The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1910-02-09
THE UTAH ENSLAVERS.

1t is not often, nowadays, that The
to say anything which might be re-
garded as of particular interest 10 the
public. or as dealing in any decided way
with n public topic, Apparently it has
made so many hlunders in dealing with
public matters that it has assumed a
settled policy of remaining on the safe
side by observing an even and undis
turbed silence concerning them. So 1T
must have been slip of the mind and
the pen that caused it editorinlly to
PROFOUND the following question on
Monday evening:
Is the white slavery to continue. with
the knowledge and consent of the guar
dians OF the law, and the men and wo-
men who profess to be the followers OF
Him who came TO save that which was
lost?
Let President Joseph f. Smith, for
instance, answer that question. There
is no man in this state who is recog-
nized as being able TO exercise more
as he with respect to the manner in
which the laws of the commonwealth
shall be enforced. The News must con-
fess that the status Of women IN the
polygamous relation is plainly one of
slavery-in other words, they are VIC
Tins of the enforcement of ''white slav-
ery' upon them. This confession must
come from the church organ on ac-
count of a series of circumstances and
happenings during the campaign that
was once waged against open polygamy
in Utah. The chief ground upon which
that campaign was prosecuted was that
plural marriage reduced woman TO the
place Of slave to the man. This was
urged with persistency by those who
fought the practice. When the Wood
ruff manifesto was issued in 1890 it was
a practical admission that the conten
tion of opponents of polygamy was
truthful and Just one-that under
polygamous life the woman was
the manifesto s inhibition
of the practice. together with the prac
tice of polygamous living, was a prom
Use that such "whitc slavery should
no longer obtain IN the Mormon church.
When Utah was admitted to Statehood,
laws were enacted along these precise
lines. and they were intended to be
strictly enforced in order that this
"white slavery" should be wiped out
of our community life. The State Con
stitution and the Enabling Act provided
for the complete destruction of this
white slavery otherwise Utah could
not have achieved State sovereignty.
In every utterance and deed this com
q leading citizen, was pledged to this
highly moral purpose. Joseph +. Smith
claims to be the highest cxemplar among
all mankind of "tbe followers Of Him
who came to save that which was
lost" AS such highest exemplar his
ihgs in Smoot case, volume /, page 334)
II is the law OF my State 10 which
am amenable, and IL the officers OF the
law have not done their duty toward me
/ cannot blame them, / think they have
some respect for me.
That is by no means all, respecting
the attitude of the Mormon hierarchy
as affecting Utah threatment of the
''whitc slavery" question. Joseph i.
proceeds to say that every citizen of
any account in this State condones the
offending of which he and other traf-
fckers in ''whitc slavery" in Utah are
guilty. On page 4S5 Of the same record
he tcstifes as follows:
In my case. we have felt that not ONLY
public opinion, but the Constitution OF
our State and the general conditions that
exist in Utah more or less justified me
in pursuing the course did.
Now, with respect to the course that
Joseph +. pursued (and which hundreds
OF others of the leading spirits in Nor
mondom have pursued) there is nothing
to say but that which is said by Joseph
F. Smith himself. lie has stated in
unequivocal terms that he purposely
chose the course of breaking the laws
of God, as he recognized them to be
such, as well as the laws of the land