The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-02-12
POLYGAMY IS PRACTICED Charges Agaiys the Mor-
 mon z 4rch.
 S- RzPoey<t MINISTER'S. will be- sst to Judiciary Com m.. ,es of Congress. Alleged That the Followers of Brig ham Young Continue to Preach and Practice Polygamous Mar
 riages in the West.
REPORT sf MINISTER'S.

Salt Lake, Utah., Feb. 1.-The minis. terial alliance of Salt Lake has unani. mously adopted the report of the commit tee of that organization appointed to in vestigate and report on the alleged prac tice and teaching of polygamy by thu Mormons at the present time. Tais re- port is to be used as a petition for tho passage of constitutional amendment
 prohibiting polygamy and will be sent te
 the Judiciary Committees of the Con
 gress.
 The report sets forth that positive evi
 dence can be produced that polygamy
 is both practiced and taught by the Nor
 mons at the present time in open defi'
 ance of the laws of the State. The re-
 port, after quoting a number of Mormon
 leaders in favor of the practice of poiyg-
 amy and giving the dates of the same,
 dwells on the colonization schemes of the church, which, according to the commit- tees report, have a two-koid purpose viz: To enable the Mormons to. prac- tice polygamy. where they will be free from the scrutiny of their gentle neigh bors," and to secure the balance of po- litical power in the sparsely settled States of the West thus blocking the way of any proposed hostile national legislation The report sums up as follows:
 'The returns coming from parties whose reliability can in every case be vouched for by members of this body shows the following conditions prevail | ing at the present time: ''First-Polygamous cohabitation as eYl' Ax, ha birth of children the | acknowledgements of parties concerned oi concurrent testimony of neighbors and sometimes by all those, is proven to con tinue In multiplied instances in Sal Lake, Logan, Brigham City, Provo, Pay son. Smithfield, America Fork, F rice | Sandy, Toole and elsewhere in Utah, ant also in Paris and Montpelier. in Idaho. "Second-That plural marriages hav' 1 been contracted since the church mani
 festo was issued is shown 6y returns
 giving names of parties in several of th'
 above mentioned places, some of the new plural wives not having come to mar
 riageable age as early as 1890. the date oi | that document.
 ''Third-That the Mormon authoritie. 1 continue to publicly teach and insist upor | the rightfulness of polygamy is abund antly proven by public utterances of higt | officials
 Among the specific statements by churcl | leaders on the questions dwelt on in the | report is the following: Joseph F. Smith | formerly chief counsellor to President Snow. and now President of the Church said in lss6 while dedicating a meeting ! house In Payson: Take care of youl | polygamous wives. We do not care fol l Uncle Sam now.
 | President Smith, to a reporter of ths Associated Press, made the following statome mt in regard to this section of tho | report: II wish to declare emphatically that I never said any such thing, either | at Payson or any other place. l have ex l pressed my sentiments as to the families l of men who contracted plural marriages years ago. that they should provide fol and educate and take care of them ir | every proper way, and I say so now, but the remarks attributed to me about 'Cn. cle Sam I never made and the statement that | did so is utterly and wickedly false" The News, the official organ of tho Mormon Church, tonight denounces tht report Of the Ministerial Association as a mass of representations built on num- Der of stories. many of them grossly
 false; but most of them purposely exag gerated, and the whole related to very small portion of tn population of this
 State and of the Mormon part of it."
 The News adds: "The plain and simple
 truth is that polygamy is not taught or | encouraged by the authorities of the Church of Jesus Christ, or Latter Day Saints and that plural marriages are nc 1 longer solemnized but that men who con. | tracted such marriages in the past art | expected to care for. love and support 1 tn ir families and would be regarded a,
 recrt ant to their faith and violators Of | their sacred covenants if they refused oi ! neglected to do so