The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1909-12-27
THEIR DENIALS WORTHLESS.


We find another statement made by
Harry A. James to the Liverpool Weekly
Post, which, while it is quite as mis-.
leading as are others Of his assertions,
1T must be said that it is merely a rene
tItlon OF a statement given out by 9th
ers. 1t is this:
seventeen years ago there were 1000
! ianlhes living In Utah In polygamy and
ioy i1oday there are fewer than 500 families
uNnG IN poiyeamy. Doesn't that show
tlat me Mormon people are living UP to
lhe obilsa,ons they took ten years ago?
Probably there are no more than five
hundred families in Utah living in no.
lygamy, provided Elder James means
only those who were polygamods prev
lous TO the issuance of the Woodruff
manifesto In 1S90-and evidently that
Is his purpose. But we assert here and
now that there are today larger nun.
Der OF new polygamists-those who have
taken plural wives since 1s9O-than
there are of the old ones, or those who
had assumed that relation prior to 1890
we have good reason for making this
assertion, and equally good cause to re.
Ject any protest made by the church Of
hclals and organs in denial of it, as we
shall presently show.
In the first place, The Tribune has
designated thrty-two eases of new no.
iygamy that have been exposed through
information received without moving a
step outside of Salt Lake CITY. No
haan
OF the cases, the majority of which
have occurred in Salt Lake and its i'm.
mediate vicinity 1t must be evident
To all that there would be less of that
sort of thing right here, in the midst of
the large Gentle population than there
would be IN the remoter places, where
scarcely any Gentiles live. Then there
is this other condition TO be reckoued
with, that where one case NAV become
known a score will remain hidden. no
matter where consummated This for
the reason that all these marriages are
celebrated IN the most steaIthy and Sc
cret manner, and when one becomes
known it is usually through the merest
accident, and as rule is due to the
carelessness or brazen confidence Of the
perpetrator.
Now, as TO the value of denials made
with respect to polygamy, new or old,
and whether made by such authority as
Elder James may assume or even when
uttered by the chiefs Of the church, The
Tribune is Of the opinion that it is
able to make such showing as will
completely vitiate such protests.
AS easily as the days of Nauvoo there
were charges that the favored chiefs
of the inner circle of the Mormon her
archy were engaging in polygamy. Some
of these charges came from within the
church; and it may be said that the
facts later developed had much to do
with the tragedy Of Carthage, wherein
Joseph and Hyrum Smith lost their lives,
AS an example of the official denials
sent out by the heads Of the church, we
| take the following from the Times and
Seasons (the official church publication
at Nauvoo) volume 5, page 423:
AS we have been lately credibly in
| formed that an elder OF the Church of
| Jesus Christ OF Latter-day Saints by
the name OF Hiram Brown has been
preaching polygamy and other false and
corrupt doctrines in the county of Lapeer
State Of Michigan, this is to notify him
and the church In general that he has
| been cut off from the church for his in
| iquity, and he Is further notified to aD-
pear at the special conference on the
| 9Th OF April next 10 make answer to these
| charges.
| JOSEPH SMITH,
HYRUM SMITH
| Presidents Of said church.
And at another time. in the same of
ficial paper, Hyrum Smith again EN-.
phatically denied the existence Of either
the doctrine or the practice of poIygamy
in the church, saying; "I say unto YOU
that that man teaches false doctrine. for
there is no such doctrine taught here I:
neither is there any such thing practiced
here There were many of such Of
fetal deniale. and all Of them quite as
emphatic as the foregoing. Yet the lie
is given to them all by the present head
OF the church. Joseph T. Smith, whose
father was foremost RS maker of these
protests. 1t must be remembered that
these dcnials were spread over a period
of ten or twelve years. and up to
June, 1874, when Joseph and Hyrum
Smith were killed at Carthage. But in
an article on the subject written by Jo-
seph f. Smith, the present head Of the
church, entitled celestial Marriage