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CONDITIONS IN UTAH. 
 SPEECH 
 
 OP 
 
 HON. THOMAS KEARNS, 
 
 OF UTAH, 
 
 IN THE 
 
 SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, 
 
 Tuesday, February 28, 1905. 
 
 ^ 
 
 T 
 
 C328 
 
 WASHINGTON. 
 1905. 
 
.(S3 
 
 
 SPEECH 
 
 HON. THOMAS KEAENS 
 
 POLYGAMOUS MAKRIAGES AND PLURAL COHABITATION. 
 
 The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Chair lays before the Senate the resolu- 
 tion submitted by the Senator from Idaho [Mr. Dubois], which will be read. 
 
 The Secretary read the resolution submitted yesterday by Mr. Dubois, as 
 follows : 
 
 Resolved, That the Commitee on the Judiciary he, and it is hereby, authorized and 
 instructed to prepare and report to the Senate within thirty days after the hegiiinino: of 
 the next session of Congress a joint resolution of the two Houses of Congress proposing 
 to the several States amendments to the Constitution of the United States which shall 
 provide, in substance, for the prohibition and punishment of pohrgamous marriages and 
 plural cohabitation contracted or practiced within the United States and in every place 
 subject to the jurisdiction of the United States ; and which shall, in substance, also re- 
 quire all persons taking office under the Constitution or laws of the United States, or of 
 any State, to take and subscribe an oath that he or she is not, and will not be, a member 
 or adherent of any organization whatever the laws, rules, or nature of which organization 
 require him or her to disregard his or her duty to support and maintain the Constitution 
 and laws of the United States and of the several States. 
 
 Mr. KEARNS. Mr. President, I will not permit this occasion to pass without 
 saying, with brevity and such clearness as I can command, what it seems to me 
 should be said by a Senator, under these circumstances, before leaving public 
 life. Something is due to the State which has honored me ; something is due to 
 the record which I have endeavored to maintain honorably before the world and 
 something, by way of information, is due to the Senate and the country. 
 
 Utah, the newest of the States, to me the best beloved of all the States, 
 appears to be the only one concerning which there is a. serious conflict with the 
 country. I was not born, in Utah, but I have spent all the years of my manhood 
 there, and I love the Commonwealth and its people. In what I say there is 
 malice toward none, and I hope to make it just to all. If the present day does 
 not accept my statements and appreciate my motives, I can only trust that 
 time will prove more gentle and that in the future those who care to revert to 
 these remarks will know that they are animated purely by a hope to bring about 
 a better understanding between Utah and this great nation. 
 
 Utah was admitted to statehood after, and because of, a long series of pledges 
 exacted from the Mormon leaders, the like of which had never before been 
 known in American history. Except for those pledges, the sentiment of the 
 United States would never have assented to Utah's admission. Except for the 
 belief on the part of Congress and the country that the extraordinary power 
 which abides in that State would maintain these pledges, Utah would not have 
 been admitted. There is every reason to believe that the President who signed 
 the bill would have vetoed it if he had not been convinced that the pledges made 
 would be kept. 
 
 THE PLEDGES. 
 
 As a citizen of the State and a witness to the events and words which consti- 
 tute those pledges, as a Senator of the United States, I give my word of honor 
 to you that I believed that these pledges consisted of the following propositions : 
 
 First. That the Mormon leaders would live within the laws pertaining to plu- 
 ral marriage and the continued plural marriage relation, and that they would 
 enforce this obligation upon all of their followers, under penalty of disfellowship. 
 
 G328 3 
 
/I /. /I l- I ■ \ (' \ l l\ 
 
 Second, That the leaders of the Mormon Church would no longer exercise 
 political sway, and that their followers would be free and would exercise their 
 freedom in politics, in business, and in social affairs. 
 
 As a citizen and a Senator I give my word of honor to you that I believed 
 that these pledges would be kept in the si>lrit in which Congress and the country 
 accepted them, and that there would never be any violation, evasion, denial, or 
 equivocation concerning them. 
 
 I appeal to such members of this body as were in either House of Congres-3 
 during the years 1890 to 1890, if it was not their belief at that time thait the 
 foregoing were the pledges and that they would be kept; and I respectfully 
 insist that every Senator here who was a member of either House at that time 
 would have refused to vote for Utah's admission unless he had firmly believed as 
 I have stated. 
 
 1. Utiih secured her statehood by a solemn compact made by the Mormon 
 leaders in behalf of themselves and their people. 
 
 2. That compact has been broken willfully and frequently. 
 
 3. No apostle of the Mormon Church has publicly protested against that 
 violation. 
 
 I know the gravity of the iTtterances that I have just made. I know what 
 are the probable consequences to myself. But I have pondered long and 
 earnestly upon the subject and have come to the conclusion that duty to the 
 innocent people of my State and that obligation to the Senate and the country 
 require that I shall clearly define my attitude. 
 
 RELIGION N'OT INVOLVED. 
 
 This is no quarrel with religion. This is no assault upon any man's faith. 
 This is rather the reverence toward the inherent right of all men to believe as 
 they please, which separates religious faith from irreligious practice. The Mor- 
 mon people have a system of their own, somewhat complex, and gathered fi'om 
 the mysticisms of all the ages. It does not appeal to most men ; but in its 
 purely theological domain it is theirs, and I respect it as their religion and them 
 as its believers. 
 
 The trouble arises now, as it has frequently ari.sen in the past, from the fact 
 that some of the accidental leaders of the movement since the first zealot 
 founder have sought to malve of this religion not only a system cf morals, some- 
 times quite original in themselves, but also a system of social relation, a system 
 of finance, a system of commerce, and a system of iwlities. 
 
 THE SOCIAL ASPECT. 
 
