btain the
opportunity of setting him right. Even the women who were leading
the national protest against the polygamous teaching and practices of
Smoot's fellow apostles were told that the President had made up his
mind and could not be re-convinced.

The Mormon appeal to his generosity was not confined to Washington. On
his travels he met President Smith more than once--the Prophet being
accompanied by a different wife each time--and naturally Smith made
every effort to impress President Roosevelt with his earnestness, the
purity of his life, and the high motives that actuated the exercise
of his authority. And at this sort of pretense the Lord's anointed are
expert. They themselves may be crude in ideas and coarse in method,
but their diplomacy is a growth of eighty years of applied devotion and
energy.

The American people are used to meeting prominent Mormons who are models
of demeanor who are hearty of manner; who carry a kindly light in their
eyes; who have a spontaneity that precludes hypocrisy or even deep
purpose. These are not the men who make the Church diplomacy--they
simply obey it. It is part of that diplomacy to send out such men for
contact with the world. But the ablest minds of the Church, whether they
are of the hierarchy or not, construct its policies. And given a system
whose human units move instantly and unquestioningly at command; given
a system whose worldly power is available at any point at any moment;
given a system whose movement may be as secret as the grave until
result is attained--and the clumsiest of politicians or the crudest of
diplomats has a force to effect his ends that is as powerful for its
size as any that Christendom has ever known.

Among the emissaries of the Church who were deputed to "reach" President
Roosevelt, was our old friend Ben Rich, the gay, the engaging, the
apparently irresponsible agent of hierarchical diplomacy. And I should
like to relate the story of his "approach," as it is still related
in the inner circle of Church confidences. Not that I expect it to
be wholly credited--not that I doubt but it will be denied on all
sides--but because it is so characteristic of Church gossip and so
typical (even if it were untrue) of the humorous cynicism of Church
diplomacy.

When President Roosevelt was making his "swing around the circle," Rich
was appointed to join him, found the opportunity to do so, and (so the
story is told) delighted the President by the spirit