hurch had effective ways of recovering his
support.

For many reasons the American party looked for its recruits chiefly
among Republicans, the Democracy being almost entirely Mormon. And in
the first flush of enthusiasm some of our leaders laughed at the boast
of the Republican state chairman that, for every Republican he lost, he
would get two Mormon Democrats to vote the Republican ticket. (This was
Hon. William Spry, a Mormon, since made Governor of Utah, for services
rendered the hierarchy.) But the claim proved anything but laughable.
He got probably four Mormon Democrats for every Republican he lost. As
usual the hierarchy "delivered the goods" to the national organization
in power.

According to our best calculations we got from fifteen hundred to
eighteen hundred Mormon votes. And, during this campaign and those that
followed, I was approached by hundreds of Mormons who commended our work
and gave private voice to the hope that we might succeed in freeing Utah
so that they themselves might be free. After I joined the staff of the
Salt Lake Tribune, as chief editor, these came to my office by stealth
and in obvious fear. I could not blame them then, nor do I now. The cost
of open defiance was too great.

One woman, the first wife of a prominent Mormon physician, came to me
to enlist in the work of the party. (Her husband was living with a
young plural wife.) We accepted her aid. Her husband cut off her monthly
allowance, and she had to take employment as a book canvasser, so that
she might be able to earn her living. One Mormon who came out openly for
us, was superintendent of a business owned by Gentiles. He was somewhat
prominent as an ecclesiast, and he was a Sunday School worker in his
ward. He reconciled his wife and daughters to his revolt against the
recrudescence of polygamy and the tyranny of the Church's political
control. He carried with him the sympathy of his brother, who was a
newspaper editor. He won over some of his personal friends to pledge
their support to our cause. He seemed too sturdy ever to retreat, too
independent in his circumstances to be driven, and with too clear a
vision to be led astray by the threats, the power, or the persuasions
of the hierarchy. Yet, before long he came to confess that he could not
continue to help us openly. His employers--his Gentile employers--had
notified him that his work in the American party would be dangerously
injurious to their business. They were