ion Pacific Railroad--a partnership that was
doubtlessly used in defense of Apostle Smoot's seat in the Senate, just
as the power of the Sugar Trust was used and the influence of the whole
financial confederation in politics.

Chapter XIII. The Smoot Exposure

Just before the subpoenas were issued in the Smoot investigation, I met
John R. Winder (then First Councillor to President Smith) on the street
in Salt Lake City, and he expressed the hope that when I went "to
Washington on the Smoot case," I would not "betray" my "brethren." I
assured him that I was not going to Washington as a witness in the Smoot
case; that the men whom he should warn, were at Church headquarters. He
replied, with indignant alarm, "I don't see what 'the brethren' have to
do with this!"

But when the subpoenas arrived for Smith and the hierarchy, alarm and
indignation assumed a new complexion. The authorities, for themselves,
and through the mouths of such men as Brigham H. Roberts, began to boast
of how they were about to "carry the gospel to the benighted nation" and
preach it from the witness stand in Washington. The Mormon communities
resounded with fervent praises to God that He had, through His servant,
Apostle Smoot, given the opportunity to His living oracles to speak to
an unrighteous people! And when the Senators decided that they would
not summon polygamous wives and their children en bloc to Washington to
testify (because it was not desired to "make war on women and children")
some of Joseph F. Smith's several wives even complained feelingly that
they "were not allowed to testify for Papa."

The first oracular disclosure made by the Prophets, on the witness
stand, came as a shock even to Utah. They testified that they had
resumed polygamous cohabitation to an extent unsuspected by either
Gentiles or Mormons. President Joseph F. Smith admitted that he had had
eleven children borne to him by his five wives, since pledging
himself to obey the "revealed" manifesto of 1890 forbidding polygamous
relations. Apostle Francis Marion Lyman, who was next in succession to
the Presidency, made a similar admission of guilt, though in a lesser
degree. So did John Henry Smith and Charles W. Penrose, apostles. So did
Brigham H. Roberts and George Reynolds, Presidents of Seventies. So did
a score of others among the lesser authorities. And they confessed that
they were living in polygamy in violation of their pledges to the nation
and