Webster City freeman. [volume] (Webster City, Hamilton County, Iowa) 1884-1946, 1914-08-04

the lecturer denOunceS as IraltoI
the Mormon leaders in Utah. Thi
is not an appeal to prejudice. Rath
er it is an appeal to good faith, t.
reason and to conscience, agains
men who have deliberately broker
pledged faith, with whom reason ha:
no weight but is as a filthy rag, ant
whose conscience has been scared by
generations of gross abuse Of priest
ly power.
(4.) With regard to the present
status of the sanction and practice
of polygamy the Eagle surely
throws it's weight on the wrong side
of very grave moral question
Words of palliation on this grave is
sue seem very strange in nonMor-
mon journal published outside OF
Utah. Beyond controversy the Nor
mon hierarchy solemnly promised
that polygamy should cease when
Utah became state. Beyond con-
troversy, also, polygamy is still
taught and practiced in Utah, pro-
tected by the fact that the admins
tration of state laws is wholly in
the hands of Mormons sworn to obey
the Prophet rather than to be obe-
dent to the laws of the land. To
say that only small per cent ever
practiced polygamy, or to claim that
the powers that be ever discouraged
plural marriage, is to beg the ques
ton. From the first, polygamy has
been a sacred corner stone of the Pc
culiar institution. 1t is still oftic-
tally taught and practiced. The
writer has talked with many Nor
mons, and he has not met single
Mormon who did not, in one way
or another, uphold the validity of
plural marriage before God More
over, in Utah every Mormon is
taught to look forward to the time
when the Mormon church will be SUI
preme in the affairs of the nation,
at which time polygamy will be le-
gal and open throughout the whole
land. So the good Mormon is taught
to believe, and so he does vertically
believe.
Perhaps the eagle" will accept
as evidence the sworn testimony of
Prophet Joseph F.. Smith, the pres
ent head of the Mormon church. 1t
is reported in the findings of the
Senate committee in the Reed smoot
proceedings. Says this man who had
solemnly sworn to discontinue the
practice of polygamy: 81 have CO.
habited with my wives; not openly
that is, not in manner that /
thought would be offensive to my
neighbors-but I acknowledged
them; 1 have visited them. They
have borne me children since 1890,
and l have done it, knowing the re-
sponsibiIity and knowing that I was
amenable to the law" A moment
later he says: 81 had eleven chill
dren born since 1S90"-that is since
he promised to quit. On the same
page of the record ocucrs this state
ment from the same lips: 81 have
had born to me, sir, forty-two chill
dren-twenty-one boys and twenty
one girls-and l am proud of every
one of them" Here is precept and
example. Hundreds and thousands
of cases of new plural marriages are
known, and the evidence would be
forthcoming but for the fact that
Mormon state officers will not set in
motion the legal machinery, and it
is state and not federal offense.
(5.) If the eagle" denies us the
right to sit at the feet of Senator
Cannon to learn the crimes and trea-
sons of the Mormon church we will
quote The Eagle even better and
more indisputable authority. The
four thick volumes of the proceed
ings before the Senate committee in