Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1890-10-22
FACTS md FICTION ABOUT
MORMON IMMIGRATION.

THE landing OF 4 company OF
Mormon immigrants in New
York, = short time ago, was made
the occasion Of a great deal ofuseless
trouble and a vast amount Of base
less indignation. Tine juvenile re-
p1rters for the daily papers, whose
bread and butter depends upen get
ting news, whose great delight is a
sensation" and whose highest
horror is I SCOOP found an ample
field fo- fertile imagination, and
with a few facts for basis, built up
many columns Of sheer fiction,
which they adorned with those
cheap and delusive w0oicuts that
have become common 10 q certain
class Of journalism.
The story has been circulated
throughout the country that this
company was composed of about
tive hundred young girls, imported
Tor Mormon harems. The COM
ments on this falsehOod have been
numerous and more or less
forcible, and the uumber Of the
alleged .'ienlale converts has
varied all the way from the
figure named down to twenty. The
New York World devoted nearly
four columns to ;ais matter, giving
pretended portraits Of all the girls in
the company. From these il appears
that the actual number Of unmar-
Cied females III TIE company, all
Eoid, was thirty eight, that their
ages varied all the way from four
years up to fo-.y-iive, and that in
nearly every instance they were
parts Of families in the company.
The Brooklyn, y. Y, Standard
Union, referring to this, said:
when a New York paper prints
a cartoon representing a Mormon
Saint leading string Of buxor young
women by a tape line down q gang
plank, awith the legend underneath:
The sanity dealer in white slaves
hourishes under the kindly protection
Of the Stars and Stripes. tits simnly
buncombe."
Its Z good deal worse than 'bun-
combe, 5" it is libel against the ''NIor-
monsn and the Guion Company,
and a gross deception Of the public.
The company Vas detained until
it could be thoroughly examined
and, il possible, some pretext be in
vented for their detention which
would hold legal water. But every
effort failed. There was not the
slightest reason for OBTAINING them
and this was officially decided.
Commenting on this the Albany,
New York, Tunes makes the follow
ing remarks:
ave approve OF ali religious cere-
monies At proper times and places.
but there are public times and places
when they cannot be lrGul=ad in by
one set OK believers without offending
others. For instance, az the United
States immigration bureau IL New
York the other day. Amos: q pitched
battle took place between the chap
lains OF various denominations, on the
one hand, and a haI dozen Mormon
Elders on the other. The latter were
in charge Of a couple Of hundred i'm
migrants from Sweden, ca rs,ts, for
Utah. The bureau officials seem To
have first set about converting these
misguided Mormons on their own ac-
count. But the latter proving OBJ
durate, they We're psuned M and the
chaplains OF all sects called IN and let
loose upon them. l. would seem that
in the wordy encounters that ensued
some Of the Mormon women held
their own in repartae. and proved
themselves Is APT in biblical texts as
the wouid-bs proselyt--s were. Any
how the affair, which lasted several
hours, ended without any conversions
being made, and the AI1rmons, male
and female, went 0a their way 10 their
promised lsn'l.'
The Chicago N6z-s, takfngits in
formation from some Of the New
York dailies, made the following
editorial comments:
"A steamship recently landed in
New York nearly two hundred
women WHO were on their way from
various points IN Europe TO Utah,
whittier they We're going Is converts
TO the Mormon Church. An effort
was made by the officials TO d.ssuade
them from going, which wa, unaval-
ing. The officers claimed they had no
authority TO prevent their departure
for Utah.
at Is not easy 20 see why these de
luded women could no. be restrained
under the law excluding contract Ia
borers, for clearly they fail under
some OF the restrictions Of That enact
ment. Nearly all the Mormon i'm
migrants have their passage paid 10y
the Church. ind there is promise
tina; they shall repay the Church Tor
such advances after they have eazEed
the money in this country. Not only
so. but Mormon immigrants all come
here pledged to a service OF that
Church that * 20: measured by
money or '7oor, bus by bl.h. and no.
Tor period Srz for Il5e.
''If everthere was a c1ntrac. laborer
imported into the United States every
Mormon immigrant Is such q one.
The specious professions OF loyalty Of
that Church recently made IN salt
Lake ought TO deceive no one. The
Church hates the government gyish an
inveierate hatred. and only makes
tn csc professions 10 hide itsreal de-
signs.
"f the government excludes a
Christian minister who comes here in /
response 10 the call OF a Caristian
church to become its pastor-as it has
done because he was a contract
lAborer'-by how much more should 7
It exclude a Mormon Proselyte who
comes here under a pledge OF lifeloH.,
service to that Church"
1t will be seen that cur Chicago
contemporary Is mistaken through 4
out. There were not ''two hund-eI .
women" in the company. They /
were not in any sense contract /
laborers." Their passage was not /
s'paid by the Church, Mormon |
do not at any time come I
here "pledged to the service Of a /
church, either for qife .
time. or for any time. VIII /