do: but we cannot easily get
hold OF them. tits even more difficult than
IN ascertaining ordinarily who of the re-
spectacle married men in the Eastern cit
les keep mistresses Every now and then
ayoung woman, living at home with her
parents, all Mormons, gives birth to child.
Nothing Is said about the parentage. Peo-
pie understand that she is the wife of some
man. may be q prominent capitalist and
well-known citizen, but the fact cannot be
disclosed"
There is on every hand traces of the once
powerful organization of the church yet
they are scarcely more prominent than those
of the Commune at Versailles. when France
was sacked or of the independent govern
ments at Genoa, Pisa, Milan or Rome But
there are evidences of all that the church
once did that was carnal. l have visited
the great and historical store, the z. c. M.
]. lZion's Cooperative Mercantile Institu-
tom. and with its $3.50. OO0 capital. now con
trolled by gentiles and Mormons al Ike. it does
its old-time business, managing to declare
a 10 per cent. dividend and carry a hand
sells everything from q MISUNDERSTANDING
down through drugs dry goods, boots and
shoes. hardware and the sundries. Then
there is tho vegetable and meat-market,
run and established by Mormons. 1t does
land-otfice business, also. The Mormons
and gentiles have not yet reached the point