The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-12-12
BITTER CRY FROM UTAH.
A entiIe Editer says the Mormon Bug
abOo n ScandalOusly Oyerworked.

To THE EDITION OF TIE SrN-Sw: Inc
Mormon buRaboo has been overworked.
Some residents Of Salt Lake City have been
feeding anti-Mormon stun to the Eastern
papers for the last twenty years. and possibly
longer. do not know how much foundation
they had for their stories earlier than 1855,
but assume from what I know OF conditions
since that date that they have been getting
quite q tidy sum Of money by false pretences'
The older men 10 you community will re-
member what was In 1884 called The Red
Hot Address" All the East republished
from the Salt Lake Tribune an alleged speech
attributed to Bishop West. and said to have
been delivered in the Juab school house on
Sunday. March 0. 1884. The speech was
vopched for by the Salt Lake Tribune OF the
next day as having been geographically
reported BY Tobias Tobey for that paper.
IL was. indeed. q red hot" address. Among
other things the p~utative speaker urged his
hearers to take out and kill Eli II. Murray.
the Governor Of Utah Territory. a Federal
appointee. The rest OF the address was
pitched In the same key.
There was no Bishop West. No such man
ever lived. There was no meeting in the
Juab school house on Sunday, March .. 1884.
Juab at that time was q little mining town
at the terminus OF q new railroad. and q hard
rain OF the previous day had taken all the
men OF Jusb out to the line. where they were
busy with shovels and wheelbarrows through
out the day and evening. Let me repeat:
There was no meeting In Juab on that date:
there was no Bishop West: at no time in Jusb
or elsewhere was such an address delivered
by any one.
The publication of that Red Hot Address"
probably did more harm to the people Of
Utah. Mormon and GENTLE, than any other
one thing. or than all the other publications
for the succeeding ten years combined. Such
corr seton of IL es the Tribune saw At to make
never overlook the original story. The pub
lie mind was prepared for any anti-Mormon
stun that q oharscterlcss person In Salt Lake
City might see At to send. For thelast twenty
years stories OF like character to that Of The
Red Hot Addrsss- have found place In the
Eastern papers. Any State less rich IN re-
sources and on ering less remunerstive returns
to immigrants never could have lived through
the persistent campaign Of Islander that was
directed against Utah. say these things
from the standpoint OF a Gentle. a man who
was born east OF the Mississippi River. who
was baptized in the Presbyterian Church,
who has no afiliation with MorTnons other
than that OF neighbor and business man.
and who does not care any more for their
religion than for that OF any other people on
the face Of the earth.
submit that the news value Of untruths
from Utah ought to be about extinsuished
Give to this community precisely the same
treatment that you would accord to any
other. People at the East as a rule believe
all Mormons to be polygamists, In company
with q number Of brother attorneys. Judge
Hiles OF Salt Lake City was az Provo some
years ago awaiting the arrival OF q train for
Salt Lake City. AS they waited on the plat
form an overland train from the East came in
and stopped. A we'll appearing man got
down from the Pullman sleeper and said to
one OF the lawyers: This 10 Utah, isn't it9"
nAf@. lfr0a.A NkAA a. go H.. ia. aGA-
you show me a Mormon9" The lawyer, like
a boy out OF school. thought it would be
funny" to point to Judge Hiles, VIII is and
has been a GENTLE. How many
wives has her" asked the traveller. Forty
six said the facetious attorney. The strange
fastened back to the sleeper and presently
brought his fellow travellers In that car to
the platform to point out one OF Salt Lakes
prominent attorneys as a famous polygamist:
then hurried back at the warning signal OF
the bell and proceeded on his journey. Last
summer while In the East on a vacation / met
one OF the passen gers on that train. He told
me It was useless for me TO say that polygamy
was dying out in Utah. for he had once seen
a live Mormon at the depot in Provo who had
forty-six wives.
AZ q matter Of fact. there are in the whole
third OF a million population In the State OF
Utah just I8s polygsmist families. There
are in the city OF Salt Lake. with its 20, 600
population. less than q hundred poIygamists.
There have been no polygamous marriages
since 1890, and very few since 1885. Polygsmy
10 dying. The Mormons would not return to
the practice of polygamy II the laws against
1t were all repealed. There never was q time
when a fourth OF the Mormon men had plural
wives. That may seem like . strong state
ment. and yet 10 is true. You may fnd all
over this city men OF threescors years and
more who have lived here all their adult life
without embracing polygamy. Each 10 the
husband Of one wife. There are few bsche-
lors and few old maids among the Mormons.
They believe in early marriages. Nothing
like q half OF the mon In Mormondom have
ever been polygamists.
Not long ago an aunt. a sister of my father,
visited me. She 10 . woman OF 70, ms well
informed as other women. a lifelong Chris
tan. and a beautiful character. In speaking
OF Senator Smoot she said that she hoped he
would be expelled from the Senate. and, when
l asked her why. she said: Because he Is a
Mormon" / asked her II she would deprive
a man OF his political rights because he was
a Methodist or a Presbyterian. But" she
reioined. he is a p~olysamist." The terms
TO her we're convertible. Yet Senator Smoot
il not a polygamist. He never was a polyg-
amist. His influence now and always has
been against the practice Of polygamy. The
whole sentiment Of the Church. as expressed
in the lives ana IN the speech OF its members.
Is opposed to the practice OF polygamy.
Utah is entitled to a fair presentation OF
her case. While it IL one OF the new States.
it was settled long ago. The farmers have
been here for more than half a century.
They have grown in numbers from the orig
insl Ia to more than 200. 900. They have
devoted themselves almost exclusively to
agriculture. Later arrivals have discovered
many mines. These mines are made vastly
more substantial. more permanent in their
value. more certain OF development, because
OF the established sericult ural conditions
that preceded them. The foodsturs are here.
Unlike Nevada in the Comstock days. unlike
California in the bonanza days, the farms
are prepared to take care OF the food Of immI-
grafton which com es to the mines.
Mormons are like every other peopl.
They are controlled by the same sentiments.
They are amenable TO the same
They are DESTROYS Of the same results. They
are not all saints. whatever they NAV call
themselves; but the general average OF The
membership Of the Church 10 as moral a. hat
Of any other Church l know. The Mormon
bugaboo has been overworked. Utah N not
in danger from the Mormons. believe n