The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-11-11

She is called the fourth wife of Angus
NJ. Cannon Mr. Cannon IS leading
stands in the first order OF precedence
fo- appointment as one of the twelve
apostles. He has four wives living in
NEG nborly communion. None of the
four. however. has the least legal claim
or the man whose name she bears.
When the United States government
declared against polygamy, the law gave
every polygamist man the right to choose
cco woman for his legal wire. Mr. Can
non is the somewhat well-known gentle
man who married two sisters at one
United States authorities that he would
be switched" if he would be ungallant
enough TO decide between one of the
sisters and either of the other wives. So
Cannon, although there are four very
lively and interesting establishments in
which a woman presides who lays claim
to the right to that title.
A DOCTOR BY PROFESSION.
Martha Hughes Cannon. the senator. is
a doctor by profession. She lives in
ne2t little red brick house in a neat
little three-set street She has a little
81 II years old and a little boy seven
wears old. She is between 80 and s. to
look at. and she is a clear-skinned,
slender. trim little woman, wen-groOmed
and fresh. with brown hair plentifully
s.'rinkled with gray and a pair of bril-
liant. alert hazel eyes. She has little bits
VI lIlil IdHQS anu D-lS VI lcCl,
and she wears good clothes of uu:et.
Enobtrusive kind. She has a clear voice
and q, good seryiceable vocabulary, and
she is perfectly free from self-conscious-
ness of any sort. l asked her how she
c-ne to go into politics.
Why she said. sit was this way.
Last year they wanted to give US SUI
frage; We all became very much inter-
ested. We formed a Woman's Demo
cratic Campaign club and we started in
to raise money for the campaign. Right
in the midst of things the supreme court
decided against US. and out went the
suffrage clause But the Womans cam
paign clubs kept right on working just
the same. l made forty speeches my
self. Well this year we got suffrage,
and the party thought there ought to be a
lady in the senate, and committee came
and asked me if | would run and l. said
yes. | went to the nominating con-
fered as candidate and l was duly
nominated. Then l went home and con-
graduated Mr. Cannon on his nomina-
ton. He ran on the Republican ticket
VICTORIOUS OVER HER HUSBAND.
81 worked pretty hard. 1 studied ND
on all the questions of the campaign and
1 made a lot of speeches. l did not do
any personal work, talking to people my
self, and why they ought to vote for me,
l mean. l just stayed right with my
party and spoke for that, and on election
d2v went to the polls and voted. Then
l went and attended to my patients l
beat Mr.. Cannon by a majority of some
thing like 1900. 1 heard a prominent
politician say that he wished Mr.. Can
non and 1 had both been elected He
said he'd liked to have seen the fight. He
would have been disappointed. If
woman ouarrels over politics with her
husband she'd quarrel with him over
whether he liked biscuit or raised bread
or any other subject that came in
handy.
MY aims? I am not m for any one
rpo rfi I shall Ko in
terest in all the sanitary bills of course,
and all bills pertaining TO educational
matters. Women are good ones for those
things. We know how to keep house and
we know how to keep a city. Am /
strong believer in woman suffrage? Oh,
of course l am. It will help women and
ter than men. Slaves are always better
than their masters. A slave learns ODE
dience and self-control and unselfishness.
That's why women will do the world of
long. They will teach some of the slav-
ish virtues.
SOME VIEWS ON POLYGAMY.
''Polygamy? Do 1 mean polygamy? In
deed, l do not mean polygamy. L believe
in polygamy. My father and mother were
Mormons and I am Mormon. OF course
the law of the United States says no.
and we must obey. But that does not
alter ones belief in the right of the
thing. A plural wife is not half as much
q slave as a Single WlIS. II neT nuSDdIQ
has four wives she has three weeks of
freedom every single month. She and her
children order their lives, and do not have
to wait and be ready for husband. When
to see him, and she does not mind getting
three meals a day for him and making
the children stop breathing to give him
a chance to read. A plural wife has more
time to herself and more independence
every way than single one
But then, of course, that is not the
reason believe in 1t. l believe in it be-
cause think it is right. Jealousy, unhap-
piness? Not half as much of it among
plural wives as there is among single
wives. Plural wives look upon marriage
as a sacred duty and not as a means of
self-seeking vanity. I've heard sentiment
alists say that pOlygamy destroys poetry
and takes all the sentiment out of life.
Nonsense. a man loves all his wives. He
is not in love with just one of them.
NOW AS TO SALOONS
ION the saloon question I stand with
my party. Prohibition does not prohibit.
So what earthly use is there of mixing
things UP with a party that's always
preaching some thing that they never
practice? | don't believe anyone who has
lived in Europe much can scare up such
a terrifically strong hatred of the demon
rum. Europe? Oh. yes, 1 went there
when I was underground. Oh. l forgot,
poiygamy law came into force we plural
wives went, as we called it, underground.
We went away and waited for things to
blow over. l took my children to Europe
and then to California.
Have things blown over2 To this ex-
tent: They can't put US in Jail now for
living in polygamy during certain term
of years. Of course it IS all at an end
now. But think and the women of Utah
think with me that we were better off in
the state of polygamy. Sixty per cent of
the voters of this state are women. Did
you realize that? Oh, we control the
state Intelligent women we are, too, the
Mormon women. They don't go in much
for society, but they are well informed
and practical and they know just what
suffrage means to them and to the COM
munity. I am the only woman in the
senate yet, you know, but then we are
every one of us Democrats there, so 1
shall feel perfectly at home.
CARE OF CHILDREN.
What am / going to do with my chill
dren while i am making laws for the
state? The same thing / have done with
them when 1 have been practicing medi-
cine. They have been left to themselves
a good deal, and l must say they compare
very favorably with children who need
a governess and a nurse and mamma
to look after them every minute. Some
how / know that women who stay ct
home all the time have the most unpleas-
ant homes there are. You give me a