The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-10-27
LORD MIMIC ON THE MoRMONs
New York SUM

(NeW York SUM-
Lord Mimic. governor general of
Canada, has recently paid a visit to
the Mormon settlements near the
southwest corner of Alberta. He and
his party were greatly pleased with
the evidences they saw of thrift and
contentment. No pioneers on the plains
of western Canada have made a better
record as good citizens and happy and
prosperous farmer o folk. What the
followers of Joseph Smith did for the
valleys of the salt Lake region the
second and third generation after them
have done for their little corner of the
great Alberta plain.
Within sight of their eight villages
and their thousands of acres of wheat
and grazing lands are the Rocky noun
tain ranges and the glacier-fed streams
from these mountains have been tapped
by irrigation canals. and their waters
led to all the villages and farm lands
OF the Mormon settlements. On this
prairie, dry, bare and a few years ago
tenantless, the MormOns raised last
year $4,000 bushels of wheat for export.
ground all their flour at their own mill
in CaTdstOn, sheared the wool from TO-
GOO sheep, and made a great deal of
cheese in their own factory and sent
all their children to good schools. Their
villages have no hotels or saloons, but
they are blessed with clean streets,
good drainage and neat houses The
approval which Lord MintO's party
cOnfers upon the MOrmOnS and their
work is in striking contrast with the
suspicion and mistrust they aroused
during their early days in Canada as
shown in the annual reports of the in
terror department for some years after
1886.
In June, 1886, twelve families of Nor
mons, comprising sixty souls, arrived
on the plain of southwest Alberta,
after long wagon journey from Utah.
They were under the leadership of G
O. Card whose wife was a daughter of
are still the most prominent members
OF the colony. now mum OerinS 5000
souls, and one of the reports of Lord
Minto'S visit says of Mrs. card, who is
a potent force among the immigrants,
that Ito her own force of character she
owes the remarkable influence which
she wieldS with admirable intelligence
and sympathy for the good of all.
In the following year Mr. J. $ Den
mis-, agent OF the Dominion government,
was sent to the cOloniStS to see
what manner of people they were. In
his report to the interior department he
expressed establishment al the progress
they had made in so short a time; but
he thought their immigration in large
numbers was not to be encourag ed- He
said they were silent when he asked
them if they practiced or professed
pOlygamy, though they said they would
some of them were fugitives from JUS
tice in the United States, having prac-
ticed pOlygamy in Utah. L cannot
help feeling" he wrote, that decisive
action should be taken TO prevent the
growth of 2 power that, beginning IN
the same small way in the United
States, has for years set the law or
that country at defiance
Shortly after this report was printed
il was discovered that there was no law
IN In a. Of he lnT
seemed wholly to TT the case of the
Mormons and parliament lost no time
in passing strenuous anu-polygamy
law that is still in force. The accounts
OF Lord Minto'S visit agree, as one or
the reports puts 1t, that not only Is
there no pOlygamy among the Mormon
immigrants, but, as visitors to their
settlements Will find, the practice OF
polygany is now regarded among them
with precisely the same feeling of
adherence as among men and women
in any other part of this Christian
land
The accuracy of this latter statement
may be doubted. The Mornons IN
Canada have not violated the law OF
the land. and there is no reason to
believe that they have any intention
10 incur its penalties. But no Mormon
in this country or any other mas ao-
jured the principle of polygamy ana ne
could not do so without repudiatinS the
Articles of Faith of his church, of
which article vii is the basis OF his
belief. that the revelation of the right
and duty to practice polygamy was
message from the divine ruler tney
are dumb today when asked II they
believe in pOlygamy. as they were
when Dennis questioned theIn ms
fact does not detract from the many
admirable qualities which the Nor
mons in Canada have exhibited NOT
the least praiseworthy feature OF their
life for fourteen years in Alberta IS
the hospitabie and kindly welcome
they have extended to the Gentlies VINO
have come to live among them with
whom they have maintained the most
kindly relations
1t was several years before the Of
fetal reports on the Mormon colony
were free from a strain of suspicion
and8 unfriendliness, but opposition
finally melted away in face OF the re-
markable development and irreproach-
able behavior of the new Corners mus
an appendix to the report OF the MN
lister oS agriculture in 1890 said; rug