 I dismiss the religion with my profound respect; if it can comfort them, I 
 would not, if I could, disturb it. Coming to the social aspect of the sccietA*, it is 
 apparent that tlie gi-eat founder sought first to establish equality among men, 
 and then to draw from those equal ranks a special class, who were permitted to 
 practice polygamy and to whom special privileges were accorde<l in their asso- 
 ciation with the consecrated temples and the administration of mystic ordi- 
 nances therein. The polygamous group, or cult as it may be called, soon became 
 the nding factor in the organization ; and it may be observed that ever since the 
 founding of tlie church almost evei*y man of prominence in the community has 
 belonged to this order. It was so in the time of the martyrs, Joseph and IIjTum 
 Smith, who were killed at Carthage jail in Illinois, and both of whom were 
 polygamists, although it was denied, at the time. There were living until 
 recently, and perhaps there are living now, women who testified that tliey were 
 married in polygamy to one or the other of these two men, Joseph having the 
 larger number. It has been so ever since and is so to-day that nearly eveiy man 
 of the governing class has been or is a polygamist. 
 
 Brigham Young succeeded Joseph Smith, and he set up a kind of kingly ruler- 
 ship, not unbecoming to a man of his vast empire-building ix>wer. The Mormons 
 have been taught to revere Joseph Smith as a direct prophet from God. He saw 
 the face of the All Father. He held communion with the Son. The Holy Ghost 
 was his constant companion. He settled every question, however trivial, by 
 revelation from Almighty God. But Brigham was different While claiming 
 a divine right of leadership, he worked out his great mission by palpable and 
 material means. I do not know that he ever pretended to have received a rev- 
 6328 
 
elation from the time that he left Nauvoo until he reached the shores of the 
 Dead Sea, nor through all the thirty years of his leadership there. He seemed 
 to regard his people as children who had to be led through their serious calam- 
 ities by holding out to them the glittering thought of divine guardianship. So 
 firmly did Brigham establish the socal order in Utah that all of the people \yere 
 equal, except the governing body. This may be said to consist of the president 
 and his two counsellors, they three constituting the first presidency ; the twelve 
 apostles ; the presiding bishopric, consisting of three men, the chief bishops of 
 the church but much lower in rank than the apostles ; the seven presidents of 
 seventies, who are, under the apostles, the subordinate head of the missionary 
 service of the church; and the presiding patriarch. These altogether consti- 
 tute a body of twenty-six men. There are local authorities in the different 
 stakes of Zion, as they are called, corresponding to counties in a State, but with 
 these it is not necessary to deal. 
 
 Practically all of these men under Brigham Young were polygamists. They 
 constituted what one of their number once called the " elite class " of the com- 
 munity. To attain this rank one usually had to show ability, and attaining the 
 rank he was quite certain to enter into or extend his already existing plural- 
 marriage relations. These rulers were looked upon with great reverence. 
 Brigham Young, besides being a prophet of God, as they believed, had led them 
 through the greatest march of the ages. His nod became almost superhuman in 
 its significance. His frown was as terrible to them as the wrath, of God. He 
 uphelfl all the members of the polygamistic and governing class by his favoritism 
 toward them. He supremely, and they subordinately, ruled the community as 
 if they were a king and a house of peers, with no house of commons. Not else- 
 where in the United States, and not in any foreign country where civilization 
 dwells, has there been such a complete mastery of man over modern men. The 
 subordinates and the mass would perform the slightest will of Brigham Young. 
 When he was not present the mass would perform the will of any of the sub- 
 ordinates speaking in his name. Below this privileged class stood the common 
 mass. It had its various gradations of title, but, with the exception of rare 
 instances of personal power, there was equality in the mass. For instance, as 
 business was a part of their system, the local religious authority in some remote 
 part might be the business subordinate of some other man of less ecclesiastical 
 rank, with the result that this peculiar intermingling kept them all practically 
 upon one level of social order ; and the man who made adobes under the hot sun 
 of the desert through all the week might still be the religious superior of the 
 richest man in the local community, and they met on terms of equality and 
 friendship. Their children might intermarry, the difference in wealth being 
 countervailed by a difference in ecclesiastical Authority, 
 
 It was a strange social system, this, with Brigham Young and his coterie of 
 advisers, to the number of twenty-six, standing at the head, self-perpetuating, the 
 chief being able to select constantly to fill the ranks as they might be depleted 
 by death ; and all these ruling over one solid mass of equal caste who thought 
 that the rulers were animated by divine revelation, holding the right to govern 
 in all things on earth and wuth authority extending into heaven. 
 
 So firmly intrenched was their social system that when Brigham Young passed 
 away his various successors who came in time to his place by accident of senior- 
 ity of service found ample opportunity without difficulty to perpetuate this sys- 
 tem and to maintain their social autocracy. As the matter has appeared so 
 fully before the country, I will not speak further of the method of succession, 
 but will merely call to your minds that after Brigham Young came John Taylor, 
 then Wilford Woodruff, then Lorenzo Snow, then Joseph F. Smith, the present 
 ruler. 
 
 Under these several men the social autocracy has had its varying fortunes, but 
 at the present time it is probably at as high a point as it ever reached under the 
 original Joseph or under Brigham Young. The president of the church, Joseph 
 F. Smith, affects a regal state. His home consists of a series of villas, rather 
 handsome in design, and surrounded by such ample grounds as to afford suffi- 
 cient exclusiveness. In addition to this he has an official residence of historic 
 character near to the office which he occupies as president. When he travels he 
 is usually accompanied by a train of friends, who are really servitors. When 
 he attends social functions he appears like a ruler among his subjects. And in 
 this respect I am not speaking of ^.lormon associations alone, for there are many 
 Gentiles in and out of Utah who seem to take delight in paying this extraor- 
 dinary deference. 
 6323 
 
6 
 
 If I hnre seemed to speak at lensrth upon this (mere social phase it bas nwt 
 ?been without a definite purpose. I want yon to liuow how tliis relii?ion, claim- 
 iufr to recosniize and secure tlie equality of men, immediately established and has 
 liiaiirtained for the mass of its adherents that social equality, but has elevated 
 a class of its rulers to regal authority and splendor. Understanding how the 
 chief among them has the dignity of a monarch in their social relations, you will 
 better understand the business and political autocracy which he has been able 
 to establish. 
 
