Arizona weekly journal-miner., 1900-02-07
POLYGAMY OPPOSED.
Younger Generation of Mormons
 Against It.
Evidence Secretly Furnished Unit ed States Authorities fin Legal Proceedings by Mormon
 Children.

Tt IS great mistake to suppose that ! the MormOns are united in secret in- , dorsement of polygamy," said a resi- dent of Salt Lake City the other day. i The younger element-that is, the
 children of the original emigrants
 from Nauvoo, back in 1s47-is bitterly opposed to the practice and has prac- tically stamped it out. When the Unit ed States authorities began to enforce
 the general law on the subject in 1885
 they could never have made out a single
 case had it not been for the evidence they were privately furnished by the
 younger Mormons and on the strength
 of that information they sent dozens of
 the most prominent men of the terri tory to the penitentiary. That is q well-known fact, although. of course. it would be denied. The fight on polyg- amy in the church ranks is what might
 be called sweethearts' war.
 "The women among the early settlers didn't know enough to stick up for their rights. They were cowed b, hardship and persecution and were under the thumbs of the men, but their daughters are of different breed. The average Mormon girl of the present day is a beautiful, healthy, high-spirited crea- ture. with a good education. a deep chest and mind of her own. She won't stand for pOlygamy not for moment. and when the sweethearts lay down the law the young men are pretty certain to obey. Anyhow, that's been the case out in Utah. As a young business man of Salt Lake City said to me recently: We have better wives now and we don't need so many of them He was a son of an early apostle of the church and he has more stepmothers than he could count on his fingers and toes Roberts represents the older element, now rap Utah is dead against him.
 "I am Gentle" continued the speak er-"you know every body in Utah who isn't a Mormon is a Gentle. even though he be Jew, but have lived out there since '72 and believe know the people thoroughly. They are very much misunderstood by the outside world. Very few are aware, for instance, that the textbook of their religion is the Bible. The Book of Mormon is simply a supplementary volume, purporting to give a history of the lost tribe that set tied in the western world. The princi- pal distinctive feature of their faith is what they call continuous revelation In other words, the heads of the church claim to be guided directly by messages from God, but nowadays comparatively little stress is laid on that point. Old Brigham Young used it with tremen- dOus effect among his simple-minded followers and it undoubtedly lent un- paralleled authority to all his com mands, but at present it is not much more than respectable tradition.
 The modern Mormon church is real ly a well-mannered and highly success ful business organization. It conducts a cooperative store. which is the only concern of its kind in the world which has never suffered any reverse. The es- tablishment is popularly known as the z. (. NJ. L. which means Zion Cooper ative Mercantile institution, and the parent house in Salt Lake City has branches all over the state. Ii deals in everything from powder puffs to blows and supplies the members at wholesale rates. An orphan is always considered the child of the church apl is educated and cared for out of the general fund The system of 'tithing.' about which a good many misstatements have been made, is simply voluntary contribu- tion of one-tenth of the annual increase of personal property or income for church purposes. If not given it is never asked, and the greater part of it is-spent in charity. These are merely a few isolated facts, which I mention at random. The truth IS the Mormons are d singularly happy, prosperous and well-behaved lot of people. and have no problems that are not rapidly solving themselves. ."-N. O. Times-Democrat.