Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1908-09-21
a PACE Or HISTORY.

5y5ES VI "A GAGE OF HISTORY.
Early travellers and writer's about
Utah and the people here are unani-
& nous in their testimony as to thu,
moral status of the Territory under the
control ofthe first settlers. Bayard
55 Taylor celebrated lecturer wrote
We must admit that Salt Lake is,
one Of the most quiet, orderly, and
moral places iii the world. There are
few gentle liquor saloons but tho
NormonS. as q people, are the most
temperate OF Americans. They are
4 chaste, aborious. and generally cheer
fnl; and what they have accomplished
E IN so&short time, under every circun-
stance of Acknowledgement, will always
form one of the most remarkable
chapters ino history
DIR. Miller, editor OF tho ohaha Her.
aid wrote:
One feature ofsthe influx Into this
t hitherto quiet, sober. moral and in
l#&telllgent Mormon community, carries
X with 1t its3ow cofnmentt to the though
L ii fulTo the lasting honor of the Nor
mon people and system. be it said that
for 20 years such. machines of moral
5fnfany as whisky shops. ha1lotries,
4 faro banks, and all the attendant
ly unknown in Utah. 1t cannot be de-
MED that the Mormons have achieved
victories and conquests over the most
A gigantic evils that have cursed orr
race. and which are today the chief
y bane OF every civilized state"
Elder Grant editor of an Adventist
Journal %rhe Worlds Crisis" wrote:
After a careful observation for some
If days, we came to the settled con-
clusion that there Is less Righteousness
in Salt Lake city than in any one of
the same size in tho United States;
3 and We're we to bring UP a family
OF children in these last days of wick
edness, we should have less fears of
their moral corruption, We're they in
that city than any other Swearing,
drinking gambling, idlencss, and lic-S
entiousness,l have made but small
Roadway there. when compared with
II other places of equal size"
Mrs, Emily Pitt Stevens. at time
when Utah was asking for statehood,
wrote to the Pioneer a woman's
( journal:
Utah wants to assume the preroga-
tlves of state sovereignty. She has
population and wealth superior 10 amy
other Territory, and why should she
not enjoy the privileges of self gov
ernment2 Utah is the wisest and best
governed of any large section of peo-
pile in The United States. In Great
Salt Lake City there Is less rowdSism,
drunkenness, gambling. ideness, theft,
conspiracy against the peace of So
ciety. and crime generally, than there
lis In any other city of the same pop
ulation In this country, II not on the
globe
Such are the testimonies OF a cloud of
witnesses Who We're impartial observ-
ers of the conditions prevailing in the
early days. They are amply CORRIDOR
ated by the criminal statistics. In the
year. 1882, the total number of arrests
in Salt Lake City, by the municipal
police was t640; of the arrested per-
sonb 446 professed 10 be Church
members and 1,194 We're not Church
members. In Ogden, In 1881, the noa
Mormon population was about ] 5 per
cent. And yet it furnished 100 arrests
to Il arrests Of "Mormons,"
But Influences We're at work all the
the expense of virtue. If today We
have a "red-liaht' district devoted 10
sin and shame, that is part a plan laid
and carried out 10 the letter by anti
Mormon agltators: In 1881, the
Salt Lake Tribune wrote, edtorially:
Apropos of the new and petty war
recently started by the municipal gov
ernnent on the women of the town.
the liquor dealers and the gambling
fraternity one Of the enemy said 10
MS thoaother day: It may be q hard
thing to say, and perhaps harder still
10 maintain, but | believe that Bill
Hard halls, saloons, and houses of Ill
fame are more powerful reforming
agencies here in Utah than churches
ana schools, OF even than the Tribune.
What the Young Mormons want Is TO
he freed. 50 long as they are slaves,
1t matters not much 10 what or to
whom, they are and can be nothing
Yotn parIy h as bigoted and intoler-
ant as the Mormon party. at all
IL events j rejoice when | see the young
Mormon hoodl,In1s playing billiards,
getting drunk, running With bad NO
men ANYTHING 20 break the ghackes
tiiey we're born in. ana that every So
called religious or Nistuops influence
only makes The stronger.
This is the doctrine the Tribune
preached. Let there be no mst,nder-
standing on this. point. The paper. 10
remove al doubt Of its views, added
the following:
Freedom is the FIRST requisite of
manhood. and Ii il can be Won without
sxCesses so much the batter. II itscan t.
2 never mind the eAcesses, win the
freedom