 In all this social system each apostle has his great part. He is inseparable 
 from it. He wields now, as does a minister at court, such part of the power as 
 the monarch may permit him to ejijoy, and it is his hope and exi^ectation that 
 ■be will outline those who are his seniors in rank in order that he may become 
 tlie i-uler. 
 
 Therefore, if there be evil in this social relation as I have portrayed it, every 
 apostle is responsil^le for a part of th.at evil. They enjoy the honors of the 
 social class ; they help to exert the tyranny over the subjugated mass. Those of 
 you who do nie the honor to follow my remarks will realize how close is the re- 
 lation between the apostles and the pr(?sident, and that the apostle is a respon- 
 sible part of the governing power. While I may speak of the president of the 
 church segregated from his associates and as the monarch, it must be under- 
 stood constantly that he maintains his power by the support of the apostles, 
 who keep the mass in order and in subjugation to his will, expressed through 
 them. 
 
 THE BUSn^SS MONOPOLY. 
 
 Whatever may have been its origin or excuse, the business power of the presi- 
 dent of the church and of the select class which he admits into business relations 
 with him is now a practical monopoly, or is rapidly becoming a monopoly, of 
 everything that he touches. I want to call your attention to the exti'aordinar5' 
 list of worldly concerns in which this spiritual leader holds official position. 
 The situation is more amazing when you are advised that this man came to his 
 l)residency purely by accident, namely, the death of his seniors in rank ; that he 
 had never known any business ability, and that he comes to the presidency and 
 the directorship of the various corporations solely because he is president of the 
 church. He is already reputed to be a wealthy man, and his statement 
 would seem to indicate that he has large holdings in the various corporations 
 with which he is associated, although previous to his accession to the presidency 
 of the church he made a kind of proud boast among his people of his poverty. 
 
 He condncts railways, street -car lines, power and light companies, coal mines, 
 salt works, sugar factories, shoe factories, mercantile houses, drug stores, news- 
 papers, magazines, theaters, and almost evei*y conceivable kind of business, and 
 in all of these, inasmuch as he is the dominant factor by viitne of his being the 
 prophet of God, he asserts indisputable sway. It is considered an evidence of 
 defei'ence to him, and good standing in the church, for his hundreds of thou- 
 sands of followers to patronize exclusively the institutions which he controls. 
 
 And this fact alone, Mithout any business ability on his part, but with capable 
 subordinate guidance for his enteipi-ises, insures their success, and danger and 
 possible iiiin for every competitive enterprise. Independent of these business 
 concerns, he is in receipt of an income like unto that which a royal family 
 derives from a national treasury. One-tenth of all the annual earnings of all 
 the Mormons in all the world flows to him. These funds amount to the sum of 
 $1,600,000 annually, or 5 pea- cent upon $32,000,000, which is one-quarter of the 
 entire taxable wealth of the State of ITtah. It is the same as if he owned, 
 individually, in addition to all his visible enterprises, one-quarter of all the 
 wealth of the State and derived fi'om it 5 per cent of income witbout taxation 
 and without discount. The hoi)elessness of contending in a business way with 
 this autoci-at must be perfectly apparent to your minds. The original puii^ose 
 of this vast tithe, as often stated by speakers for the church, was the mainte- 
 nance of the i>oor, the building of meetinghouses, etc. To-day the tithes are 
 transmuted, in the localities whei^e they are paid, into cash, and they flow into 
 the treasurj' of the head of the chui'ch. No accomit is made, or ever has been 
 made, of these tithes. The president expends them according to bis own will 
 and pleasm'e. and with no examination of bis accounts, except by those few men 
 whom lie selects for that purpose and whom he rewards for their zeal and 
 secrecy. Shortly after the settlement of the Monnon Church property question 
 6328 
 
vc'ith the United States the chnreh issued a series of bonds, anionntinj? approxi- 
 mately to $1,000,000, which Avere talven by financial institutions. Tliis wp.s ])rob- 
 ably to wipe out a debt which had accumulated during a long period of conti-o- 
 versy with the nation. But since, and including the year 1897, which was about 
 the time of the issue of the bonds, approximately $9,000,000 have been paid as 
 tithes. If anj' of the bonds are still outstanding, it is manifestly becauFc the 
 president of the church desires for reasons of his own to have an existing 
 indebtedness. 
 
 It will astound you to know that every dollar of United States money i)aid> to 
 any servant of the Government who is a IMormon is tithed for the benefit of 
 this monarch. Out of every $1,000 thus paid he gets .$100 to swell his grandeur. 
 This is also true of money paid out of the public ti-easury of the State of Utah 
 to Mormon officials. But what is worst of all, the monarch dips into the sacred 
 public school fimd and extracts from every Mormon teacher one-tenth of Jiis or 
 lier earnings and uses it for his unaccounted purposes ; and, by means of these 
 imrposes and the power which they constitute, he defies the laws of his State, 
 the sentiment of his country, and is waging war of nullification on the public 
 school system, so dear to the American people. No right-thinking man will 
 oppose any i^erson as a servant of the nation or the State or as a teacher in 
 the public schools on account of religious faith. As I have before remarked, 
 this is no war upon the religion of the Mormons ; and I am only calling atten- 
 tion to the monstrous manner in which this monarch invades all the provinces 
 of human life and endeavors to secure his rapacious ends. 
 
