The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1904-04-13
PRESIDENT SMITH OF
THE MORMON CHURCH
A Few Facts About the Horrors of
PoIygamy-Growth of Nor
monism and Its Designs.

Alfred Henry Lewis gives the Smith
family a great write-up in the current
number of Golfers Weekly. Charles
Dana Gibson contributes full-page por-
trait of "Latter-Day Saint" which is
about as effective Caricature of the
present president Of the Mormon church
as could be drawn. He has ball and
chain attached to the left ankle, which
the gifted draughtsInan has full permiss-
ION from the apostles own admissions to
| introduce. But turning from Mr.. Glib
son strongly imaginative lines to the
following pages, we find a faithful por-
traiture OF the president OF the Mormon
church and his family, Joseph +. Smith
and each Of his five living wives and the
Salt Lake City residences of each. They
are all comfortably, ii not uxuriouslv,
housed. With the skill Of a siatistician,
Alfred Henry Lewis presents the history
OF the Joseph +. Smith family in concise
and tabulated form:
Number of wives married to joseph
Smith since 1865, six.
Number OF children born to him in
thirty-cight years, forty-tWo.
Number OF children born since plural
marriage was prohibited in 1890, thir-
teen.
Estimated income available for sup
porting five establishments, $4,000.
Corporations, banks and factories of
which Joseph Smith is a director, TWEEN.
ty.
The only Mormon apostle who sur
passes this record of President Smith is
Nj. w. Murrill, who has had wives. Is
children and $50 grandchildren. Accor-
ding to Mr.. Lewis, Reed Smoot is in the
senate for the safeguarding of polvgamv.
If this is true, the quicker Reed Smoot
is expelled from the senate the better
it will be. The Mexican colonies are
colonies Of polyagmists. The Mormon
church has not eradicated polygamy, and
while its leading apostles continue to
practice it, and the laws of Utah pro-
hibiting it are a dead letter, there can
be no regeneration OF the church on
this point.
! In his graphic and effective stvle. Mr..
| Lewis sketches the condition of the
| Mormon woman and the plural wife.
"a system" he says, that marries two
sisters on the same day to the same man
| by the one ceremony OF marriage--as has
| been often the favorite case with our
| MOrmons, notably with George, brother
of Moses Thatcher, who at a single we'd
ding took twin sisters to wife--is sut
ciently black when merely stated to
cause a shudder in the breast OF anv
who owns a nature above that of the
beasts that perish. But hedarkest side
OF MOmonism is seen when one considers
| the stamp OF moral and mental degrade
/ ton it sets upon those men and women
who comprise what one might term the
peasantry OF the church. Woman is, as
the effect OF Mormonisn, peculiarly
made to retrograde. Instead of being
uplifted, She is beaten down. She must
not think she must not feel she must not
know, she must not love. Her only
safety lies in being blind and deaf land
dull and senseless to every better senti.
ment OF womanhood. She is to divide a
| husband with one or two or three or ev.
en- ten she is not to be wife, but only
the fraction Of wife-Oten neglected
fraction. The moment she looks upon
herself as anything other than a bearer
OF childaen, she is lost. Should she
rebel-and in her ignorance and help
lessness she does not know how to enter
upon practical revolt-she becomes al
outcast; creature OF no shelter, nC
food, no friend, no home"
4ho w iicN " dtdl hlAlI IiOl
and particularly with Smoot, the fol
lowing commends itself "As long a.
politicians make market for the Nor
mon vote at the polls and in Legislative
bodies, just so loug will the leaders try
to stay III politics. In Utah, Idaho anc
Wyoming the Mormons hold the balance
of power in close elections. Should the
margin be narrow, they could swing
Colorado. This means nine, and pos
sihly more, electoral votes. 1t is well t.
bear this and the approaching presiden
tial election in mind in watching thu
course OF the political parties toward
Smoot. Conservative men outside thu
church, who have given the so-calleC
Mormon problem a great deal OF thought
agree i'll general upon the proper policy
Most of them believe in the rejection o
Smoot to diminish the of hope politica
reward for church leaders, as such pas
sage of constitutional amendment t
take the prosecutions for polygamy on
of local influenc and place them in thu
federal courts, and the stoppage of per
secution of the Mormon people on pure
ly religious grounds. This done, thu
people of Utah can work out the rest.
Tacoma Ledger.