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MORMON FACTS vs. ANTI-MORMON FICTIONS.

"Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor."

Industrial Christian Home.

"Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor."

SPEECH

OF

HON. JOHN T. CAINE,

OF UTAH,

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,

Thursday, October 4, 1888.

The House having under consideration the report of the committee of conference on the bill (H. R. 10896) making appropriations to supply deficiencies in the appropriations for 1888 and prior years, and for other purposes, and the amendments of the Senate thereto, namely:

"112. Industrial Christian Home Association of Utah Territory: To further aid the Industrial Christian Home Association of Utah Territory, under its articles of incorporation, in the establishment and maintenance of an industrial and educational institution in Salt Lake City for the benefit of the dependent women and children of Utah and Idaho Territories who desire to sever their allegiance to the Mormon Church, $75,000, and for contingent expenses of the association, $5,000; in all, $80,000.

113. The money hereby appropriated shall be disbursed by the treasurer of said association, who shall give such bonds for the faithful performance of his duties as may be deemed requisite by the Secretary of the Interior. All accounts of expenditures under this appropriation shall be audited by the Utah commission, which shall hereafter act as a board of control for said institution, and shall make an annual report to Congress covering the work of said institution and its expenditures"

Mr. CAINE said:

Mr. SPEAKER: I did not intend to participate in this discussion. I have neither opposed nor favored the appropriation for the Industrial Christian Home Association of Utah. Naturally those who have been here since 1886 soliciting aid from Congress have not approached me on the subject, and I have hot felt it to be my duty, nor have any of my constituents requested me, to oppose these appropriations. Thus far Congress, in making appropriations for the Industrial Christian Home Association of Utah, has been careful to confine the expenditure to a specific purpose, with a view to alleviating suffering which the enforcement of the laws against polygamy naturally and inevitably caused. Although I knew perfectly well that there was behind the ostensible purpose for which these appropriations were sought an entirely different one to subserve, I was content to hold my peace and let the developments be made without any effort on my part. It was inevitable that the "true inwardness" would be laid bare sooner or later. It was merely a question of time. The African in the wood-pile was sure to make his appearance.

Even now I am reluctant to do what it is clearly my duty to do. An uncalled for and wholly unjustifiable attack has been made upon the Mormon people, and it was instigated and insisted upon by those who have been persistently seeking to gain control of money given for a worthy purpose in order that they might divert it to forward their own visionary schemes. The object in instigating a general assault on the Mormons was, under cover of the popular cry of “destroying polygamy," to more surely accomplish their own objects. I can not refrain from vindicating those who are entitled to the vindication at my hands. I ought not to fail in my duty.

Nevertheless, I regret the course this discussion has taken. Surely there is no occasion for the introduction of partisan politics in a debate upon a proposition to vote money for charitable purposes. But, unhappily, it seems impossible to have considered anything relating to Utah in a calm and philosophical spirit. The religious and social problems involved in the agitation, which was doubtless inevitable upon the founding of the Mormon Church, deserved, and still deserve a dispassionate consideration. The material effects which a new social order has wrought are suggestive to the student of social questions.

The admitted general morality of a great community, which has grown up upon foundations laid by a new dispensation, is worthy of a different treatment than the one it has received by our publicists and statesmen. It will not be disputed that Mormonism has accomplished some most wonderful results, and no matter what the verdict of this day and generation may be concerning the truth or falsity of the faith professed and practiced by the Mormons, history will eventually do justice to the good wrought by them. Serenely confident that the faith they have comes of God, sustained in all the trials and tribulations, imposed upon them for some good reason, by implicit belief in God's purpose, the Mormons have ever looked and will look beyond the clouds which encompass them to the dawn of that better day which they know is coming.