 In all this there is no thought on my part of opposition to voluntary gifts by 
 individuals for religious purposes or matters connected legitimately with 
 religion. My comment and criticism are against the tyranny which misuses a 
 sacred name to extract from individuals the moneys which they ought not to 
 spare from family needs, and which they do not wish to spare ; my comment 
 and criticism relate to the power of a monarch whose tyranny is so effective as 
 that not even the moneys paid by the Government are considered the property 
 of the Government's servant until after this monarch shall have seized his 
 arbitrary tribute, with or without the willing assent of the victim, so that the 
 monarch may engage the more extensively in commercial affairs, which are not 
 n part of either religion or charity. 
 
 With an income of 5 per cent upon one-quarter of the entire assessed valuation 
 of the State of Utah to-day, how long will it take this monarch, with his con-, 
 stantly increasing demands for revenue, to so absorb the productive power that 
 he shall be receiving an income of 5 per cent upon one-half the property, and 
 then upon all of the property of the State? This is worse than the farming of 
 taxes under the old French Kings. Will Congress allow this awful calamity to 
 continue? 
 
 The view which the people of the United States entertained on this subject 
 forty years ago was shown by the act of Congress in 1S62, in which a provision, 
 directed particularly against the Mormon Church, declared that no church in a 
 Territory of the United States should have in excess of $50,000 of wealth out- 
 side of the property used for purposes of worship. It is evident that as early 
 as that time the pernicious effects of a system which used the name of God and 
 the authority of religion to dominate in commerce and finance were fully; 
 recognized. 
 
 This immense tithing fund is gathered directly from Mormons, but the burden 
 falls in some degree upon Gentiles also. Gentiles are in business and suffer 
 by competition with tithe-supported business enterprises. Gentiles are large 
 employers of Mormon labor ; and as that labor must pay one-tenth of its earn- 
 ings to support competitive concerns, the Gentile employer must pay, indirectly 
 at least, the tithe which may be utilized to compete with, and even ruin, him in 
 business. 
 
 And in return it should be noted that INIormon institutions do not employ Gen- 
 tiles except in rare cases of necessity. The reason is obvious : Gentiles do nof 
 take as kindly to the tithing system as do the Mormons. 
 
 The Mormon citizen of Utah has additional disadvantages. After paying 
 one-tenth of all his earnings as a tithe offering, he is called upon to erect and 
 maintain the meetinghouses and other edifices of the church ; he is called upon 
 to donate to the poor fund in his ward, through his local bishop ; he is called 
 upon to sustain the Women's Relief Society, whose purpose is to care for the 
 poor and to minister to the sick; he is called upon to pay his share of the 
 expense for the 2,500 missionaries of the church who are constantly kept in the 
 6328 
 
s 
 
 field without drawing upon tlie general funds of the church. When all this is 
 done, it is found that, in defiance of the old and deserved boast of tlie predeces- 
 sors of the present president, there are some Mormons in the poorhouses of 
 Utah, and these are sustained by the public taxes derived from the Gentiles 
 and Mormons alike. 
 
 Broadly speaking, the Gentiles compose 35 per cent of the population and pay 
 one-half of the taxes of Utah. In the long run they carry their share of all 
 these great charges. 
 
 The almost unbearable community burden which is thus inflicted must be 
 visible to your minds without argument from me. 
 
 Let it be sufficient on this point for me to say that all the property of Utah is 
 made to contribute to the grandeur of the president of the church, and that at 
 his instance any industry, any institution, within the State, could be destroyed 
 except the mining and smelting industry. Even this industry his personal and 
 church organ has attacked with a threat of extermination by the courts, or by 
 additional legislation, if the smelters do not meet the view expressed by the 
 church organ. 
 
 ISIr. President, I ask to have read at this point an editorial from the Deseret 
 Evening News of October 31, 1904, which I send to the desk. 
 
 The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Secretary will read as requested. 
 
 The Secretary read as follows : 
 
 DESERET EVENING NEWS. 
 [Organ of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.] 
 
 Salt Lake City, Octoher 31, 190J,. 
 
 AWAY WITH THE NCISAXCE. 
 
 The people of Salt Lake City are wakinc: up to the realization of the trouble of which 
 our cousins out in the country are complaining. The sulphurous fumes which have heeu 
 tasted by many folks here, particularly late at night, are not only those of a partisan 
 nature emanating from the smokestacks of the slanderers and raaligners, hut are treats 
 bestowed upon our citizens by the smelters, and are samples of the goods, or rather evils, 
 which farmers and horticulturists have been burdened with so long. Complaints have 
 come to us from some of the best people of the city, of different faiths and parties, that 
 the air has been laden with sulphurous fumes that can not only be felt in the throat, but 
 tasted in the mouth, and they rest upon the city at night, appearing like a thin fosr. 
 
 The. fact is this smelter smoke will have to go ; there is no mistake about that. If the 
 smelters can not consume it, they will have to close up. This fair county must not be 
 devastated and this city must not be rendered unhealthiul by any such a niiisance as that 
 which has been borne with now for a long time. The evasive policy that has been pur- 
 sued, the tantalizing treatment toward the farmers who have vainly sought for redress, 
 the destruction that has come upon vegetation and upon live stock, and now the choking 
 fumes that reach this city all demand some practical remedy in place of the shilly-shally 
 of the past. 
 
 The Deseret News has counseled peace, consideration for the smelter people in the 
 difficulties that they have to meet, favor toward a valuable industry that should be 
 encouraged on proper lines, and arbitration instead of litigation. But it really seems 
 now as though an aggressive policy will have to bo pursued, or ruin will come to the agri- 
 cultural pursuits of Salt Lake County, while the city will not escape from the ravages of 
 the smelter fiend. If the companies that control those works Vvlll not- or can not dispose 
 of the poisonous metallic fumes that pour out of their smokestacks, the fires will have to 
 be banked and the nuisance suppressed. We do not believe the latter is the necessary 
 alternative. We are of opinion that the evil can be disposed of, and we are sure that 
 efforts ought to be made to effect it without further delay. 
 
