The Elbert County tribune., 1907-02-21
SEQ RES SMOoT
UTAH MINISTER ANSWERS sEkA,'
TOR kNox's SPEECH.
PLEA AGAINST PoLYeAMY

| Gentle Side Of the Mormon contro-
versy Presented by Dr.. Paden OF
Salt Lake City-Address at WASH
inqton Anti-PoIygamy Meeting.
Washington-Poly was scored
and President Joseph Smith and the
leaders of the Mormon Church in Utah
we're denounced by the Rev. DR.. VIII
| liam NJ Paden, pastor OF the First
Presbyterian Church OF Salt Lake
City and president of the Ministerial
Association of the Northwest, at an
nti-Mormon meeting held at the Met
ropolitan NJ E. church in this city
Sunday night under the auspices of the
| National League Of Women's Organi-
zations Dr. Paden devoted most of
his speech to reviewing the minority
reports submitted to the Senate in the
Smoot case and declared the stand
taken by Senator Knox of Pennsylva-
mia was nothing more nor less than
plea to the American people TO acqui-
esce in the polygamous practices in
Utah.
DR.. Paden presented the Gentle side
of the Mormon controversy, declaring
the ldW-dDlulhS NleiHSi4o - ''A'N
take the Senate's action, If Senators
Smoot is allowed to retain his seat, as
an indorsemen. of the policy of polyg
amous living He declared the federal
legislation of 1862 against bigamy in
the territories had never been exc
cuted. The law was defective, hI
said. in that it made no provision
against the crime of polygamous liv-
ing.
mo law against polygamy is worth
the paper on which it Is written" con
tinued the speaker, unless it also
deals with polygamous cohabitation.
We cannot this day prove Joseph
Smith is a polygamist. but only that
he is a polygamous cohabitator."
DR.. Paden commended the Edwards
Tucker acts as the only laws which
ever made polygamous living a crime
to be prosecuted and mot to be &C
quiesced in or tolerated. Thousands
of cases were prosecuted successfully
in the Utah courts, he decided
when these laws were being enforced
by the government and they were the
direct cause of bringing the polyga-
mists to their knees in 1890, when the
church capitulated and made uncondi-
tional surrender"
The speaker said President Joseph
F. Smith and several apostles of the
church have had children born to them
by their plural wives since the mani
festo prohibiting polygamous living
laws issued.
Throughout his speech DR.. Paden
referred to Senator Smoot as Reed
Smoot, apostle, prophet. seer, reyeA
lator of the Mormon Church"
In concluding, Dr. Paden said:
This toleration of polygamous liv-
ing means the liberation of polygamy,
the federation of adultery, with relig-
lous sanction Acknowledging, as we
may, that the majority of the people of~
Utah do not dare to do other than ac-
quiesce, that Senator Smoot acquiesce,
is no reason why the people of the ma
tion should acquiesce. Senator Knox
calls upon us to let polygamous living
alone and to call our being so satisfied
as no more than religious federation.
Reed Smoot is in harmony with
the quorum to which he is subject
when he acquiesces in the continue
ton of this crime against God and
man; but can it be possible that Sena-
tor Knox is in harmony with his con-
stituency in Pennsylvania, in harmony
with the moral and religious will OF
the people of the United States, when
he becomes the devils advocate before
the Senate of the United States and
makes a plea for the religious tolera-
tion of polygamous living as he did"