The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1906-07-07
THEIR INGRATITUDE.

| In another column is an article ~hich
the Deseret News approvingly quotes
! from the Montpelier, Idaho, Examiner,
under the title: which Turn Next!
In that precious stuff the charge is
interrogatively made that senator
Fred T. Dubois, OF Idaho, used Mormon
ecclesiastical influence for his own ad-
| vancement as long as he could get
such influence. and that he went on MS
! Bonded knees to a prominent Mormon
official and besought his help In po-
litical convention.
Senator Fred T. Dubois can afford to
leave that charge unanswered. There
is no man or woman I'm America who
has ever had the acquaintance OF Du-
bois who Will believe the accusation.
Fred Dubois is a fighter, not fraud.
But there are some things which the
Descret News seems to have forgotten,
and which perhaps the Montpelier Ex-
aminer never knew, that 1t is perth
nent now to call to their attention.
Senator Fred T. Dubois had been
known as one of the strongest oppo-
nents Of the polygamy and political In
terference OF the Mormon church.
While he should be In public lifo 1t was
deemed impossible for Utah to gain
her Statehood unless his friendship
would be secured. A prominent mis-
sionary president of the Mormon
church. then resident In Idaho, was
one of the men selected TO visit Wash
D,,h -
cept as having been made In good
faith, the manifesto inhihiting polyga-
my the promise Of withdrawal from
politics by the leaders of tho church,
and the solemn plea for amnesty made
TO President Harrison. Accredited rep
resentatives Of the church quoted to
Senator Dubois the acceptance by Chief
Justice Charles s. Zane. and other
prominent Gentiles in Utah. OF the SIN
cerity of the Mormon leaders, he was
cited 10 the fact that an apparently
honest division of the Mormon people
had been effected upon party lines.
Letters Of urgency were presented to
him from many Of his old-time GENTLE
associates In this then Territory and in
the State OF Idaho; and finally, under
a solemn covenant that neither poly
gamy nor polygamous cohabitation nor
political interference nor the subsection
Of the mass to an un-Amerlcan rule by
eccleeiasts would ever again character
ize the Mormon church. Senator Fred
r. Dubois yielded his former feelings
Of opposition and became one of the
most important factors In the settle
ment OF the Utah controversy by the
granting OF amnesty to former offend
crs, and by the granting OF Statehood
under which all Utah people now enjoy
the right Of National citizenship. No
one went on his knees to Fred T. Du-
bois In that crisis; but never in all his
life time. in ell the actions and speeches
OF his career put together, has Fred T.
Dubois ever supplicated TO all other
people and powers in this world moro
than he himself was suppllcated at that
time to lay aside his antagonisn1 and
help to uplift struggling people.
The gratitude which has been extend
ed to him. the manner In which the
ecCle5ldStS udNo hcpl tuel pToIulBe-
these are demonstrated by the fact that
In the State Legislature Mormons
pledged by their party convention to
vote for him for the United States
Senate were instructed by high eccle-
siastical authority TO vote against him,
and did so vote In violation Of all po-
litlcal honor.
The infamous traducing of the name
OF Dubois by Mormon press and speak
ers is akin to the unfairness which has
been shown In the same quarter for
former Senator Thomas Kearns OF this
State. in whose absence The Tribune
| takes opportunity to recur TO one Of
the chapters of political history In
which he was a leading figure. At
| Washington the President OF the
United States. and other leading men
OF his party. felt great fear that the
sending Of d Mormon apostle to the
| Senate would result in just What has
happened, and they expressed in un-
| mistakable terms a warning to the
Mormon leaders. Utterly regardless of
his own welfare In politics, Senator
Kearns advised the Mormon leaders
| and the people OF Utah OF the warning
which. coming from the quarter that
had originally uttered 1t, WAS no more
nor less than a threat of the kind Of