 It looks as if the courts will have to be appealed to to obtain compensation for dam- 
 ages already inflicted. Also that they will have to be applied to for injunctions against 
 the continuance of the cause of the trouble. We think there is law enough now to pro- 
 ceed under. But if that is not the case, then legislation must be had to fully cover the 
 ground. Litigation will have to come first, legislation afterwards. However that may 
 be, temporizing with the evil will not do. Patience has ceased to be a virtue in this 
 matter.. The conviction is fastening itself upon the public mind that no active steps are 
 intended by the responsible parties, but simply a policy of delay. They must be taught 
 that this will not answer the purpose, and that the injured people will not be fooled in 
 that way. The smelter smoke must go. And it must not go in the old way. 
 
 The proposition to put the matter in the hands of experts chosen by the complainants 
 is not to be seriously considered. The onus is upon the smelter men ; they are the 
 offendrrs, and they must take the steps necessary to remove the cause of complaint, and 
 also reimburse those who have been injured. We do not ask anything unreasonable. 
 We join with those of our citizens who intend that this beautiful part of our lovely State 
 shall not be laid waste, even if the only cure is the suppression of the destroying cause. 
 This may as well be understood first as last. Useless practical measures are adopted to 
 abate the evil, active proceedings will have to be taken and pushed to the utmost to 
 remove entirely the root and branch and trunk and body of this tree of destruction. The 
 people Affected are deeply in earnest, and they certainly mean business. 
 
 Mr. ICEARNS. Mr. President, I must not burden you \^'ith too many details, 
 but in order for you to see how complete is the business power of this man I 
 6328 
 
will cite you to one case. The Great Salt Lake is e??timated to contain 
 14,000,000,000 tons of salf. Probably salt can be made cheaper on the shores of 
 this lake than anywhere else in the world. Nearly all its shore line is adapt- 
 able for salt gardens. The president of the church is interested in a large salt 
 monopoly which has gathered in the various smaller enterprises. He is presi- 
 dent of a railroad which runs from the salt gardens to Salt Lake Ctly, connect- 
 ing there with trunk lines. It costs to manufacture the salt and place it on 
 board the cars 75 cents per ton. He receives for it $o and p) per ton. His 
 company and its subsidiary corporation are probably capitalized at three- 
 quarters of a million dollars, and upon this large sum he is able to pay dividends 
 of 8 or 10 per cent. 
 
 Not long since two men, who for many years had; been tithe payers and loyal 
 members of the church, undertook to establish a salt garden along the line of a 
 ti'unk railway. One of them was a large dealer in salt, and proposed to extend 
 his trade by making the salt and reaching territory prohibited to him by the 
 church price of salt; the other was the owner of the land upon which it was 
 proposed to establish the salt garden. These men formed a corporation, put in 
 pumping stations and flumes, and the corporation became indebted to one of 
 the financial institutions over which the church exercised considerable inflii- 
 ence. Then the president of the church sent for them. There is scarcely an 
 instance on record where a message of this kind failed of its purpose. These 
 men went to meet the prophet, seer, and revelator of God, as they supposed, but 
 he had laid aside his robes of sanctity for the moment and he was a plain, 
 unadorned, aggressive, if not an able, business man. He first denounced them 
 for interfering with a business which he had made peculiarly his own ; and, when 
 they protested that they had no intention to interfere with his trade, but were 
 seeking new markets, he declared ii\ a voice of thunderous passion that if they 
 did not cease with their projectect enterprise, he would crush them. They 
 escaped from his presence feeling like courtiers repulsed from the foot of a 
 Jdng's throne, and then surveyed their enterprise. If they stopped, they would 
 lose all the money invested and their enterprise would possibly be sold out to 
 their creditors ; if they vrent on and invested more money, the president had the 
 power, as he had threatened, to crush them. Not only could he ruin their enter- 
 prise, but he could ostracise them socially and could make of them marked and 
 shunned men in the community- where they had always been respected. 
 
 Is there menace in this system? To me it seems like a great danger to all 
 the people who are now affected, and therefore of great danger to tlie people 
 of the United States, because the power of this monarchy within the Republic 
 is constantly extending. If it be an evil, every apostle is in part responsible 
 for this tyrannical course. He helped to elect the president; he does the 
 president's bidding, and shares in the advantages of that tyranny. 
 
 I did not call the social system a violation of the pledges to the country, but 
 I do affirm that the business tryanny of Mormon leaders is an expj-ess violation 
 of the covenant made, for they do not leave their followers free in secular 
 afCairs. They tyrannize over them, and their tyranny spreads even to the 
 Gentiles. In all this I charge that every apostle is a party to the wrong and to 
 the violation. Although I speak of the president of the chm'ch as the leader, 
 the monarch in fact, every apostle is one of his ministers, one of his creators, 
 and also one of his creatures, and possibly his successor ; and the whole system 
 depends upon the manner in which the apostles and the other leaders shall sup- 
 port the chief leader. As no apostle has ever protestecl against this system, 
 but has, by every means in his power, encouraged it, he can not escape his 
 share of the responsibility for it It is an evil ; tliey aid it. It is a violation of 
 tiie pledge upon which statehood was granted; they profit by it. 
 
 i THE POLITICAL AUTOCHACY. 
 
 r pass now to the politLcal aspect of this hierarcliy, as some call it,, but this 
 monarchy as I choose to term it. 
 
