The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1904-02-14
MORMON POLYGAhISTS
ARE WELCOME IN MEXICO
FOR POLITICAL REASONS
They Act as a Check on Other
Americans Who May Seek
Annexation.
COLONIES PROSPERING
About 5000 Have Emigrated from
Utah to President Diaz's
Domain.
PLURAL WIVES THE RULE
Men Marry as Often as They Can
Coax Girls to Accept Them
as Husbands.
PLURAL WIVES THE RULI
cial Correspondence of the journal.

Special Correspondence of the Journal
DUBLAN Mexico, Feb. 2.-The Mormons
are coming into Mexico. Already more
than 5000 of these Latter Day Saints have
taken I'D their residence in the land of the
Aztecs. They are coming here from Utah.
founding colonies and opening up large
and prosperous settlements.
One of the oldest Mormon communities
Is Colonia Juarez, located twenty miles
south of this town. 1t is one of the most
prosperous of these Mormon localities;
village of 1900 population. with every indi-
cation of increasing wealth resulting from
thrift and favorable natural conditions.
Water is brought out from the neighboring
streams and distributed over the fertile
soil The result has been almost magical.
Fruitful orchards and green fields spread
out over lands once arid and affording
only scant pasture during the rainy sea-
son.
Not less prosperous Is this town of Dub
Ian. The very ground upon which the 5000
followers of Brigham Young now dwell in
comfortable homes has. within the past
fifteen years, been reclaimed from a state
Of partial desert. and made productive
through irrigation.
These Mormons are a very busy people;
a quiet, energetic people. So much has
been written about their faults, and so lit
tie has been said about their better quail
ties that the American people can scarcely
think of them as having any redeeming
features.
But give the Mormon his dues, even
though we differ from him in matters of
religion, and fight him to a finish on his
polygamous practices. Set it down as a
fact that he has many estimable qualities
He is strictly honest in all his business
dealings. He is Industrious, self-helpful,
and cheerful in extending a helping hand
TO others. He does not use tobacco in any
form, and omits all kinds of intoxicants
from his list of drinks; that is, if he is
a good Mormon" and lives UP to the
teachings of the church. His religious code
supplies him with rules for his guidance in
daily life. Some of these are excellent, and
are not different from those universally
recognized by Christian people as the basic
principles of right living.
1t is in his clinging tenaciously to the
assumed revelation made by Joseph Smith
that causes the Mormon and his Gentle
brother to part company. The Mormons
insist that their founder was direct me-
dunn through which the Supreme Author
of the Universe added to the revelation
heretofore made known, or supplied that
portion of the inspired word which had,
during the centuries of ignorance, become
lost.
DIVINELY ORDERED.
They teach that polygamy is divinely or
dered, and was embodied among the early
principles of revelation. They point to
Abraham, David and Solomon and other
Jewish characters as having recognized
polygamy as a divine institution They
class Joseph Smith in the line of success
cio of frcr thot
what he has to say about the duty of mar
rying more than one wife as though it had
been made known by Paul or Matthew
In conversation with one of the leaders
of the Mormon Church, / called his atten-
ton TO the fact that the birth rate of male
and female in the human family is about
equal If the duty 10 marry more than one
wife were urged and universally accepted
to be true, unequal division of the fe-
male population would be sure to follow.
That is. for every man who would marry six
wives as his divinely appointed lot five
men would be doomed to pass their years
of mortal life in the domain of bachelor
dom.
That is one way of looking at the ques-
tion," he replied, but we get our directions
from Joseph Smith, and feel have
no right to doubt that ii is best for man
kind, in that. through him, polygamy was
Whatever Inconsistencies in the Mormon
religion may be pointed out to its adher-
ents, they will finally take refuge behind
the statement, 1T has been divinely or
dered" that it should be so and So There
are few church people more sincere and
earnest in the Advancement of their faith
than the MOrmons. They will stop right
in the midst of business transactions and
talk Mormonism to any one desiring infor-
nation. They are not arbitrary dicta-
torial, and speak mildly and in the most
guarded terms of what they consider err
rors in other religious denominations.
The shafts OF criticism hurled at the Nor
CONTINUED ON PAGE ?, PART q