The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1906-12-15
BISHOP TALBOT ON MoRMoNs.


the discussion of Mormon church and
political affairs in the west is in Bish =.
op Ethelbert Talbot's new book. MY
People of the Plains" just issued by
Harper's. The bishop writes from a
long experience in Utah, Wyoming and
the mountain country generally. Here
in Salt Lake he-has long been regarded
with admiration and affection, both be-
cause of his personality and his great
work as an Episcopal missionary bish-
op- What he thinks. therefore, is Of in
terest as coming from an authoritative
source. He prefaces his chapter On the
Mormons by saying that he has no
means of knowing exactly how far the
practice of pOlygamy has prevailed
since the Woodruff manifesto IN 1890,
but he thinks it involves less than per
cent of the people.
Then he says. besides the eccle-
siastical and civil barriers now i'm
posed. two other considerations have
increasing weight i'm eliminating polyg-
amy. I refer, first, 10 the economical
question involved. As the country is
becoming more thicklv settled COM
petition and the difficulties of living
makes increasing demand on ones re-
sources. When one considers how much
il costs the ordinary carpenter, iaborsr,
mechanic, clerk, farmer, to Keep the
average American nome With It's regu-
lation number of children. say one sor
and one daughter. and one wife. it be-
comes evident that polygamy is lux
ury for the few only, inside Of Nor
monism, as it is outside and that only
the well-to-do classes can support tryc
homes.
But a second and more potent in
nuence is the effect OF education and
contact with American civilization.
Meanwhile many of the bright children.
sens and daughters OF the more pros
porous families, are being sent east
i'm large numbers, year by wear, the
young men to Yale, Harvard, Columbia.
and the young women to Smith Vassar
end Wellesley colleges. However 10y
ally these people may cling TO the re-
ligious traditions of their fathers. it is
impossible to conceive of them as pass
ing four or five years in the atmosphere
and companionship of Christian homes
without being made to see, by contact,
The immea surable difference in their
environment. Indeed, those best quail
fled to know whereof they speak as
sure us that in the last decade there
has been going on among the young
women of Utah and the Mormon ale
glance generally a growth of repug-
nance. amounting in many instances
10 loathing, at the very idea of polyg-
amy. We are also informed that the
young men are keeping pace with them
in that regard.
"As 1 am writing this article the
question of permitting Senator Smoot'
p Mormon apostle but not pOlygamist,
to retain his seat is now pending. In
is at least significant that no charges
are brought against him as TO the
purity of his family life. The real con-
tention of this investigation now going
on is that Senator Smoot represents not
The people of Utah. but the Mormon
hierarchy, and that he should be de-
barred from his scat in the senate be-
cause h was nominated only after for
mally asking the consent of that hier-
archy
In other words, it is claimed that
Senator Smoot is not a free agent, but
the tool of a powerful ecclesiastical
body within the body polite Nhieh is
openly and often defantlv upholding
and even promoting fragrant vioiaters
of the law against living in poIygainy.
There was a time when polygamy
was the distinctive doctrine OF Nor
inonism. Now it is rapidly becoming a
thing Of the past. 1t is being relegated
to the dark ages AS we have already
seen, the coming hosts of young men
and women who will control its future
win no longer tolerate il. They have
already seorned and repudiated it. not
20 much because the law of church and