 I have previously called your attention to the social and business powers, 
 monopolies, autocracies, exercised by the leaders. Through these channels of 
 social and business relations they can spread the knov»dedge of their political 
 desires without appearing obtrusively in politics. When the end of their desire 
 is accomplished, they affect to wash their hands of all responsibility by denying 
 that they engaged in political activities. Superficial persons, and those desir- 
 ing to accei^t this argument, are convinced by it. But never, in the palmy days 
 C32S 
 
10 
 
 of Crigham Yoimc;, was there a nmre complete political tyranny than is exer- 
 cised by the present president of the Mormon Church and his apostles, who are 
 merely awaiting the time when by the death of their seniors in rank they may 
 become president, and select some other man to hold the apostleship in their 
 place — as they now hold it in behalf of the ruling monarch. 
 
 In this statement I merely call your attention to what a perfect system of 
 ecclesiastical government is maintained by these presidents and aix)stles ; and I 
 do not need to more than indicate to you what a wouderous aid their ecclesi- 
 astical government can be, and is, in accomplishing their political purposes. 
 
 Parties are nothing to these leaders, except as parties may be used by them. 
 So long as there is Republican administration and Congress, they will lead their 
 followers to support Republican tickets ; but if, by any chance, the Democratic 
 party should control this Government, with a prospect of continuance in pov>-er, 
 you would see a gradual veering around under the direction of the Mormon 
 leaders. When Republicans are in power the Republican leaders of the Mormon 
 people are in evidence and the Democratic leaders are in retirement. If the 
 Democracy were in power, the Republican leaders of the Mormon people would 
 go into retirement and Democrats would appear in their places. No man can be 
 elected to either House of Congress against their v/ish. I will not ti-espass upon 
 your patience long enough to recite the innumerable circumstances that prove 
 this assertion, but will merely refer to enough instances to illustrate the method. 
 In 1897, at the session of the legislature which was to elect a Senator, and which 
 was composed of sixty Democrats and three Republicans, Moses Thacher was 
 the favored candidate of the Democracy in the State. He had been an apostle 
 of the Mormon Church, but had been deposed because he was out of harmony 
 with the leaders. The Hon. Jos. L. Rawlins was a rival candidate, but not 
 strongly so at first. He was encouraged by the church leaders in every way ; 
 and finally, when his sti-ength had been advanced sufficiently to need but one 
 vote, a Mormon Republican Avas promptly moved over into the Democratic col- 
 umn and he was elected by the joint assembly. I do not charge that Hon. Joseph 
 L. Rawlins, who occupied a seat with distinguished honor in this great body for 
 six years, had any improper bargain with the church, or any knowledge of the 
 secret methods by which his election was being compassed ; but he was elected 
 under the direction of the leaders of the church because they desired to defeat 
 and further humiliate a deposed aix)stle. 
 
 I will not ignore my own case. During nearly three years I have waited this 
 great hour of justice in which I could answer the malignant falsehood and abuse 
 which has been heaped upon a man who is dead and can not answer, and upon 
 myself, a living man willing to wait the time for answer. Lorenzo Snow, a very 
 aged man, was president of the church when I was elected to the Senate. He 
 had reached that advanced time of life, being over eighty, when men abide 
 largely in the thoughts of their youth. He was my friend in that distant way 
 which sometimes exists without close acquaintanceship, our friendship (if I 
 may term it such) having arisen from the events attendant upon Utah's struggle 
 for statehood. For some reason he did not oppose my election to the Senate. 
 Every other candidate for the place had sought his favor ; it came to me without 
 price or solicitation on my part. The friends and mouthpieces of some of the 
 present leaders have been base enough to charge that I bought the Senatorship 
 from Lorenzo Snow, president of their own church. Here and now I denounce 
 the calumny against that old man, whose unsought and unbought favor came to 
 me in that contest. That I ever paid him one dollar of money, or asked him to 
 influence legislators of his faith, is as cruel a falsehood as ever came from human 
 lips. So far as I am concerned he held his power with clean hands, and I would 
 protect the memory of this dead man against all the abuse and misrepresenta- 
 tion which might be heaped upon him by those who were his adherents during 
 life, but who now attack his fame in order that they may pay the greater defer- 
 ence to the present king. 
 
 You must know that in that day we were but five years old as a State. Our 
 ix)litical conditions were and had been greatly unsettled. The purpose of the 
 church to rule in politics had not yet been made so manifest and determined. 
 Lorenzo Snow held his office for a brief time — about two years. What he did in 
 that office pertaining to my election I here and now distinctly assume as my 
 burden, for no man shall with impunity use his hatred of me to defame Lorenzo 
 Snow and dishonor his memory to his living and loving descendants. 
 
 As for myself, I am willing to take the Senate and the country into my con- 
 fidence, and make a part of the eternal records of the Senate, for such of my 
 6328 
 
11 
 
 friends as may care to read, tlie vindication of my course to my posterity. T 
 liad an ambition, and not an improper one, to sit in the Senate of the United 
 States, My competitors had longer experience in politics and may have under- 
 stood more of the peculiar situation in the State. They sought what is known 
 as church influence. I sought to obtain this place by purely political means. I 
 was elected. After all their trickery my opponents were defeated, and to some 
 extent by the very means which they had basely invoked. I have served with 
 you four years, and have sought in a modest way to make a creditable record 
 here. I have learned something of the grandeur and dignity of the Senat<^, 
 something of its ideals, which I could not know before coming here. I say to 
 you, my fellow Senators, that this place of power is infinitely more magnificent 
 than I dreamed when I first thought of occupying a seat liere. But were it 
 thrice as great as I now know^ it to be, and were I back in that old time of strug- 
 gle in Utah, when I was seeking for this honor, I would not permit the volun- 
 teered friendship of President Snow to bestow upon me, even as an innocent 
 recipient, one atom of the church monarch's favor. My ideals have grown with 
 my term of service in this body, and I believe that tlie man who would render 
 here the highest service to his country must be careful to attain to this place by 
 the purest civic path that mortal feet can tread. 
 
