The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1904-03-14
THE MORMON INVESTIGATION.
The American Home Is the Best
Thing We Have.
lDenYer POSI-

Denver sPost.)
The country is stil gasping over tho
testimony OF President Smith OF the Nor
mon church before the senatorial com.
Senator Smoot. While il was generally
charged and believed that polygamy con-
tlf0es 70 exist IN Ctan, the people OF tne
country had settled down to regarding il
- n mysterious practice. hedgeds about
by the veil Of secrecy. They expected the
Mormons 70 deny the charges and chat
lenge anybody 10 prove that the institu-
ton OF plural wives fIouilsned-
Therefore the bold and candid admis-
sions and explanations made by President
smith have surprised the country so
strongly that only a few newspapers ap-
pear 70 know what 10 say and the public
Is saying nothing. The senatorial conf
mitee moy put its cars TO the Srounc
and hear no sound.
Verify, in this day and age of trace
SuicidC. when there has been a great
campaign against the growth or a nation
al sim OF small families. and when from
the pulpits come thuBdefs of denuncia-
zion of the repression and restriction OF
births. the spectacle of President Smith
/ facing the country with the admission
that ne has fOrty-two chilCren, is dlsccn-
certing and confusing
Forty-two children. 1t Is almost beyond
[ the comprehension Of the average man
with one. two or three small tyrants at
his 1ODe-SWeet tyranfs that drive the
Wlfc. his mother and his mOthcr-in-laW
f.
dTen! The thought makes the average
mans eyes ron up i'm his head,
Perhaps the death Of comment on
President Smiths testimony is owing 10
sstonished wonder over what sort OF
nerves these men possess. The average
man smiles sadly when two or three
youngStsrs are playing IRE riot ana pat
tie in the house and remarks: All, 1
/ have nerves Of STEEL"
What kind Ct nerves do they have in
/ Utah?
/ The motives Of the Mormon leaders can
4 be easily understood. They realize that
/ it is utterly Incompatible with the dignity
! Therefore President Smith has presented
/ himself as the chOpping block and sought
] to make clear these points.
The church never repudiated pOlygamy
as wrong. but simply decided TO obey the
/ Law of the land BY not sanctiOning more
plural marriages after 1890.
! No such marriages have Deen sanctioned
/ by the church since 1890. nor does il teach
4 pOlygamy in the sense of encOurag ing II,
but its position is one of Inerely asserting
! a principle such as, for example. the
! southern people believing that slavery
was. right but submitting TO the Jaw which
J abolished it,
/ However. President Smith still lives
! with the wives he had prior to lSS0 and
/ they have borne him children. which he
! acknowledges TO be unlawful, but he
| saws. defiantiy:
Il have broken the laws of Utah and
only Utah has the right to deal with me;
It is not the affair Of congress.
! We shall not desert our wives and
children said the pOlygamOus prelate.
I But was IL necessary to have more
polyganious children?' asked the com
mittee
Thereupon this extraordinary father.
/ who has so many children that he could
/ lot give all their names, or ages, or De
Qnite sure of the mothers. rose in wrath
/ and asked of the committee if cessation
tof the marriage relation was not deser-
To woman. declared the Mormon
apostle. the failure of a man 10 act as a
husband was the very acme and essence
When it is. all sImmered down. il is seer
that the at titude of the MOrmou church
is practically the same as that Of many
anarchists. who denounce the institution
of marriage. as we practice il, and as We
! hold IL sacred, as being really a blot en-
civilization. producing general immortality
and creating prostitution
We
The Mormon says that homogeneous
marriage is a. Whit6d sepulcher; that thC
husbands either sedtfce other mems wives
| and daughters or help to keep prOstitu'
ton in a flOurishing condition. Poly
gamy puts an end 10 these evils ana alsC
stops the wholesale child slaughter wnicf
ravages the country with the. destructoiT
Of the native. people and which We can
The anarchist saws that matrimony
| which is based on the idea of persona
property, that is to say. on the womai
being a chattel, is. wicked and corrupt
ing.
One proposes to cure it by .polygamy
the other by the abolition Of narriaS'
as we now practice il.
But the fatal defect of both sides. which
puts them beyond the pale, is the destruc
ton of the home.
There are many happy homes, true
There arc faithful husbands. true Their
are false wives. true. Prostitution Is al
evil which seems TO thrive on our matrl
. monial system, true.
| But what the polyRamists and the free
lovers do not realiZe is this: There ar
numberless happy homes. There ar
numberless faithful husbands There ar
numberless true wives. And. admittlnl
the evil of marital faithfulness betweel
two persons tied together. admitting tn
entire array of evil, il is nevertheless bet
= ter TO endure the bad than to lose tn
5 happy American home, which is the bes
there is in this world
The assumption that all husbands ar
faithless IS a ridiculous lie. There Is
vast array of manly, clean-minded, gal
LIANT American men who are true 70 thei
wives and faithful to their tiresideS.
These men hurl back the aspersion ina
, the American home is built on deceit an
I hypocrisy. The arguments in favor o
: polygamy and free-love arc an insult I
4 them. II others can't live as they liy
and can't find happiness in clean life,
is not their fault.
The majority of American men do no
; 1 need a revolution to lead decent lives
They are true TO their firesides and whe
aroused on the subject. they will ss
! that no man who believes in doctrine
/ that a st,cf-ef. the American home snail -