The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1909-06-07
TO have thoroughly ou'
WHAT CHANCE DID HE TAKE?

When President Joseph L. Smith
swore in Washington that he had not
kept his pledges of honor and that he
chad taken that chance himself,
meaning that he had taken his chances
of prosecution as criminal under the
law, he offered a pitiable spectacle from
the standpoint Of a man of honor. The
idea that man of honor could pos
sibly break his pledge and take his
chances "against the law and that he
considered himself justified in breaking
his pledge of honor merely because he
could not be prosecuted criminally, is
an idea that shows a dccadencc of
moral fiber So astounding AS to put him
out of all consideration as an honorable
man.
But. after all. what chances did he
take? He put his honor in pawn on the
criminal side of the statutes, and as
he could not be prosecuted criminally
for breaking his pledge of honor, he
held that he was justified. But what
n low, despicablc idea of honor that is.
How utterly contemplate n man is who
Will thus trihc with his uprightness
and in his own mind forfeit his honor,
even before he forfeits il in fact And
still. he is enabled by virtue of his
pretenses of being "prophct, seer,
and rcvclator' to force himself upon a
crcdulous sect as a great and worthy
man. He could not possibly do this if
his following could realize the cnormity
of his transgressions, the dshonored
basis of his views on a question of per
sonal honor
But, did President Smith in fact.
take any chances al all in thus throw
ing away whatever shred of honor Of
which he may have been possessed ?
| Undoubtedly he had calculated his
chances, and knew that the powers
which he as president of the Mormon
church would possess, would be ample
to protect him against any annoyance
Of the courts. He knew that as prcsi
dent Of the church, he could boycott
any county or district attorney who
would make himsolf officious. He knew
he could lay an absolute cXtinguishcr as
10 any official preferment, hoped or OK
pected, by any Judge who would vindi.
cate the law by any vigorous prosccu-
tion of Smith. He knew that as presi-
dent of the Mormon church there would
he enough votes al his command at any
and all times to absolutely retire from
any political or official prefcrment any
civic official who would molest him in
his polygamous relations. Knowing
himself to be possessed Of these powers,
knowing that no court officials and no
Judge would bravo the retirement TO
private life by molesting Smith in any
way under the criminal statutes, he
simply made "A brutal, barbarous boast
when he uttered the testimony referred
to in giving his evidence in the Smoot
case in Washington.
1t was n marvellous exposition Of
brazen effrontery for him to speak such
words at all. It must have been an
amazing thing TO the Senators who
heard him repeat time after time, as
Smith said he had admitted that n
great many times" and still was pre-
pared to repeat it, the scandalous ideas
he had and the lechcrous life he lived.
Nothing more shameful and nothing
more absolutely impossible from the
standpoint of honorable manhood has
ever been seen in the United States
than the callous Indifference to public
sentiment and to his own status as an.
honorable man. than was displayed by
President Smith, in giving that test
mony. 1t was not only a complof G
remuneration by him Of all claims TO be-
ing an honorable man and law abId5np
citizen, but there was thrown in the
teeth of the Nation itself boast that
the laws of his State were not strong
enough TO reach him, and that the laws
of the Nation give no court jurisdic.
tion over his offenses.
Shocking it was and scandalous it is,
that such man ms he can pose as a
man Of holiness, and be sustained as
the very vicegerent OF God urr,n Earth