The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1906-09-02
THE IDAHO ADDRESS.


mittee of Idaho is a powerful state
ment Of the existing conditions af law
| lessness and church domination in Ida.
| ho, in 80 far as the ecclesiasts of Utah
can exercise their sway; and that this
sway is absolute over the members or
tho Mormon church is known Of all
men. This address is a cry against
! wrong, outrage, and civic treason. 1t
| is put With tremendous force and
power. It shows that polygamy is not
| only praoticed in Idaho, but that it is
alarmingly on the increase, IL draws
an effective picture Of the condition of
children born in polygamous relations
at this time and who will, under the
condemnation OF the law at their birth,
be after while dishonored citizens of
that State. The appeal which the ad-
dress makes in this connection to the
women of Idaho is full Of moral vigor,
and must prove enormously effective Ia
it's demand for the purity and preser-
walton in its integrity Of tho monog-
amous home and of the right of every
child to honorable birth, and to q legal
standing among the citizenship Of that
State, which shall be free from all taint
and legal disabilities.
The disgrace brought upon the peo-
pie OF Idaho By the scandalous tes-
timony given by Representative
French, in which he stolidly, and with
out sense, reason, decency, or authority,
claimed that the people Of Idaho con-
doned the crime Of polygamy and un-
lawful ohabitation, is lamented, and
his course ftly and scathingly de.
nounccd. The appeal to the voters of
Idaho to resent this scandalous impu-
tation upon their honor and moral sen
timents is one that must go home to the
hearts Of every right-thinking person.
The interference Of the Utah eccle-
siasts in Idaho political affairs is re-
hearsed, and the address properly re-
proves the tampering by John Henry
Smith with the Legislature in his at
tempt by counsel" and guile to force
or smuggle the passage OF n resolu
tion amending the State Constitution
by doing away with the test oath. 1t
properly denounces Apostle Smith 3
interference in Idaho affairs, and also
the counsel" given by Apostles Ma
thias Cowley, G. w, Penrose, and other
polygamists who have made Idaho foul
by their efforts In behalf of church
control and the immoralities which con-
stitute their chief notoriety before the
public. The offeDses of these men in
invading Idaho in behalf of their foul
system are set forth in language that
burns, and an appeal is mnde to the
voters of Idaho to free that State from
its subjection to Joseph, F. Smith Of
Salt Lake, and TO resent the inter-
ference of his hierarchic autocracy
The experience is recited of repre-.
sentative in the State Legislature who
declared that che had been approached
by members Of this ecclesiastical organ
ization and told that if be voted for
certain measures his usefulness as
legislator was ended
In refutation Of the proposition that
this was Democratic politics when the
measure was suggested that change
of venue bill be passed, the fact is
stated that the proposed measure was
advocated by the Supreme Court Of the
State, composed of two Republicans
and ono Democrat, and was introduced
by Judge Richards Of Ada county,
prominent Republican. And yet this
non"partisan measure, which the Nor
mon hierarch undertook to stigmatize
as a Democratic measure, was in fact,
wholly non~partisan and legally desir~
able; and the attempt to handicap the
bill was the usual hierarchic fraud.
a generous appeal is made to the
voters Of Idaho to lift that State to
the high plane occupied by other
States, in civic authority, and to insist
that laws which have proven efficacious
in other States in preventing death
and fostering public health be adopted
in Idaho, in spite Of the church OPP
position. This refers to the defeat by
ecclesiastical influence Of the bill in
troduced by DR.. France, Republican
representative from Shoshone county, to
provide the machinery for stamping out
endemic and contagious diseases,
and to provide for the collection Of
the vital statistics Of the State. In
these two propositions the Mormon
hierarchy scented danger, first, as
breaking down their usual resistance
to vaccination, and second, in requir-
ing the recording Of births, which they
assumed would expose their unlawful
polygamous relations.
These are but instances of the per-
nicious interference Of the ecclesiasts
Of Salt Lake in Idaho's political and
civil affairs. That interference is con-
slant, and at times it is dominant; and
Mr.. Lockhart justly shows to the peo-
pie of Idaho that this interference is
| at once eItraneous, evil, and unbear-
able. He is eminently right in this,
and the people Of Idaho who are free
| from ecclesiastical domination cannot