The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1906-05-06
and Irrational

, by way of reputation in the neighborhocd
Whether 1t was so or not do not know. and
thero Is no testimony here, except testimony
that IL charged II 30 and that people
In the ncighborhood talked about It. :.
Whether II is a fact thero is nothing hero to
show. and l personally havs no knowledge on
that subject, even such as has been admitted
hcTc.
There Is no proof here before this committee
that would stand In court for q moment that
either OF these men had taken plural wives
There has been great deal OF specula-
ton and gossip and rumor concerning
this matter, but neither OF the men sus-
pected have had any formal charge pre-
fcrred against them. which would justify
a trial. and they took the course cx-
planned, beng out of harmony with their
associates In their Views affecting vitality
the principles and policy and discipline
OF the church. on these important mat
tersr but they have not been "unmstak-
abby proved guilty in the manner
charged by the Interior.
AS TO Senator Smoot being involved In
the transgreSion OF the outlaws as IN
timated by the Interior, II has been made
perfectly clear to the committee that the
gentleman was not in any way Implicated
In their acts or their omissions, We
quote again from Mr.. Worthington In his
vigorous and irrefutable argument be-
fore the committee:
There Is no syllable of testimony herc, either
directly or by reputation-such has been ad-
mitted here on the ground that this
investigation and not a trial-which tends In
III" slightest degree 10 show TINT Senator
IL
wives had anything to do with II or knew my
moro about 1t than any member OF the COM
mitteo.
Tho Interior Is as unfortunate in Its
reasoning rs in It's allegations. Its as
sertions are positively untrue and its
deductions utterl'' devoid of logic. Be
cause two OF the apostles sent In their
designations to the council or quorum to
which they belonged, that proves, on the
sort Of reasoning adopted by the Chicago
paper that President Joseph F. Smith
and his Immediate colleagues are guilty
OF "concealing the whereabouts OF the Of
fendera and shielding them from the call
of the investigating committee rs well as
from the civil processes OF the law"
Wonderful, is II not?
The evidence. TO which perhaps the In
terror has paid no attention. Is positive
and ample that President Smith long ago
requested those two apostles to appear
before tho Committee on Privileges and
Elections, and they declined on the ground
that IL was not a church duty, and that
they were unwilling TO have their family
and private affairs pried into and pub
lished before the world after the man
ner in which other witnesses who had ap-
pearcd had been interrogatcd. No pro-
cess had ever been served upon them,
and they did not propose to place them
selves, and the Interiors Idea that be-
cause they resigned their position. any
body here is concealing them either from
civil or criminal process Of law, can
scarcely be considered rational or even
sane.
Nobody that We are aware OF has ever
preferred charge against those alleged
offenders, and therefore no necessity
exists for the president or my of his as
soclates to do anything by way OF their
concealmcnt We have noticed the re-
marks OF the Interior because IL Is re-
spectacle journal. but 1t Is evident that,
unfortunately. 1t has been drawing for It's
Information CD upon sources that arc not
only entirely unreliable, but really be-
meath public notice.