Speech #490005039

It has been dying out in the presence of the milliners. the mantnamakers. and the persons who promulgate fashions and those who inculcate luxurious living and decent living. and in the presence of the Protestant churches. all of whom are represented in that community by large congregations and by a very considerable amount of wealth. It has been dying out in public sentiment and public esteem. and would long before this have lost its temporal influence entirely and its spiritual influence. if it ever had any. but for the fact that it has been kept in organization by this act of the Territorial Legislature of Utah. Time church as a legal incorporation. with its board of trustees. and outside of that its president and its twelve apostles and its numerous bishops and its missionaries and its tithing power and its cooperative store and its Emigrant Aid Association (which is also an incorporation under the church). has been enabled to assemble upon the virgin soil of that Territory a large number of indigent people. most of whom are industrious. thrifty. and economical people. who under other auspices and under different circumstances would have made a most excellent community. Indeed. sir. it must be said in their behalf that the evil influences of this polygamous organization have had so little effect upon their industries. upon their social and apparent moral condition. upon their schools. and upon their general public demeanor. that the Gentiles who go there for the purpose of looking into those institutions are almost uniformly astonished that such doctrihes and such practices could be associated with that degree 6f civilization and progress that those people have made. The exertion of the power of that community in honest and legitimate industrial pursuits has been such that they have almost lived down the shame of the polygamous institution which effaces and in the mind of the world c6ndemns almost every phase of their social organization.