 I have said enough to indicate that for my own part I never countenanced, 
 nor knowingly condoned, the intrusion of the church monarchy into secular 
 afiCairs. And I have said enough to those who know me to prove for all time 
 that, so far as I am concerned, my election here was as honorable as that of any 
 man who sits in this chamber ; and yet I have said enough that all men may know 
 that rather than have a dead man's memory defamed on my account, I will 
 make his cause my own and will fight for the honor which he is not on earth to 
 defend. This will not suit the friends and mouthpieces of the present rulers, 
 but I have no desire to satisfy or conciliate them ; and in leaving this part of 
 the question, I avenge President Snow sufiicieutly by saying that these men 
 did not dare to offend his desire nor dispute his will while he was living, and 
 only grew brave w^hen they could cry : " Lorenzo, the king, is dead ! Long live 
 Joseph, the king! " 
 
 As a Senator I have sought to fulfill my duty to the people of this country. 
 I am about to retire from this place of dignity. No man can retain this seat 
 from Utah and retain his self-respect after he discovers the methods by which 
 his election is procured and the objects which the church monarchy intends to 
 achieve. Some of my critics will say that I relinquished that which I could not 
 hold. 1 vrill not pause to discuss that point further than to say that if I had 
 chosen to adopt the policy with the present monarch of the church, which his 
 friends and mouthpieces say I did adopt with the king who is dead, it might 
 iiave been possible to retain this place of honor with dishonor. 
 
 Every apostle is a part of this terrible power, which can make and unmake at 
 its mysterious will and pleasure. Eaiiy in 1902 warning had been publicly 
 uttered in the State against the continued manifestation of church power in poli- 
 tics. The period of unsettled conditions during which I was elected had ended 
 and we had opportunity to see the manner in which the church monarch was 
 resuming his forbidden sway ; and we had occasion to know the indignant 
 feelings entertained by the people of the United States when they contemplated 
 the flagrant breaking of the pledge given to the country to secure the admission 
 of Utah. I myself, after conference with distinguished men at Washington, 
 journeyed to Utah and presented a solemn protest and warning to the leaders 
 of the church against the dangerous exercise of their political power. I did it 
 to repay a debt which I owed to Utah, and not for any selfish reason. I knew 
 that from the day I uttered that warning the leaders of the Mormon Church 
 would hate and pursue me for the purpose of wreaking their vengeance. But 
 lis tlie consequences of their misconduct, their pledge brcaldng would fall upon 
 all of the people of the State, upon the innocent more severely than upon the 
 guilty, I felt that I must assert my love and gratitude to the State, even though 
 my warning should lead to my own destruction by these autocracts. If there had 
 been one desire in my heart to effect a conjunction with this church monai'chy, 
 if I had been williug to retain oflice as its gift, I would not have taken this 
 step, for I Icnew its consequences. I began in that hour my efl'ort to restore to 
 the people of Utah the safety and the political freedom which are their right, 
 and I shall continue it while I live untif the fight is won. 
 
 The disdain with which that message was received was final proof of the con- 
 tempt in which that church monarchy holds the Senate and the people of the 
 6328 
 
12 
 
 United States, and of the disregard in wliich the church monarchy holds the 
 pledges which it made in order to ohtain tlie power of statehood. 
 
 They do not need to ntter explicit instructions in order to assert their demand. 
 The methods of conveying information of their desire are numerous and suffi- 
 ciently effective, as is proved by results. To shov/ haw completely all ordinary 
 politic^.l conditions, as they obtain elsewhere in the United States, are without 
 account in Utah, I have but to cite you to the fact that after the recent election, 
 which gave 57 members out of G3 on joint ballot to the Republican part\', and 
 when the question of my successor became a matter of great anxiety to numer- 
 c»us aspirants for this place, the discussion was not concerning the fitness of can- 
 didates, nor the political popularity of the various gentlemen who composed that 
 waiting list, nor the i)let]ges of the legislators, but was limited to the question 
 as to \vIio could stand best with the church monarchy ; as to whom it would 
 like to use in this position ; as to who would make for the extension of its ambi- 
 tions and power in the United States. 
 
 J THE MORMON JirAERIAGE RELATION. 
 
 And now I^ome to a subject concerning which the people of the United States 
 are greatly aroused. It is known that there have been plural marriages among 
 the Mormon people, by sanction of high authorities in this church monarchy, 
 since the solemn promise was made to the country that plural marriages should 
 end. It is v>'ell known that the plural marriage relations have been continued 
 defiantly, according to the will and pleasure of those who had formerly violated 
 the law, and for whose obedience to law the church monarchy pledged the faith 
 and honor of its leaders and followers alike in order to obtain statehood. The 
 pledge was made repeatedly', as stated in an earlier part of these remarks, that 
 all of the Mormon people would come within the law. They have net done so. 
 The church monarch is known to be living in deliance of the laws of God and 
 man, and in defiance of the covenant made with the country, upon which am- 
 nesty by the President, and statehood by the President and the Congress, were 
 granted, 
 
 I charge that every apostle is in large part responsible for this condition, so 
 deplorable in its effects upon the people of Utah and so antagonistic to the 
 institutions of this country. Every apostle is directed by the law-breqjving 
 church monarch. ICvery apostle teaches by example and precept to the Mormon 
 people that this church monarch is a pro])het of God, to offend or criticise whom 
 is a sin in the sight of the Almighty. Every apostle hel])s to appoint to office 
 and sustain the seven presidents of seventies, who are belovv^ tliem in dignity, 
 and they are directly resiwnsible for them and their method of life. 
 
 It is quite evident that the church monarchy is endeavoring to reestablish 
 the rule of a polygamous class over the mass of the Mormon people. Of the 
 apostles not practicing polygamy there is at most only three or four men con- 
 stituting the quorum of which this could be truthfully said. Special reasons 
 may exist in some particular case why a man in this class has not entered into 
 such relation. 
 
 THE GENERAL SITUATION. 
 
