Scrap Book of Mormon Literature, Volume 2 (of 2). Religious Tracts
Religion
Scrap Book of Mormon Literature, Volume 2 (of 2). Religious Tracts
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints -- Doctrines; Latter Day Saint churches -- Doctrines; Latter Day Saints
Thus it would go, and the school room would come as a labor of love
and without the passing of a dollar. Today there are no people in the
nation so eager to learn as are many of the young Mormons whom I have
met in my travels about Utah. The State University, the public schools,
all schools are full. The Mormon Church has its special schools, as
other sects have in Utah, and their theology has its place in the
studies, but the Mormons have no desire to introduce {153} Mormon
theology into the public schools and are opposed to the introduction of
any other theology, as of course they should be.
Morals.
In 1876 there were thirteen counties in Utah without saloon, brewery,
gambling house, brothel, lawyer, doctor, beggar, parson or politician,
and the population was exclusively Mormon.
In the winter of 1881-2 there were fifty-one prisoners in the Utah
penitentiary. Only five were Mormons, and yet the Mormon population
of the territory exceeded that of the anti-Mormon 500 per cent. From
1877 to 1882 the jail of Salt Lake county received only three Mormons.
In 1881 there were 1,020 arrests in Salt Lake City, of which 103 were
Mormon men and boys and six Mormon women; 657 non-Mormon men and 194
non-Mormon women. In 1882 the number of arrests in the same city was
1,561, of which 188 were Mormons and 1,373 non-Mormons. In that year
there were sixty-six barrooms in the city, and sixty of them were kept
by non-Mormons. There were fifteen billiard and bowling rooms and seven
gambling houses, all kept by non-Mormons.
The above, as well as the following statistics, are taken from "The
Palantic," published by A. M. Musser from the Utah penitentiary records
for the year ending June 30, 1884. Mr. Musser showed that, with the
population of Utah 83 per cent Mormon and the non-Mormon population
only 17 per cent, there were thirteen Mormon and seventy-eight
non-Mormon prisoners--a difference of 600 per cent in favor of the
Mormons. Add to this the difference in percentage of population, and
we have over 1,000 to one in favor of Mormon morality as compared with
that of the non-Mormon population of that period.
It should be understood that the above statement is not intended to
characterize the whole non-Mormon population. All through the Utah
years there have been non-Mormons here who were the most exemplary
people. They came in to stay, to engage in business, to make homes.
They have never engaged in the local disputes. They have never been
anti-Mormons. Because they would not join the raid against the people
they were for years sneered at as "jack-Mormons." The criminal element
referred to in these statistics as "non-Mormons," it is safe to say,
should have been put down as "anti-Mormons."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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