The Blackfoot optimist. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1907-1918, 1915-05-20
PoLYchMY AND THE McRMANs.


4hpflhdi9 sihPi. 10 " h'attei VI eA-
lpediency.
Read history and you will find that
nomads, entering on the agricultural
stage, have always been polygamists
Hard work aud unending toll fill the
/ lives of the pioneers Sentiment is at
low ebb. That is something which
comes later. Children are in demand,
and polygamous marriages, sanctified
! by religion, regulate the sex emotion.
| Abraham and Jacob on the plains of
Assyria were polygamists.
Polygamy, under certain conditions,
the biologist recognizes is eminently
right and proper, because it is natural.
Plural wives were happy wives. The
disciples of Brigham Young did not de-
press and repress their women. Life
was free, joyous and filled with reli-
gious zeal and hard work. Success
crowned their efforts, and the earth
laughed harvest.
Wealth followed, as it always does
when men, women and children work
together-work in joy, work intelligent
ly, and are maintained by mutual de-
sire and ambition.
We must Judge things by results. BY
their fruits shall ye know them
With the second and third genera
ton, the refining of sentiment and the
advent of art, polygamy becomes the
rule-all this in response to natural law.
At the last, people cannot be gov
erned by legislation. In order to sue
ceed, legislation must be in line with
the ebb and flow of the tides of the
human heart.
unreasonable was ever attempted than
the enforcement of the Edmunds law
1t was a New England. idea, devised
by the New England conscience for
New England conditions, but transferr-
ed to people living under totolly diff
ferent conditions from those which ex-
listed in New England. This wise men
fully know, realize and understand.
| liz pdCltHCt CHdJ IHe MOTHdH people
have shown has been one Of their chief
claims to the respect of the world.
No one can visit Utah now and see the
} towns, cities, villages, farms, ranches,
schools and colleges, without being
, thoroughly impressed with the excellen-
ce and worth of the moral qualities Of
these people.
Visitors at Salt Lake who wish to
get their information from other than
bell hops, hack drivers and ioquacious
BARRIERS would do well to take the In
terurban line that runs every half hour
from Salt Lake City to Ogden. Here
is distance covering thirty-six miles
through a tract of country that is an
actual garden spot.
Get out ten miles, get off the car and
walk five miles, stopping at the houses
and visiting with people along the way.
Or take an auto and go south forty
miles to Provo, as I did, if you have
time to visit the country schools. see
the children, talk with the teachers talk
with the farmers at their work, with
the women caring for the poultry and
fruit, see the jolly boys and girls at
their games or tasks, and you will be
convinced that honesty, truth and right
Intent animate these people They av-
erage high.
In the days of polygamy no woman
fyr H.
were no heartbroken women, no suicides
no outcasts, no insanity.
Mormon women, from the time thew
reached the Salt Lake valley were eco
nomically free
These Mormon women had big fam
lilies. They brought their children up
to work, to be useful. They lived close
to the soil. They moved in line with
nature. They had a firm hold on the
few virtues for which civilization has
never found a substitute.
They were industrious, economical,
temperate, honest. These virtues still
abide. In Utah they are the rule, not
the exception.
| Victor Hugo once said, Shakespeare
needs no monument-he has his plays"
The Norman people need no defense.
Schools colleges, parks, hotels, good
roads, paved streets, happy homes and
great, smiling stretches of fertile farms.
well titled, are tongues that tell their
own story.
Utah has really not yet been discover
ed. Her resources have not yet been
tapped. Less than 10 per cent. of her
available tillable land is under the pillow.
And the extent Of the wealth stored
IN the Rocky Mountains is incompu-
ltable,-NeM York American Satnzdax