Senate Investigation of Mormon Political Influence
By L. A. S.
The investigation by the United States Senate committee of the charges made against Senator-Elect Smoot, of Utah, is to include an extensive examination into the religio-political system which the Mormon Church represents. The following statement is made by those in touch with the committee:— The question will not deal with the subject under investigation in a narrow way, but will go broadly into the character of the Mormon hierarchy, its laws, practices, oaths, services, ceremonies, business methods, political influence, and every suggested phase of its activity in the spiritual, moral, and physical life of the people who are under its control. . . . President Joseph Smith and a long list of high officers, including his fellow presidents and the apostles of the church, will be summoned and put under examination. President Smith will be interrogated as to the idea of inspiration and the effect of the mandates of the head of the church on communications. Privately this line of inquiry will be intended to apply directly to the question whether a Senator of the Mormon faith would hold the authority of the church or that of his country paramount. But essentially, Senator Smoot becomes a mere incident of the investigation, which will be directed in all its force against the Mormon Church as a dangerous political influence. Undoubtedly the Mormon Church is a dangerous political influence, since it holds the balance of power in a large section of the Western territory of the United States, including Arizona and New Mexico, which, when admitted into the Union, may be represented by Mormons in the United States Senate. But whatever may be the result of this investigation, the fact which the American people most need to know and remember is that the menace to the country from a union of religion with politics is not determined by the lengths to which the religio-political body desires to go, but by the number of people which it represents. A small step in this direction by the Catholics or by the Methodists would be worse than a great step by the Mormons, because of the great inferiority of the latter in numbers. The real danger lies not in the fact that Mormonism is trying to step boldly into the political arena, but that the papacy is entering quietly into that arena, and that the leading Protestant bodies are likely to follow her example. The real danger lies in the indifference of the people to the question of danger from this source. L. A. S.