It is difficult for a fair-minded person to realize how hard it is to
find space in leading newspapers and magazines for words of defense
when expressed in favor of an unpopular people. Their columns are
open to attacks, but seldom do we find one blessed with sufficient
independence of mind to present the unpopular side to the public.
The lady from Ohio who is the author of the following manuscript
is not the first to discover this. This manuscript was rejected by
"Modern Culture," "Current History," "The Arena," "The Forum," "The
World's Work," "Munsey's," "Harper's Monthly," "McClure's," and "The
Worlds Today." It was then sent to Ben E. Rich of Atlanta, Georgia,
accompanied by a letter, from which we quote as follows:
"Your name has within the last year or two come to me as that of
a representative of the Mormon people, and I therefore take the
liberty of calling your attention to a matter that will doubtless
interest you. Upon more than one occasion I have sojourned in the
state of Utah for a considerable length of time, and have had
abundant opportunities of judging your people from more than one
standpoint. I have met them in both city and country, in their
homes (polygamous and otherwise), and in their business. I have met
them socially in many ways, and have mingled with them when they
have met in exercise of their religious faith. When first thrown
among them, I knew of nothing that would cause me to be predisposed
in their favor, having read many things derogatory to their
character as American citizens, and to their virtue and purity in
social and family relations. I endeavored, however, to judge them
on their own merits and not on opinions advanced by other people.
As a result, I found much to admire and little to condemn. Above
everything else, I found them sincere and honest, and learned to
know that the mistakes and blunders of individuals were of the head
and not of the heart. I have come to regard many of them as my
friends, and will always feel an interest in the people as a whole.
I have, however, been much annoyed by the scurrilous articles that
have of late been written about them, and have often had in my mind
to take up the cudgel in their defense. As to the truth of many
of the adverse stories that have been told in the past, I am in
no position to judge, {192} but of the untruth of the more recent
ones, I am sure. Looking at the past in the light of the present, I
am inclined to the belief that those earlier stories contain much
fiction, and some have been absolutely disproved.
"A particularly objectionable article having not long ago come
to my notice, I wrote in protest to the magazine publishing it.
The editor in a personal reply requested me to write him what I
knew personally about the subject under discussion. I thereupon
decided to offer him for publication something in the nature
of a response to the previous article, thus showing the Mormon
people as I knew them to be. The magazine in question ("Modern
Culture," now consolidated with "Current History"), after having
kept them manuscript several weeks, at last returned it with a
curt refusal. Upon my demanding an explanation and asking if the
objection lay in either diction or lack of style in composition, I
received from the Editor a personal assurance, that the objection
lay only in the unsuitableness of the subject. I afterwards
offered it to one magazine after another, always with the same
result. I persevered, however, each failure making me more than
ever aware of the difficulty of presenting the truth of a matter
so long surrounded by prejudice, but receiving the manuscript
back again with the same regularity with which I sent it. I will
add that but one publication, "The World's Work," offered me a
reasonable excuse, and some of them have since solicited articles
on different subjects from my pen. "The World's Work" presented
a very fair exposition of the Social System, upon which much of
Utah's prosperity is founded, in the issue of the month previous to
that in which I offered mine. Thinking the matter over, I am more
than ever anxious that in some way, the true conditions prevailing
in Utah shall come to the notice of the American people, deeming
it a simple justice due them. I have therefore taken the liberty
of thus arousing your interest in that which I would fain call
the "Rejected Manuscript," and of submitting it to you, with the
request that, if agreeable to you, it may in some way be brought
before the people."
With the opening remarks in this introduction, and the quotation we
make from the author's letter, we give to the public the "Rejected
Manuscript" without further comment.