The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1906-11-28
DEMANDING ALL.

Some of the pious polygamists of the
community feel resentful because Gen
tiles criticise the domineeriug tone
which polygamists assume in public
affairs. That man openly engaged
in polygamous practice shall assume
leadership in local politics, in the man
agement Of the schools, and in other
civic affairs, and shall arrogate unto
himself prerogatives of dictatlon SUI
perior to those which are permitted
to other men. constitutes one of the
anomalies of our civic situation. And
the wonder which polygamists express
at the indignation Of Gentiles, be-
cause of this anomaly, adds TO the
popularity.
This particular phase of the ques-
ton, segregated from the general out
cry against polygamy and pclygamous
living in Utah, is worthy of thought
full consideration. Unless there shall
be some rule of conduct, consistent
with the facts. established by polvg-
amists for their own guidance, there
is bound TO be controversy so long
as they assume leadership in civic af-
fairs Adopting some rule not incon.
sistent with their own claimed rights
and the actual rights of the communi-
ty, they might live out their "sanc-
tifed' lives according to the "tacit
understanding which they had with
themselves.
1t would seem to most men with
ethical sense that Mr., Polygamist A,
B. or c, after escaping the peniten
tiary through the benefaction of a
President Of the United States, and
after having his civil rights restored,
was confronted by this issue: "Shall
/ keep my covenant with the coun~
try and enjoy all the privileges of cit.
izenship within the country: or shall
l keep my covenant with the wives
whom | married before the manifesto
and live out my polygamous life as
quietly as a man may live with mul-
tifarious conjugal obligations, without
exercising the franchise, without at
tempting to hold office or to partici-
pate in the direction of civic affairs y
1t is his refusal TO consider this ques.
ton, TO answer it logically, and to act
in accordance with sensible reply,
that occasions the present difficulty
upon this particular point.
Polygamists insist that their religion
and their covenants with their wives
require them to live with those wives,
and similarly they insist that they
must exercise all the rights of citi
zenship, which were forfeit TO them
in the later years of Utath 8 Territorial
Government, and which we're only re-
stored upon their promise TO discard
the one in order to enjoy the other,
just in proportion to the extent of
mist asserts, and very often exercises
larger power and influence in civic af
fairs than does his monogamist
neighbor. Under any construction that
is scarcely fair. The violation of the
covenant to the country was deliber~
ate and dishonest 1t becomes more
extensively dishonest when the man
flaunts his forbidden relations in the
face of the world, and when he, be-
cause of this falsehood and treachery,
arrogantly claims an extraordinary
power OF community direction.
They tell story up north which
illustrates the proposition, A cashier
looted a bank for more than two hun
dred thousand dollars The president
and some of the directors went broke
in their efforts to preserve the good
name of the institution, And the cash
ier S wife, out Of the proceeds of his
theft, offered to buy the family resi-
dence Of the wrecked president Of the
looted bank That was some nerve;
but it is no more than the average
polygamist shows in Utah in arrogantly