 Bi'iefly reviewing the matters which I have offered here, and the logical 
 deductions therefrom, 1 maintain the following propositions : 
 
 We set aside the religion of the Mormon people as sacred from assault. 
 
 Outside of religion tiie Mormons as a community are ruled by a special privi- 
 leged class, constituting what I call the church monarchy. 
 
 This monarchy pletlged the country that there would be no more violations of 
 law and no more defiance of the sentiment of the United States regarding 
 polygamy and the plural marriage relation. 
 
 This monarchy pledged the United States that it would refrain from control- 
 ling its subjects in secular affairs. 
 
 Every member of this monarchy is responsible for the system of government 
 and for the acts of the monarchy, since (as shown in the cases of the deposed 
 apostle, Moses Thatcher, and others) tlie man who is not in accord with the 
 system is dropped from the ruling class. 
 
 This monarchy sets up a regal social order within this Repu])llc. 
 
 This monarchy monopolizes the business of one commonwealth and is rapidly 
 reaching into others. 
 8328 
 
This monarch?' takes practically all the surplus product of the toil of its sub- 
 jects for its own purpose, and makes no account to anyone on earth of its 
 immense secret fund. 
 
 This monarchy rules all politics in Utah, and is rapidly extending its dominion 
 into other States and Territories. 
 
 This monarchy permits its favorites to enter into polygamy and to maintain 
 polygamous relations, and it protects them from prosecution by its political 
 power. 
 
 Lately no effort has been made to punish any of these people by the local law. 
 On the contrary, the ruling monarch has continued to grow in power, wealth, 
 and importance. He sits upon innumerable boards of directors, among others 
 that of the Union Pacific Railway, where he joins upon terms of fraternity 
 with the great financial and transi)ortation magnates of the United States, wdio 
 hold him in their councils because his power to benefit or to injure their pos- 
 sessions nmst be taken into account. 
 
 I charge that no apostJe has over protested publicly against the continuation 
 of this sovereign authority over the Mormon kingdom. 
 
 Within a few months past the last apostle elected to the quorum was a 
 polygamist — Charles W. Penrose — and his law-breaking career is well knovrn. 
 Previous to 1SS9 Penrose was living publicly with three wives. Under false pre- 
 tenses to President Cleveland he obtained amnesty for his past offenses. He 
 represented that he had but two wives, and that he married his second wife in 
 38(32, while it was generally known that he took a third wife just prior to 1888. 
 He promised to obey the law in the future, and to urge others to do so ; yet 
 after that amnesty, obtained by concealing his third marriage from President 
 Cleveland, he continued living with his three wives. His action in this matter 
 has been notorious. He has publicly defended this kind of lawbreaking on the 
 false pretense that there was a tacit understanding vrith the American Con- 
 gress and people, when Utah w^as admitted, that these polygamists might con- 
 tinue to live as they had been living. 
 
 And it was this traitor to his country's laws, this unrepentant knave and 
 cheat of the nation's mercy, this defamer of Congress and the people, that was 
 elected to the apostleship to help govern the church, and through the church 
 the State. 
 
 Is it not demonstrated that Utah is an abnormal State? Our problem is 
 vast and complex. I have endeavored to simplify it so that the Senate and 
 the country may readily grasp the questions at issue. 
 
 THE EEMEDY. 
 
 Will this great body, will the Government of the United States, go on unheed- 
 ingly while this church monarchy multiplies its purposes and multiplies its 
 power? Has the nation so little regard for its own dignity and the safety of 
 its institutions and its people that it will permit a church monarch like Joseph 
 F. Smith to defy the laws of the country, and to override the law and to over- 
 rule the administrators of the law in his own State of Utah? 
 
 What shall the Americans of that Commonwealth do if the people of the 
 United States do not heed their cry? 
 
 The vast majority of the Mormon people are law-abiding, industrious, sober, 
 and thrifty. They make good citizens in every respect except as they are domi- 
 nated by this monorchy, which speaks to them in the name of God and governs 
 them in the spirit of Mammon. Any remedy for existing evils which would 
 injure the mass of the Mormon people would be most deplorable. I believe that 
 they would loosen the chains which they wear if it vrere possible. I think that 
 many of them pay blood-money tithes simply to. avoid social ostracism and busi- 
 ness destruction. I believe that many of them do the political will of the 
 church monarch because they are led to believe that the safety of the church 
 monarchy is necessary in order that the mass may preserve the right to worship 
 God according to the dictates of their conscience. The church monopoly, by its 
 various agencies, is usually able to uprear the injured and innocent mass of the 
 Mormon people as a barrier to protect the members of that monarchy from pub- 
 lic vengeance. 
 
 It is the duty of this great body— the Senate of the United States— to serve 
 notice on this church monarch and his apostles that they must live within the 
 law; that the nation is supreme; that the institutions^ of this country must 
 
 G.328 
 
14 
 
 prevail throughout the land; and that the compact upon which statehood was 
 granted must be preserved inviohite. 
 
 May heaven grant that this may be effective and that the church monarchy 
 -in Utah may ))e taught that it must relinquish its grasp. 
 
 I would not, for my life, that injury should conre to the innocent mass of 
 the people of I'tah ; I would not that any right of theirs should be lost, but that 
 the right of all should be preserved to all. 
 
 If the Senate will apply this remedy and the alien monarchy still proves de- 
 l-ant, it will be for others than myself to suggest a course of action consistent 
 with the dignity of the country. 
 
 In the meantime we of Utah who have no sympathy with the now clearly 
 defined purpose of this church monopoly will wage our battle for individual free- 
 dom, to lift the State to a proud position in the sisterhood, to preserve the com- 
 pact which wcis made with the country, believing that behind the brave citizens 
 in Utah who are warring against tiiis alien monarchy stands the sentiment and 
 pc;\'er of eighty-two millions of our fellow-citizens. 
 
 o 
 
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