They have felt the harrow which has passed over them. They are keenly aware of the sufferings which they have had to endure, and which they are enduring to-day. The bonds of fellowship which unite them are strong, and responsive chords are touched when the lot of a brother or sister is made hard. They naturally would welcome any disposition of the Government of the United States to relieve the distress and suffering which the strenuous enforcement of the so-called Edmunds laws inevitably entail. They are far from interposing obstacles in the way of charitable men and women who, individually or as associations, seek to relieve "dependent women and children" whose natural protectors and supporters have been taken from them. There have been many cases of extreme hardship, and in very many instances the sufferings have been increased by the construction which has been placed upon the law against unlawful cohabitation. This construction has made it an impossibility, in a great number of instances, for the husbands and fathers to provide maintenance without subjecting themselves to the penalties of the law.

But when a magnificent charity is proposed from the national Treasury for whom is it to be dispensed? I submit that it is a most monstrous thing that proffered charity should be coupled with the distinct and unequivocal declaration that it is only for the benefit of the dependent women and children of Utah and Idaho Territories who desire to sever their allegiance to the Mormon Church."

Mr. Speaker, the discussion of the Mormon question here and elsewhere has developed many extraordinary propositions, and some most

remarkable legislation has been enacted by the Congress of the United States to accomplish the over hrow of the Morman Church; but this proposal to found, at the expense of the national Treasury, an Indus trial Christian Home Association of Utah, with the declared purpose that its beneficence shall be only for those "who desire to sever their allegiance to the Mormon Church," exceeds all that has gone before. Its nakedness, its shamelessness, must strike every reflecting mind. Think of it for a moment. The Constitution of the United States guaranties the freedom of religious belief and forbids the enactment of laws which encroach upon this priceless privilege of the citizen. And yet it is proposed to make it a prerequisite to the participation in a great charity, existing and to exist solely by appropriations from the United States Treasury, that the recipients snall first express their "desire to sever their allegiance to the Mormon Church.”

Was this language inadvertently used? From the readiness with which the authors of the amendment expressed their willingness to strike out the objectionable words, and, in effect, apologize for the employment of the same, it would seem that they had still some regard for the proprieties of legislative verbiage. And still they displayed, if not a disregard for the truth, a willingness, upon wholly insufficient grounds, to bear false testimony against the Mormon people. It has been asserted here, and in the other Chamber, that the whole power of the Mormon press and of the Mormon Church was arrayed against the Industrial Christian Home Association of Utah, and that every effort was being made by the Mormons to defeat this appropriation. Nothing could be further from the truth. I know that no one in the interest of the Mormons has sought, directly or indirectly, to influence a single Senator or Representative to oppose this appropriation. So far as I am aware there has not been one utterance from the Mormon press or pulpit which can be justly claimed as opposition to this appropriation. Doubtless there have been criticisms of the methods and of the avowed purposes of the persons who seek to have vast sums of money appropriated for them to disburse as they see fit to use it. These methods and purposes are plainly indicated by the language employed to make this appropriation “for the benefit" of those who desire to sever their allegiance to the Mormon Church."

Mr. Speaker, I am perfectly willing to concede to those who conceived the purpose of establishing the Industrial Christian Home Association of Utah the most benevolent intentions. They are undoubtedly Christian philanthropists, but their zeal as humani arians is, after all, measured by their ability to secure appropriations from the national Treasury. There are doubtless more than three hundred thousand good and noble women in the United States who, in a perfunctory way, are moved to sympathize with the "dependent women and children of Utah and Idaho;" but thus far they have confined themselves to words of encouragement to those of their number engaged in organizing a great charity which was to exist and subsist upon the public Treasury. The incorporation of the Industrial Christian Home Association of Utah was effected on the 15th day of March, 1886, and within one month a delegation was here besieging Congress for $100,000 to enable these philanthropists to carry into execution their grand conception.

It was truly a "grand conception," and doubtless the originators deemed their demand for $100,000 from Congress extremely modest. The sixth article of their articles of incorporation is as follows:

ART. VI. The objects, pursuits, and business of this corporation, as near as