The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1891-06-20
DODGfNG, OF COURSE.

Our morning contemporary answers the
invitation to furnish evidence that one
Mormon has said: 81 am Republican or
Democrat; it does not matter which, so it
gives ue statehood" that there is any in
tention on the part of the Mormons to
''press statehood before the incoming Con-
gress'; that that is ''the dream of the
chiefs of the church,, and that there is any
discussion in any Mormon home in Utah
that the matter Of probable statehood is
now being eagerly discussed" in its Gus
tomary way; that is to say, it furnishes
not scintilla of evidence, but rambles off
Ito consider why this sudden movement on
the part Of the Saints, and this dissolution
of the Peoples party? What is the object Of
it all!" When The HERALD invited the
Tribune to verify its allegations it knew
that the paper could not do it, and we knew
that it would dodge and skulk and endeavor
TO distract attention from the issue by talk
ing about something else. Our contem-
porary has way OF its own in such cases,
way of lodging or, sometimes, of sustain
ing its position by calling up a mythical old
''lady OF eminent responsibility, whose
name, however, is carefully guarded As
q matter of fact, the Tribune made asser-
tons which are incapable of proof for the
simple reason that they were absolutely
false, the malicious invention of the editor.
AS to ''why this sudden movement on the
part of the Saints and this dissolution Of
the Peoples party!' the organ of hate
would not inquire if it had not blinded
itself tn the true situation. The
explanation is easy to all who
have their eyes open and their
intellect unclouded. The Mormons were
banded together all those years for self
protection, others uniting against them in
equally firm compact. The reason for this
was the polygamous practice OF the Saints.
The latter maintained the practice for fifty
years or more, fighting against frightful
odds all the time, and surrendering only
when the courts had been appealed to to
the limit of their permission aud public
opinion had been exhausted in the matter
CT liberation; then there was surrender,
complete and absolute. The manifesto Of
President WOODRUFF last summer and the
action Of the people at their general con-
ference made Mormon plurnl marriage a |
thing of memory. With polygamy aban-
doned there was no further occasion for a |
combined attack upon the Mormons, nor |
was there reason for the Saints to band |
presenting solid front against |
the world which now no longer opposed |
them. That which made the Mormons an /
object of assault having disappeared, po- |
litical unity being no longer demanded for |
self protection, their disbandment as q |
political organization was natural and could |
not be prevented. The Republican Nor
mon did not feel that it was necessary for |
him to stand by his Democratic fellow re-
Iigicnist for the latter was not the victim |
Of assault; the practices Of both were law
full and were approved by the statutes and
oy the sentiment CT the country Under
the circumstances, to have held together
and maintained church party, there being
nothing for that party to battle for except I
he political supremacy Of the church.
would have been so un-American, so
with the theory and the insti-
utions of the government, and 30 offensive
o public sentiment that more determined
warfare than ever would certainly have
,een waged against the Mormons
1t is plain enough to everybody outside
why this sudden movement on the part
# the Saints" was taken, why the Peoples
arty was dissolved. Polygamy being {
bandoned, and the Mormons becoming like
Their people so far as their attitude before
he law was concerned, there was nothing ]
o bind them together more than there is to |
mite MethOdists. Baptists or members of I
ny other denomination, in political action. {