e. President Smith has stopped it." "Then," I replied, "two
things are evident: I have been telling the truth when I said
that plural marriage had been renewed--in spite of the authorized
denials--and if President Smith has stopped it now, he has had authority
over it all the time."

To me, or to any other well-informed citizen of Utah, President Winder's
admission was not necessary to prove Smith's responsibility. In the
April conference of 1904, Smith had read an "official statement," signed
by him, prohibiting plural marriages and threatening to excommunicate
any officer or member of the Church who should solemnize one; and this
official statement was carried to the Senate committee by Professor
James E. Talmage, and offered in proof that the Church was keeping its
covenant.

For us, in Utah, the declaration served merely to illuminate the dark
places of ecclesiastical bad faith. We knew that from the year 1900
down, there had never been a sermon preached in any Mormon tabernacle,
by any of the general authorities of the Church, against the practice
of plural marriage, or against the propriety of the practice, or against
the sanctity of the doctrine. We knew, on the contrary, that upon
numerous occasions, at funerals and in public assemblages, Joseph F.
Smith and John Henry Smith and others of the hierarchy, had proclaimed
the doctrine as sacred. We knew that it was still being taught in the
secret prayer meetings. Practically all the leading authorities of the
Church were living in plural marriage. Some of them had taken new wives
since the manifesto. None of them had been actually punished. All were
in high favor. And though Joseph F. Smith denied his responsibility,
every one knew that none of these things could be, except with his
active approval.

Perhaps, for a brief time, while Smoot's case was still before the
Senate, some check was put upon the renewal of polygamy. But, even then,
there were undoubtedly, occasional marriages allowed, where the parties
were so situated as to make concealment perfect. And all checks were
withdrawn when Smoot's case was favorably disposed of, and the Church
found itself protected by the political power of the administration
at Washington and by a political and financial alliance with "the
Interests."

Today, in spite of the difficulty of discovering plural marriages,
because of the concealments by which they are protected, the Salt Lake
Tribune is publishing a list of more