The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1906-12-12

this condition, well said;
All this Is consistent with more than
half century of its history and should
| surprise nobody except those whose gen
erous and confiding faith in promises led
them TO believe that the settled polty OF
Il great and powerful church organization
| Organization should become Independent
OF the only power II had any reason TO
| fear.
But not only are polygamy and po-
lygamous cohabitation inculcated by
the daily lives of the governing body
OF the church, but in innumerable ways
is their practice commended and aD-
proved. The doctrine Of monogamy.
that cone man should have one wife
and one woman but one husband, y con-
tanned in the Book of Mormon and
transcribed into the Book of Doctrines
| and Covenants, has been torn therefrom
by this Utah sect and the doctrine of
polvgamy substituted therefor, where
it is retained today and published in
the Book Of Doctrines and Covenants,
and placed in the hands of Mormon
teachers and scattered broadcast while
the manifesto, the antidote for this
poison, is carefully excluded and with
held from the publication. Thus is
the doctrine of polygamy promulgated
and kept alive as an existing tenet of
this Utah Mormon faith. Not only by
the written word is this Infamous doc
of the church do not hesitate to JUS
tify the crime.
Apostle Cannon S Fear.
When President Snow, in 1900, stated
that the Mormon church had aban-
doned the practice of polygamy and
the solemnization of plural marriages.
and that the church did not advise
or encourage unlawful cohabitation on
the part of any of its members, Apos
tie Cannon, after denounclng the law
against unlawful cohabitation as un-
constitutional, expressed the fear
| that
Some sneaking whelps might use this
declaration of President Snow as a pre-
text Tor desertlng some of their wives. If
| they did, they are the fellows that ought
TO be disciplined,
Apostle Penrose, referring TO the eff
feet of convictions for polygamy, de-
clared, in the Deseret News the Off
cial organ Of the church;
No church member would suffer so far
as his standing in the church is con-
cerned. because he has been convicted
No one has ever lost religious prestige be-
cause he had been convicted in a GRIM
lnal court.
George NJ. Cannon, leading mem
Der of the church, declared:
do not believe that any man who en-
tered into poygamous relations prior TO
relations by the church any membgr
OF the same. / do not believe that any
man who continues such relations Is
guilty of moral turpitude.
| Joseph +. Smith, the sainted head
of the church. pardoned for his crimes
upon the pledge of his honor 20 obey
the laws, after his testimony before
the committee wherein his polygamous
relations were disclosed, and as re-
| Gently as 1904, declared In a public
address in the Tabernacle at Salt Lake
City that if he were TO discontinue the
| polygamous relations with his plural
wives he should be forever damned
and forever deprived of the companion
ship of God and those most dear to him
throughout all eternity.
When complaint was made against
Heber j. Grant, one Of the twelve apos-
ties, for living in polygamous cohab-
| ltation, he was at once promoted by
the first presidency and the twelve
apostles to foreign mission, declared
by Smith TO be both important and
honorable, A book entitled HReady
References, published under the aus
pices of the Mormon church for the use
and guidance of missionaries and stu
dents, is devoted chiefly TO an advocacy
of polygamy,
In 1898, at conference of young
people S societies. Mrs. Freeze,
Mormon, defended the practice of po-
/
| divine command.
Apostle Woodruff stated that belief
| IN polygamY was as much a part of the
! faith Of the Mormon church today as
il ever was, and that while IN defer
ence to the laws of the United States
plural marriages were not practiced at
the present time. IT was nevertheless
believed to be right, and the Gov
ernment was condemned for suppress
ing it, and the young people present
were admonished that they could not
deny this part of the Mormon belief
without at the same time denying the
prophet,
In report Of the Utah Commission,
made after the manifesto, ii is stated
| that polygamous marriages are being
conducted in Utah by the church, and
asserting that some forty polygamous
marriages could be accounted for, and
the total percentage In the Mormon
that records of plural marriages are
kept secret in the Mormon temples
! Angus NJ. Cannon, the possessor of
| three wives, as late n s 1904 Is exalted
TO a patriarch of the Mormon church.
1t is n significant fact that no one
| who has taken plural wife since 1890
has been punished by the church au-
! thorities
Plural marriage performed in Mexico
| by lawful priest of the Mormon
church is considered by the church ms
ecclesiastical, legal and valid
| In Idaho resolutions against polyg-
amy and polygamous cohabitation were
opposed by members of the Mormon
church as being hostile TO the church
When the records of marriages in
the Mormon church were called for by
the committee, the head of the church
refused to permit the book containing
the records of plural marriages to be
brought before the committee,
j. NJ. Tanner, a polygamist, and re-
puted to have taken n plural wife
since the manifesto, is appointed super
intendcnt of the Sunday schools of the
Mormon church throughout the world,
the Senator concurring in the selection.
In 1903 Hebcr J. Grant stated be-
fore the students in the State Uni
versity of Salt Lake City that he gave
$50 for himself $50 for each of my
wives. I have got two wives. and [
would have a third if 1T were not for
the law.
[ submit therefore. in the light of
all the testimony in the case. il can
not be successfully coptended that the
hierarchy, of which the Senator is
member, does not use its authority to
nj l.,I, ~