View source for 1900-02-28-New York Tribune-Mormonism Versus Polygamy

==Mormonism Versus Polygamy==
: New York Tribune, 28 February 1900, p. 7, c. 3

'''Society for Political Study Talks on the subject.

"Mormonism Versus Polygamy" occupied the
attention of the Society for Political Study in the
hour following the business session yesterday
afternoon at Tuxedo Hall, Madison-ave. and Fifty
ninth-st. Mrs. Fannie H. Gaffney presided, and
for the discussion resigned the chair to Mrs. Kath
erine Remington.

The paper of the day was read by Dr. Harriet
E. Keatinge. She said: "I intend to argue nothing
for or against the subject, but merely to state
facts, which I have obtained from families who
live in Utah—facts from Gentile friends." Dr. Keat
inge gave a short outline of the history of Mor
monism and repeated the creed.

"The Mormon Church," she continued, "did not
originally include polygamy in its tenets. That is
now greatly on the decrease, and what exists is con
ducted under great secrecy. The Mormon Church
is an immense business corporation under a re
ligious guise, and it secures followers by promises
of easy times and easy lives to emigrants.

"The more intelligent class is breaking away
gradually, owing to the influence of Gentiles and
the public school system, but the plural wives look
upon their lives as a sacred duty, and the duty of
motherhood greater than all. They are not only
truthful, but just, conscientious and moral."

The first speaker in the discussion was Miss
America Phillips, who considered the most im
portant phase the political phase, "as religion has
nothing to do with it." She declared that Mormons
first tried to establish an empire in California but
were repulsed from the Pacific Coast, and so made 
an oasis in the Great Desert. "They are trying in
every way," she said, "to strengthen their foothold,
and our Government doesn't pay any attention to
them. However, the recent Roberts case was an
entering wedge."

Mrs. J. S. Clarkson, of Iowa, who was the next
speaker, thought there were two sides to every
thing, and was inclined to be lenient with the
Mormons, for, she declared, it was the Gentile
party that elected Mr. Roberts.

Mrs. Lillie Devereux Blake had a word for suf
frage, and said: "Mormonism does not mean polyg
amy, for there is nothing in the Mormon book
about it." Mrs. Blake added with some asperity:
"Utah i£ the only place where a Jew can be a Gen
tile. The men will lose patience after a while,
for there are not enough wives to go round. There
are more than one and one-half man to every
woman."

Mrs. J. F. Trow, in her remarks, enlightened
many of the women present by the statement that
the United States had no right nor power to unseat
Roberts, but the Mormons had to keep quiet, as
Utah would lose her Statehood.

Mrs. Gaffney spoke a word in favor of the Mor
mon women she had met as being "so bright and
alert," and gave a deal of information she had re
ceived from an agred woman who was a "plural
wife." "And, as she was with the Hancock bri
gade that went through Ohio," said Mrs. Gaffney,
"it was rather hard lines to have to be a sixth
wife alter going through all that."

When Mrs. Remington resigned the chair to the
president she asserted with fearless candor: "Well,
I don't think that my mind is any clearer on the
subject of Mormonism than it was before we
began."