The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1907-04-15
SMooT AND PoLYGAMY.

Retaining memory Of the facts in the
case, it is really amusing to contem-
plate the assertions which were made
by special pleaders on the floor of the
Senate in behalf Of Apostle Smoot-
that he had opposed polygamy during
his whole lifetime.
If any member OF the Mormon church
can point out the occasion when Reed
Smoot ever uttered one word in public
against the pet practice Of the hie-
rarchs, it would be interesting to the
world to know Of it. Whenever Apos-
tie Smoot has mentioned that subject
at ALL it has been to refer to it as a
sacred institution within the church. He
has never taught his people that il was
wrong to enter into or to live in that
relation; but, on the contrary, he has
been heard to lend his special appro.
baton Of that form of family life.
The truth is, that Reed Smoot is
wholly creature OF polygamy. lie
was born in it; he was reared in tho
atmosphere Of plural conjugality; ne
has been the willing recipient Of the
teaching during all of his career, Even
when he sought the position which he
holds in the church, he courted the
smiles Of the polygamous cult Of that
organization. After he had been in
Quoted into the apostolic quorum, he
voted to seat in his council another
polygamist of i'll fame. When he con-
ceived the ambition to become Sena.
tor Of the United States, he was obliged
upon his own neck; to curry the favor
of the much-married leaders in the
church.; and finally to ask the consent
Of these lawbreakers to his candidacy
before the Legislature. Had the chief
exponent of polygamy been disposed to
look with distavor upon Smoot's poll
teal desires, the apostles of plural mar
riage would have made his present pub
lie position an impossibility. But, hav-
ing received their consent to become a
Senator, he was made a Senator-by
polygamists.
1t may be that those Senators who
credited Apostle Smoot with an absent
virtue were i'll advised; and by that
we mean that they were advised by
Smoot himself Or it may be that, even
though knowing the real truth, they
were yet determined to defend him
solely for political reasons. But, what
ever was the condition with reference
TO these special pleaders, the citizen Of
Utah cannot help feeling that there was
gross injustice done to the country,
AS rule tie word of the Senators who
took it upon themselves to give the
Mormon apostle a clean bill is accepted
for the truth; and that is where the
injury comes. They exhibited to the
country their stamp Of approval and
their seal Of verify upon what Utah
and the church both know to be false
statement. By doing so they seem to
have repudiated the loyal American
citizenship here which made protest
against invasion of the National Senate
by high priest Of the polygamous
cult-for that is what Reed Smoot is
in the most essential sense Of the
term.
From Reed Smoot himself the proof
will never come of his subservience to
polygamy and those who represent and
uphold it, but it exists, just the same.
He will never rise in the Tabernacle, or
in any other public place of worship
among the saints, and declare opposi-
ton to the practice Of polygamy, either
new or old. He will merely follow his
former course of silent acquiescence.
A most complete vindication Of the
charge made by the American party
that Apostle Reed Smoot owes all that
he is to polygamy, and that he is a
sponsor for its practice-could be pre-
sented by the apostle himself. Let him
demonstrate tho truth Of the special
plea made in his behalf on the floor of
the Senate by publicly denouncing
plural marriage-and SEQ how soon he
would lose both his apostleship and his