The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1911-04-27
THE PROPER INTERPRETATION


as reported in the Deseret News of the
evening of April 9th. spoke as fol
lows on unapproved marriages:
And another thing We ought to obey
the rules of the Church without regard
to marriage. Eleven hundred marriages
were contracted last year not in accord
anCe with the law of God. As announced
time and time again at these confer
ences plural marriages have ceased IN
the Church. There is no man who Is
authorized to perform plural marriage.
No man and no woman have the au-
thority TO have this ceremony performed
for them We have been doing all in our
Ing all we can 10 trace the men who are
performing these ceremonies: IT. Is hard
10 locate them: but when we do mo
them will deal with them.
The Tribune copied this from the
News. and pointing out that this was
susceptible OF being construed as re
ferring to polygamous marriages, ex-
pressed the opinion that President
Smith could not have meant it to ap.
ply solely to them. Still, the Los
Angeles Examiner, getting the News S
report by wire, construed 1T to mean
that President Smith said there had
been eleven hundred polygamous mar
rages within the year.
Other newspapers put the same con
struction upon it, Among these was
the New York Evening Post, which
taking the official church organ IS re-
port, put the construction upon il that
President Smith was referring to
polygamous marriages when he spoke
of the eleven hundred marriages.
II will be observed that Immediately
following the sentence in which the
number of unauthorized marriages is
gwen, President Smith began speaking
about polygamy. Following the Even
ing Post s article which put that con
structiou upon President Smith s re-
marks, the business manager of the
church organ, II, G. Whitney, con
tributed the following communication
to the Evening Post:
j was glad to read the article giving
the utterances OF the president OF the
Mormon Church on The marriage and dt
vorce question among that people 1t Is
rarely that any paper or magazine thinks
1t worth while TO present the Mormons'
own views of their affairs. One error
is made IN your introduction. however,
and 1t should not go uncorrected. Quot
ing from President Smiths address at
The recent conference in Salt Lake, held
April 6. you say, " No man he said.
mas 1ns "'n9n I@ yo Perform sGg bd plural
mirtcd that hoo such marriages were
performed last year in violation OF the
law OF his church
Deseret Evening News. from which your
rcpor, is gathered YOU will perceive that
President Smith made no such admission.
The 100 marriages referred to were civil
ceremonies performed outside the church
| temples. not polygamous or Illegal In any
form. simply not in accord with church
doctrine
+ was in Salt Lake City on the day
President Smith made his address. and
its decided stand on the plural marriage
question was the occasion OF great graft
iIcation among all shades Of people there.
So far from 100 plural marriages hav-
Ing been performed In the Mormon
Church last year. 1t is safe to say there
was not one. II, G. WHITNEY.
New York, April 20.
1t will be observed that Mr. Whitney
does not allege that the Evening Post
got that construction from, or was in
fuenced in any way by, The Trib-
une in putting that construction
upon President Smith 5 remarks On
the contrary, he expressly admits that
the POSTS report was gathered from
the Deseret Evening News alone This,
of course, is the fact, and all attempts
to hold The Tribune responsible for the
construction, especially as The Tribune
pointed ont plainly that President
Smith could NOT have meant polyg.
amous marriages alone, must fail
In like manner the Springfield
(Mass.) Republican quotes from the
Deseret News the same paragraph, and
states that "while the text quoted
considered by itself may give the i'm.
preston that the eleven hundred mar
riages referred to were polygamous,
another part of the address clearly
shows that the President had in mind
the eleven hundred Mormon couples
who had preferred to be married by
civil ceremons,' The Republican,
therefore, comes to precisely the same
conclusion that The Salt Lake Tribune
did as to this matter, that while Presi-
dent Smith appeared to refer to
poIygamous marriages, he, in fact, did
not mean to refer exclusively to them
in giving the number Of unapproved
marriages. Explaining this matter
further, the Springfield Republican
says.
The "law OF God" in Mormondom re-
| quires that the saints" he married in
| the Mormon temples according 10 the
| marriage rite OF the church. There were
1860 couples thus married but the Presi-
dent was naturally deeply concerned be-
| cause 100 Mormon couples have ignored
| the church at such a solemn moment in
| their lives, The fact that so many Nor
| mons preferred the civil ceremony seems
to have much more significance than even
| President Smith allowed II means that
| large proportion of the church mem
| bers arc too independent 10 he wholly
| controlled by the Mormon hierarchy In
| this matter and from that one might
argue that Mormons. like other Ameri-
cans. Will not In the long run suffer
themselves to he dominated in all the re
lations OF life by priesthood.
Concluding its comment upon Presi.
dent Smith S address, the Republican
SUMS up: 'The address was Of much
| interest as n representation of