Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1907-08-30
DUBOIS VS.. DUBOIS.

Ex-senator Dubois In a recent speech
before an eastern audience repeated
the old fairy tale concerning Mormon"
political control. The "Mormons." he
said absolutely control Utah. They
dominate state elections In Wyoming
and Idaho, and they are n great ball
ance Of power in Oregon. They are al
so beginning to be very powerful in
Nevada. The tales told by the eX-
Senator about the Mormon" DOGGY
were enough TO Brighten any respect
able old eastern lady into Mysteries
People around here who know some
thing about the subject and also some
thing about veracity Of the itinerant
speaker from Idaho are, however, in
clined to laugh at his stories The
Butte Inter Mountain represents the
views OF the people here, when, in it's
issue of the oath of this month, It says;
1T is horrifying to contemplate the
political power to be cemented for
Mormonism when that church shall
control Utah, Wyoming, Oregon.
Idaho and Nevada! These states send
almost as many men to Congress as
the city of New York. The entire north
west is inferior in congressional
strength to the state OF Ohio. Nobody
believes Ohio or New York holds a bal
ance of power in Congress. 1t may be
that In Utah and Idaho the Church is
too strong. Senator DUBOIS may have
experienced instances of its strength.
But when the Mormon Church, OF any
other church. Christian or heather,
stands between the people of the Unit
ed States, in Congress or out, and some
national reform, that church win find
itself In an exceedingly dangerous
position.
1.-THE senate could not find Senator
Smoot a polyganist. His trial was fair
and the investigation wide. Unless an
abnornally large percent of the people
of Idaho and Utah are liars and unless
a large per cent of members OF the
United States senate are fools or
rogues, 1t would appear that polygamy
is no longer general In the Mormon"
Church. Moreover, gentiles from the
Mormon country do not complain as of
yore of church dictation. The Mormon
may be clannish: but in this he does
not differ from members of some other
Christian sects. The truth seems to
be that this generation has abandoned
polygany and to punish the older
generation by retroactive act would
be neither just nor polite"
This is absolutely true. But the i'm
portant fact is that the ex-senator.
himself, knows that 1t is true, and that
he is contradictips himself with the
nonchalance of n person under the in
fiuence OF intoxicants. In an interview
published in the Salt Lake Tribune of
May 20, 1898. Mr.. Dubois said:
'1n my own fight for reelection to
the Senate 1t was a notorious fact that
some local church officials in this state,
and even some of the leaders of the
church in Salt Lake, desired to de-
feat me. The remembrance of that de-
sire and the urgent and somewhat eX-
traordinary action which II permitted,
is not so lasting with me as the remem-
brance of the magnificent way in which
the young Mormons in Idaho In many
instances rallied to my support and
worked boldly and manfully for the
vindication of not only the principle
which they thought I represented in
national affairs. but for the mainten-
ance of political freedom within the
commonwealth"
When. in the face of this "magnifl-
cent" admission of the political in
dependence on the Mormon" people.
made by the Idaho lecturer In one of
his lucid moments. he raves and rants
about Mormon control in a number
of stsstes the limit has certainly been
reached. What tragic. or Is 1t comic?
spectacle Dubois presents going up and
down the country. contradicting himself
and branding himself as a deceiving
spirit!