The Idaho scimitar. [volume], January 11, 1908, Page 3, Image 3

About The Idaho scimitar. [volume] (Boise, Idaho) 1907-1908

Image provided by: Idaho State Historical Society

                
Apostle Smoot a Falsifier.
Apostle Smoot, Senator and Mormon, has gained
a hearing through the North American Review.
There would be nothing to complain of in that if
the magazine had held the apostle to the truth. Giv
ing him the privilege of addressing untruths to the
audience of The Review is as much of an attack
on National morality as would have been his defense
of the institution of polygamy in that publication.
Having recently emerged with flying colors from
a trial before the United States Senate, thanks to
the prostituted partisanship of that body, Mr. Smoot
has acquired a reputation for probity that will in
cline many a listening ear to him as he discourses
upon the topic of polygamy. It will not be known
to those far away from the scene of his apostolic
labors that he dealt in the misrepresentation that is
the common stock in trade of Mormondom in as
serting that polygamy had become a thing of the
past in Utah and the surrounding States.
But The Review could have ascertained that Mr.
Smoot was contumaciously untruthful when he said:
The Senate inquiry established clearly that polyg
amous marriages in Utah became a thing of the
past more than sixteen years ago and no polygamous
relations assumed since 1890 have received the sanc
tion of fhe church.
The evidence taken before the Senate committee
privileges and elections during the inquiry into
the right of Mr. Smoot to a seat in the Senate re
on
cites many specific instances of polygamous mar
1890 and all the evidence was printed
That the church has not
nages since
for public information,
sanctioned these violations of law and morals is an
impossibility, for all such marriages must be per
formed by representatives of the church—elders and
other officers of the church.
After reciting a list of ten prominent Mormons
polygamously married after the issuance of the mani
festo of 1890, the majority report of the Senate
committee on privileges and elections says:
It is morally impossible that all these violations
of the laws of the State of Utah by the contracting
of plural marriages could have been committed with
out the knowledge of the first presidency and the
twelve apostles of the Mormon church. In two of
the above cases, that of George Teasdale and that
of Benjamin Cluff, Jr., the fact of plural marriage
directly communicated to the president of the
church, Joseph F. Smith, and in the other cases, with
was
the possible exception of James Francis Johnson, the
fact of a plural marriage having been celebrated was
well known throughout the community that it is
not conceivable that such marriages would not have
been called to the attention of the leaders of the
church. Indeed there was no denial on the part of
the first president or any of the twelve apostles that
they learned of the fact that plural marriages were
being contracted by officials of the Mormon church
and that no attention was paid to the matter.
so
When it became known that Mr. Smoot was to
be investigated by the Senate, it was also conveyed
to the hierarchy at Salt Lake, through some under
ground passageway of information, that the com
mittee proposed to prove the recent plural marriages
of four of the apostles and two other high officials
of the church. The persons by which such marriages
could have been established were sent out of the
country and the committee was unable to procure
service upon them.
These circumstances were commented on by the
committee in its report and the magazine editor
who accepted Mr. Smoot's article could have as
sured himself that his contributor was placing mis
information before the public.
As an apostle, Mr. Smoot knows that polygamy is
still one of the cherished institutions of his religion
and that it is now under concealment through fear
of the penalties that law and sentiment might inflict.
Mr. Smoot understands that Joseph F. Smith,
president of the church, testified before the Senate
committee on privileges and elections:
Question—The revelation which Wilford Wood
ruff received in consequence of which the command
to take plural wives was suspended did not, as you
understand, change the divine view of plural mar
riage, did it?
President Smith—It did not change our belief at
all.
Question—You continued to believe that plural
marriages were right?
President Smith—We did. I did at least. I do not
answer for anybody else. I continue to believe as
I did before.
As the president believes, all the rest of the Mor
mon establishment believes, including Apostle Smoot.
Believing otherwise, he would cease to be an apos
tle, for the man next to God does not tolerate any
weakening in fealty.
The magazine article under discussion says that
"the State of Utah and the people thereof have kept
faith with the National Government with respect to
statehood.
The promise was that polygamous prac
tices would be abandoned and it was understood
that the church would cease to exercise political
supervision over its members.
Polygamy, new and old, exists today in Idaho
and Utah and the Mormon church exercises political
supervision so completely that, through its alliance
with the Republican party, it is able to protect itself
from penalties that would normally attach to its
misdeeds.
It has kept faith in nothing. In Idaho Mormonism
induced the people to repeal laws enacted for the
suppression of polygamy and the disfranchisement
of polygamists, asserting that it had departed per
manently from its evil ways, and as soon as danger
of punishment was removed, the devotees of the
church returned to their shameful practices and have
since flaunted their sins in the face of a betrayed
commonwealth and defied constitutional law and
public sentiment.
Mr. Smoot has the floor. He has been declared
pure by the United States Senate, along with the
hierarchy he represents and the followers it repre
