The Coeur d'Alene press. (Coeur d'Alene, Idaho) 1892-1907, 1904-10-01

Of three are the absolute authority
Ia the Mormon church, who have
been engaged in these polygamous
practices since the manifesto.
The Merrill case shows to what
depths Of degradation they bring
women, with what contempt ther
look upon Womanhood, the sancIty Of
the home and the martial relations.
Young Merrill testified himself, under
osth, and give you his testimony AZ
be gave IL before the senate com
mittee. He married q wife Ia 1887,
and another wife in 1883. His FIRST
wife died in 1889. In 1891 bis
father, an apostle and q polygamist
himself with six wives, married this.
young man 70 another wife.
'Tney justified IL % the ground
that under our laws the wife married
In 1888 was not his wife, and that
the wife who was married ia 1887
and died in 1889 was his legal wife.
Therefore. be had no wife when she
died. and the wife be married 10
1891 was his Legal wife. The poor
woman who was married in 1883,
according TO these brazen subterfnges,
never did occupy the relation Of
wife to him.
PRESIDENT SMITH ADMISSION
Joseph r. Smith, the president
and the autocrat OF the church. whose
word is law, and whose example is a
percept, testified before the same
senate committee that be had i've
wires and ~ children, and that I3
children bad been born to him since
the manifesto had been issued. which
he himself signed, and that every one
Of bls wives had borne him children
since the manifesto. He asked the
United States senate and the country
what they we're going to do about it.
He asserted that the people Of Utah
upheld him In these practices, and.
If IL suited them, il was nobody else's
business.
with this example constantly
before them Of defiance Of the Law.
and of their leaders entering into
new polyeamOus relations, is il TO be
wondered at that the rank and Ole.
who look up to their leaders as an
example in all things, should persist
in these practicesf There are a great
many MOrmons living in the polyg-
Rmous relation in Idaho, and there
are great many Mormons who have
taken plural wives since the mani
festo.
''One Of the subterfuges Is the
statement, with flourish. that there
has not been a polyFamous marriage
Ia Idaho since the manifesto. Mr..
Z 6oodine and Mr.. French aud MIR.
Borah and those other gentlemen who
have made their compact with the
Mormon authorities reiterate this
statement with much junction. and
ask me TO show where a new polyr-
amous marriage has been entered
/ into IN Idaho since the manifesto.
ARE PERFORMED IL UTAH.
u will so further than they, and
not only admit that there has not
been a poiygamous marriage eele-
brsted ia Idaho since the manifesto.
bat ia my opinion few, II any. poIye
amous marriages have ever been cele-
/ GRATED ia Idaho These marriages
are performed ia the Mormon temples
Ia Utah, where 20 record ehatever Of
them is kept. The young Mormon
from Idaho takes bis Intended plural
wife &c Logan, where. ia the secret
{ precincts Of the Mormon temple the
! plural marriage ceremony is preform-
81 by Utah officials Il the Mormon
church, and no record 1T it can ever
lse bad. When be returns TO Idaho
with his plural wife. aud the children
come, the facts are made plain Ia his
neirhbors.
The CHURCH IN POLITICS.
the Mormon church, continued
( Senator Dubois, after the manifesto.
! was quiet, aud apparently the organ
ization lived up TO its promise and
was obeiient 10 the laws until after
statehood was secured for Utah in
1920. Il then gradually. bat persis-
tently. secured the repeal Of the
national legislation. which escheated
/ the church property and otherwise
bore heavily upon il and quietly
! removed from the statutes Of Idaho
every law for the punishment Of sex
ual crimes. We are about the only
state in the union whore there are no
laws to safeguard the purity of the
home, the sancity Of the marriage
vow, aud to punish wrongdoers Of
our growing girls.
They became holder aud holder
after these laws were repealed, and