The Weiser semi-weekly signal. (Weiser, Washington Co., Idaho) 1904-1911, 1904-10-29

| tices? There are a great many Nor
mons living in the polygamous rela-
tion in Idaho, aud there are a great
many Mormons who have taken plural
wives since the manifesto.
One of the subterfuges is the state
ment, with flourish, that there has
not been polygamous marriage in
Idaho since the manifesto. Mr..
Gooding, Mr.. French, Mr.. Borah and
those other gentlemen who have made
their compact with the Mormon au-
thorities reiterate this statement with
much JUNCTION and ask me to show
where a new polygamous marrige has
been entered into in Idaho since the
manifesto.
| will go further than they and not
only admit that there has not been a
polygamous marriage celebrated in
Idaho since the manifesto but in my
opinion, few. if any, polygamous
marriages have ever been celebrated
in Idaho. These marriages are per-
formed in the Mormon temple in
Utah, where no record whatever of
them is kept. The young Mormon
from Idaho takes his intended plural
wife to Logan, where, in the secret
precincts of the Mormon temple
there the plural marrige is performed
by Utah officials of the Mormon
church, and no record of it can be
had. When he returns to Idaho with
his plural wife, and the children
come, the facts are made plain to his
neighbors.
The Mormon church after the mani
festo, was quiet and apparently the
organization lived up to its promise
and was obedient to the laws until |
statehood was secured for Utah in
1896. 1t then, gradually, but per-
sistently secured the repeal of the
national legislation, which escheated
the church property and otherwise
bore heavily upon it and quietly re-
moved from the statutes of Idaho ev-.
cry law for the punishment of sexual
cri mes.
They became holder and holder af-
ter these laws we're repealed, and dur
ing our last election, two years ago,
now the Mormon authorities sent John
Henry Smith and Matthias F. Cowley.
two polygamous Mormon apostles
from Utah, to southeastern Idaho to
instruct the Mormons there how they
should vote. When our last state
legislature was in session, less than two
years ago, this same polygamous
apostle from Utah, John Henry Smith.
appeared and secured the passage of
resolution to take the test oath out
of our constitution.
This test oath in our constitution
provides for the punishment of those
who teach, practice or encourage
polygamy or unlawful cohabitation.
or who put the ecclesiastical above
the civil law. The test oath was do
ing no harm to the people who were
living up to the laws of the land.
These open and flargant interferences
OF those high in authority in Utah
with the politics of Idaho. added TO
innumerable smaller cases all over
southeastern Idaho, has aroused our
people to the sense that they demand
that 1T cease. AS soon as the people
attention of the state was called I'd
the fact that John Henry Smith had
secured the passage of this resolution
through the legislature for the call
ing of constitutional convention
their indigntion was quickly made so
manifest that the Mormon attorney
General OF the state, Mr.. Bagley. de-
clared that the resolution was i'm
properly passed and would not be
submitted to the people.
Neither the republican leaders nor
the Mormon leaders dared face the ,
Issue OF a new constitutional conyen- ]
tlon, the avowed purpose of which
was to take the test oath ont of on ,
constitution. /,
In Utah the church selected one of {
It's apostles, Reed Smoot, to be a
United States Senator President /
Joseph F. Smith testified before the {
senate committee under oath that
Reed Smoot could not have been a {
candidate for the United States Sen 9
ate unless he had first received per- {
mission'from the president of the I
cnurch. He testified that Reed
Smoot asked permission to be can {
oioate for the senate, that he gave his {
and that he did not give his [
consent to any one else to be can Z
didate.
MS consent, of course, was an or
der 70 the Mormon people to elect c
apostle Reed smoot as United states .
oenatof from Utah This WAS "a ,,oll / n