sents. Having been placed in a position from which
he can work upon the credulty of the people of the
United States, he is naturally making the most of
his opportunity.
What he says through the pages of the North
American Review is the studied misrepresentation of
a church alliance that does not hesitate to employ
falsehood in furtherance of its iniquitous schemes.
B
Gültig to Bryan,
The Portland Oregonian notes with expressions of
satisfaction that the Chicago Inter-Ocean, organ of
the freebooters of the financial circle, is disturbed
over the prospect that from fifteen to twenty per
cent of the Roosevelt vote of 1904 will go to Mr.
Bryan in 1908, unless the Republicans put up a can
didate who, if elected, will carry out the Roosevelt
policies.
The Oregonian's own remarks are worth reading
by people outside of the Inter-Oceanic sphere of in
fluence :
The howlingest "ululation" we have heard comes
from the Chicago Inter-Ocean. This is a Republi
can paper, devoted heart and soul to "the interests."
It tells us that it gets stacks of letters from Republi
cans of the Middle West who declare, one and all,
that "if the rural voters can't get a candidate who
will continue Roosevelt's policy, they will vote for
The Inter-Ocean remarks further
W. J. Bryan,
that "from the number of these letters and the ex
tent of territory from which they come, the inference
seems safe that they represent about fifteen or twenty
per cent of those in the Middle West who voted
for Mr. Roosevelt in 1904.
declares that what these people mean by
velt's policy," continuation of which they so ardently
desire, is "the policy of agitation which brought on
the panic."
This unhappy journal
Roose
The Oregonian, making its own comments on the
distressful emanations of the Chicago newspaper
says :
This truly edifying fiction that robbery, rebates,
excessive capitalization, looting of banks and trust
funds, and frenzied finance generally, are natural
conditions of business that ought not to be dis
turbed, has a pretty firm hold in certain quarters
even yet, evidently. He who disturbs this beautiful
system, moreover, is a panic-maker and miscellaneous
malefactor. And the people who stand by him
against the trusts and brigands and want his policy
continued "have been led far astray." They are
honest, no doubt, but "misguided."
The Democratic side of the House of Represen
tatives has introduced a bill for the reduction of
the Federal army from 40,000 to 35,000 officers and
The Republican side will see that it does not
men.
pass.
In response to an invitation extended by Phil Sher
idan Post, of Boise, the State encampment of the
Grand Army of the Republic will be held in Boise
on the 24th, 25th and 26th of June next, the local
post guaranteeing all the expenses.
Ten thousand negroes assembled in Mobile, Ala
bama, adopted resolutions in which they declared that
Secretary Taft was exceedingly fortunate in secur
ing the services of the First Assistant Postmaster
General as the promoter of his boom in the South,
saying that they felt a much more friendly interest
in the Taft candidacy than they did before. The
man in charge of the pie counter
can move moun
tains of opposition in the South.
The people of Caldwell have agreed to raise $25,000
toward an endowment of $125,000 for the College of
Idaho, provided the other $100,000 is secured. It is
worth while to strengthen these institutions of higher
education. They are a part of the inducement to
State and community growth, for the migratory peo
ple oi the United States will not place themselves out
side the realm of educational opportunities for their
children.
The newspaper fraternity will be pleased over the
appointment of William Balderson to the position of
Register of the Boise land office, which was made
and confirmed on Tuesday of the current week. Mr.
Balderston has served long in the editorial harness,
and while the editor is a strong factor in the advance
ment of public men, it is not often that he himself
advances by the same route. Mr. Balderson will
assume his duties as soon as his commission
arrives.
The question, what to do with our ex-Presidents,
is almost narrowed down to what to do with Theo
dore Roosevelt. Mr. Cleveland is yet living, but is
bowed down by years, while Mr. Roosevelt is likely
to continue life's pilgrimage to a remote period. If
Mr. Roosevelt were given a gun and turned loose,
he would probably be able to subsist as long as the
game lasted. Being a President does not necessarily
disqualify a man for the struggle for bread.
Town Topics complains that the President of the
United States denied posterity some of its spectacu
lar rights when he neglected to have himself photo
graphed in the act of flipping one of the In God
We Trust dollars in apportioning the appointments
belonging to the Senators from South Dakota. Mr.
Roosevelt has been so much interfered with by out
side critics that it is small wonder that he shies at
mention of a third term.
Mr. Shaw, ex-Secretary of the Treasury, is visit
ing his home State, Iowa, bearing an olive branch
and preaching harmony between the irreconcilable
factions. He says "the next Republican National
convention is likely to present a more interesting
contest than has been witnessed for years," and the
blending of the factions is something greatly to be
desired. It is supposed that Mr. Shaw is still nurs
ing his own Presidential aspirations, which suffer
from a divided party in the State of Iowa.
President Roosevelt opened the new year auspici
ously by turning Admiral Brownson on the spit until
he was exceedingly well done. All the offense the
admiral had committed was to resign from the bu
reau of navigation. He may now be inclined to
take a header from the mizzen mast. After Brown
son had been laid away in the gravy, the President
opened a second assortment of invectives on a class
of inconsiderate fakers who have been criticising
some of the ships of the navy. The year having been
started with appropriate ceremonies, Father Time
proceed to lug it along to the next mile post.
can