of my conversation with Oxnard. "I'm glad," I said, "that
we're independent enough to refuse such an alliance with the men who are
robbing the country."

A peculiar, pale smile curled Bishop Cutler's thin lips. "Well, Frank,"
he replied, "that's just what I want to see you about. We"--with the
intonation that is used among prominent Mormons when the "we" are
voicing the conclusions of the hierarchy--"wouldn't like to do anything
to hurt the sugar interests of the country. I've looked into this
differential, and I don't see that it is particularly exorbitant. As a
matter of fact, the American Sugar Refining Company is doing all it can
to help us get our needed protection, and we have promised to do what we
can for it, in return. I hope you can see your way clear to vote for the
bill. I know that the brethren"--meaning the Church authorities--"will
not approve of your opposition to it."

I understand what his quiet warning meant, and when we had parted I
went to my room to face the situation. Already I had been told, by a
representative of the Union Pacific Railway, that the company intended
to make Utah the legal home of the corporation, and to enter into a
close affiliation with the prominent men of the Church. I had been asked
to participate, and I had refused because I did not feel free, as a
Senator, to become interested in a company whose relations with the
government were of such a character. But I had not foreseen what this
affiliation meant. Bishop Cutler's warning opened my eyes. The Church
was protecting itself, in its commercial undertakings, by an alliance
with the strongest and most unscrupulous of the national enemies.

I saw that this was natural. The Mormon leaders had been for years
struggling to save their community from poverty. Proscribed by the
Federal laws, their home industries suffering for want of finances,
fighting against the allied influences of business in politics, these
leaders had been taught to feel a fearful respect for the power that had
oppressed them. They were now being offered the aid and countenance of
their old opponents. Our community, so long the object of the world's
disdain, was to advance to favor and prosperity along the easy road of
association with the most influential interests of the country.

I remembered the long hard struggle of our people. I remembered the days
and nights of anxiety that I myself had known when we were friendless
and proscribed. Here was an open d