The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1907-05-17
THEY BRING SHAME TO UTAH.

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| Speaking of the slanderer Of Utah,
! there is the latest manifesto of the
Mormon church presidency, issued over
! their personal signatures and adopted
by the last April conference. Citizens
all over the country remember the
solemn promise of the church leaders,
that polygamy among the Mormon peo-
| pie should forever cease. and one may
well imagine the state of their feelings
upon reading the following, quoted
from the recent pronouncement:
The wonder Is, not that there have
been sporadic cases of plural marriage.
but that such cases have been so few.
Then the official apologists go on TO
Justify the law breaking of Cover
Jealous individuals, and to express
the opinion that there was ample
reason why these should be sympa-
thized with BY others in their views.
These statements of the hierarchs
! convey to the public mind in other
States in the Union the information
that the most solemn pledge of the peo
lutely worthless; that when promise
is made by them there is no intention
whatever on their part 10 keep 1T; that
the law of the State is ruthlessly
broken, and the lnfraction authorita-
lively condoned; that prosecution of
the law defers is here discounten-
anced. To advertise to the world
that Utah is infested with polygam-
Gus anarchy. coupled with simultaneous
assurance that such Iawlessncss is
justified, is to slander the citizenship
here in most vilIainous manner.
The Tribune has constantly set forth
the facts as to this class of un-
punished law breaking, but it has done
so for the express purpose of bringing
such pressure to bear upon the situa-
tion as will put an end to it for all
time-not at all with the idea of con
doning it. That is as much the loyal
! duty of any legitimate newspaper ms
would be a denunciation of any other
sort of crime which the officers of the
law were allowing to go un-
punished in the community. Any
journal of wide circulation would be
disloyal to the State in which it was
published, and to the whole Nation, if
it failed to do its duty In this respect.
And iii performing that work,
newspaper is serving the best in
terests of the community, and is by
no means slaDdering the people, when
it calls attention TO crime and at the
same time voices a determination on
the part of the public to prevent it
by every available means. The real
slanderers are the hierarchs and their
organ. who have been forced by The
Tribune to set forth the truth, that
there IS new polygamy within the
church. The dcfamers of Utah arc
those who confess TO crime and at.
tempt to Justify it in the same breath,
The traducers Of the community are
the priesty hypocrtes who have been
covering up crime aud DENYING it for
years, only TO be forced finally to ad-
NIT that il cXists~-and then to express
wonder that there is so Titles Of il.
The traducers of Utah s citizenship are
pretended prophets, who themselves
live In an unlawful family relationship
and contend that it Is right for their
followers to do likewise-and then an
nounce TO the world that people who
detest their practices wink the con-
donlng eye at them.
In thio Stato nf I'toh ybarn =,
statute prohibiting polygamous mar
riages, but have any of these
"sporadic cases been prosecuted
thereundcr' Not at all Whenever an
overzealous" Mormon has taken the
disloyal notion into his head 10 defy
that law, he has fulfilled his lcchcrous
desire. Bat has the church disciplined
him on that accounj2 Not at all
Has he been sent 10 the peniten-
tiary. where he belongs! Not by any
means He has been surrounded with
the protection of the ecclesiasrs, and
ecclesiastically-dire public officials
have helped to hustle him TO safety,
il the act was so braZen that thew were
obliged to do something to save their
own faces. That is the reprehenslble
condition, ard it is the right of any
newspaper. and its bounden duty. TO
call attention 10 II and 10 demand that
1T shall be remedied The hierarchs
and church organ are more familiar
with the truth III this matter than.
The Tribune can possibly be; but it
has been their policy to vehemently
deny the truth AT first, then TO ad.
init II, then TO move heaven and
earth in an effort TO Justify the crimi-
nality. But the greatest slander of
all, which they pcrpetrate upon the
State, is when they falsely announce