The record-union., 1899-11-26
VIRTUE AND PoLYGAMY.

It has been the boast of the Nor
mons of Utah that under them there
was no. or very little. prostitution
there. and that it is even now the purest
State, sexually considered, in the I'm
ion. This defense has been advanced
collaterally also in the Roberts case
though what figure it cuts in it we fail
to see, unless Mr.. Roberts friends wish
=. to contend that polygamy is defensible
because it reduces; the incentive for
prostitution. If that defense is set up
it will be bad for Roberts, as it amounts
to confession that polygamy is only a
form of what might be termed justified
prostitution.
A. L. Shredder in the November
Missionary Review has a paper
which has been condensed for the
Public Opinion in which he contends
that there is prostitution in plenty in
Utah AID was at the very time Brig
ham Young was boasting there was
complete sexual purity throughout
the Territory. A brother-in-law of
Congressman Roberts brought out the
tion that Utah was, or is, without pros
titufion. Shredder replies with some
remarkable statements which may we'll
be termed body blows.
For instance he declares that disso-
lutte women only. change paramours
without permission of q priest or court,
while in Utah, according to the brother
in-law quoted, a divorce can be OBJ
tained by wife at her request, and,
Shredder adds, the payment of $40 to
the church. OF course the reference is
to church divorces only. Shredder
pointedly asks if this explains what is
meant by the "greater freedom" of
which Mormon women have boasted.
TALLY the same thing; they may take
new wives when they tire of old ones
If their accounts are square at the tith-
ing house. and 1t is the duty of the
first wife to consent If the woman
does not she is damned by the
church decree. He makes reference in
support to the journal of Discources
and Documents and Covenants" So,
too, If the old wife resisted the advent
of the new, the husband might have d.
vine advice to deceive her in the matter.
Mr. Shredder adds that in some parts
of Utah so numerous were the cases of
young women who became mothers too
soon after marriage, that at a recent
church conference President George O.
Cannon publicly referred to the fact.
and the subject was there discussed,
as well as at other stake conferences.
Apostle Taylor, says Shredder, in the
Tabernacle repeated the statement, of
another, with apparent approval that
nine-tenths of the women who walked
the streets OF Salt Lake City at night
were impure, and. he added, that many
members Of the great Mormon choir
attended choir practice that they
nation. But Mr.. Shredder disagrees
with the apostle and says the picture
is overdra.wn.
But after making due allowance for
exaggeration, where else among people
claiming respectabuity would such a
statement be made upon any warrant
of facts? The scores of women who
sing in the choir considered the re-
fection on their chastity so lightly that
ever since they continue to sing praises
to God as an accompaniment to this
apostles sermons just as before.
At the present time the Brigham
Young Trust Company has several
houses of prostitution from which it
draws rents. which rents are, no doubt,
under the law of tithing, honestly di-
vided with the church. According to
the official records, the Board of Di-
rectors OF this company has fair
sprinklinE. of tithe-consuming polyga-
mist apostles. Having long profited by
the tithing collected from saints, who
needed their permission to sanctify the
takinga of additional wives, they no
y doubt found it easy to justify them
selves in also accepting portion of the
earnings of the hollow-eyed and paint
ed-cheeks courtesan.
Shredder concludes : by the defiance,