THERE ARE COLORED MORMONS OUT IN UTAH

Booker T. Washington Tells About His Visit to Salt Lake City

MORMONS MISREPRESENTED

Educator Likens Persecution of Mormons to That of Negro--Worst of Mormon Life is Advertised.

(BY BOOKER T. WASHINGTON.)

For a long while I have been anxious to get right into the midst of the Mormons to see what kind of people they are, what they look like, what they are doing, and in what respect they are succeeding. I have been spending two of the busiest days that I have ever spent in my life in the very midst of these people. They have been mighty interesting days, and I have seen some mighty interesting people. The leaders of the Mormon church from President Smith down have gone out of their way to show me kindnesses and to make my trip here successful.

I am not going to discuss the Mormon religion as I am not a theologian; I shall have to leave that to others. I am always interested in studying and observing people regardless of their religion. One of the Mormon bishops called to see me and from him I got some mighty interesting information that ought to prove of value to our race.

In speaking of the Mormons, my readers must remember that it was only sixty-six years ago that, led by Brigham Young, 150 people came into this country when it was a wilderness. They traveled in ox carts over a thousand miles from the Missouri River. The Mormon Church was first organized in New York state only eighty-three years ago. From 150 (143) people, hardy pioneers, who entered Utah sixty-six years ago, the number has grown year by year until in Utah there are now over 300,000 'Mormons,' and they have certainly made the desert blossom as the rose. I have never been among a more healthy, clean, progressive set of people than these people are. All through Utah they have turned the desert into gardens and orchards. Wherever one finds a 'Mormon' colony there he finds the evidence of hard work and wealth.

Interesting Talks with Mormon Leaders

The Mormon leaders here told me in detail about the policy that they pursued when they first came here, and here is a great lesson for our people in the South and throughout this country. From the first the Mormons constantly and persistently pursued the policy of having their people get hold of land, to settle on the soil and become farmers. The Mormon leaders knew that if they once got possession of the soil and taught their people how to become successful farmers that they would be laying the foundation so secure that they could not be disturbed. Several of the leaders told me that when they first came into this country that there was great temptation to exploit the gold, silver and copper mines, but they would not let their people do this, but held them to the soil. It is only within the last few years that the Mormons have begun to get wealth out of the mineral resources of the country, notwithstanding they have known all along that this wealth existed. Now that they are in possession of the soil and have taught their people how to become successful farmer they say they can afford to go into mining.

There are two parallels between the Negro and the Mormons. First, as my readers already know, the Mormons were most inhumanly persecuted almost from the first organization of their church. This was especially true in Missouri and Illinois. Hundreds of their followers were put to death. The courts gave them little protection. The mob that either killed or wounded the Mormons was seldom, if ever, punished. They were an easy mark for any inhuman brute who wanted to either kill or wound them. Joseph Smith himself, the founder of the church, was murdered in Illinois. But out of this inhuman and unjust treatment grew the strength of these people. They more they were punished, the more they became to succeed. Without opposition and injustice, I question whether the Mormon church could now be in its present flourishing condition. They were deprived of their property as well as their lives in their early years, but the more they were persecuted the closer they banded themselves together and the more determined they were to succeed. Persecutions advertised this little sect to the world. The result was that through persecution their numbers increased instead of being dimininished.

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The Proper Way to Study Groups of People.

The second parallel between the Morman [sic] and the Negro is this. These people, I am sure, have been misrepresented before the world. I have learned by experience and observation that it is never safe to pass final judgment upon a people until one has had an opportunity to get into the real life of those people. The negro is suffering today just as the 'Mormons' have suffered and are suffering, because the people from the outside have advertised the worst concerning 'Mormon' life, and they have seldom called attention to the best in connection with the life of the 'Mormons.' No person outside a group of people can ever really know that race or that group of people until he gets into their homes, and gets a chance to observe their men, their women, and their children, and has a chance to partake of their hospitality and get into their inner life. There are many people today who consider themselves wise on the condition of the negro who are really afraid to go into a negro home, who never go into a negro church or Sunday school, who have never met colored people in social circles, and hence such people know little about the moral standards and activities of the colored people. The same, I am convinced, is true regarding the 'Mormons.* The people who speak in the most disrespectful terms of these people are those who know least about them.

I am convinced that the 'Mormons' are not an immoral people. No immoral people could have such strong, fine bodies as these people, nor such vigorous, alert minds as they. It has been my privilege to address schools and universities in nearly every part of America, and I say without hesitation that I have never addressed a school anywhere where the students were more alert, more responsive, more intelligent than is true of the students of these Mormon colleges. I was hardly prepared for the over-generous and rapturous reception that was given me at the state university, the students of which, for the most part, are 'Mormons,' and I had the same experience in addressing the private schools and other institutions conducted by Mormons.

Meets a Daughter of Joseph Smith.

I met, for example, one of the daughters of Joseph H. [sic] Smith, the successor to Brigham Young and now the head of the church. I was told that she was one of forty-nine children, but she was an intelligent, modest, fine young woman with a strong body and an alert mind. I was told that the other forty-eight children were just as healthy and strong and alert as she. Just how many wives President Joseph H. Smith has or had I do not know. I am not going into the subject of plural wives, but I am simply stating facts and giving my impressions.

These Mormons have first-class schools, and they are pushing the matter of technical and industrial education to a stronger degree than we are in the South among the colored people. In fact, time and time again I was told that they learned their methods for the most part from Hampton, Tuskegee and similar institutions. I was nearly taken off my feet when I went into a class in the university and the teacher showed me a large piece of pasteboard with the pictures of our students at Tuskegee at work int he various industrial departments. They said they were taking this as their model.

The Mormons have recently begun a systematic effort to give their people training in gymnastics, with a view to strengthening their bodies. Here again the colored people, especially in the schools of the South, can learn a great lesson. Everywhere in our colored schools we ought to have a systematic and constant training in gymnastics.

There are about a thousand colored people in Salt Lake City, and they are above the average in intelligence and in other respects. The colored woman [sic] especially stick me as exceptionally intelligent, more so, I think, than the men. They have here an Art and Music Club which I had the privilege of addressing, composed of very intelligent women. They have two good churches with very intelligent ministers. The main weakness in the life of the colored people in this city, as in some others I have gone to, grows out of the fact that instead of having a commercial organization to promote business and industrial interests of the colored people they have a club house for which I am told they pay a rental of $150 a month, where the men are encouraged to drink and gamble. It seems that they cannot throw away their money fast enough, but in order to help it along they rent a house for $150 a month for the purpose of helping them to dispose with their money faster. I have spoken to them plainly about this mistake, and I believe that a change of the better will take place. I met several colored men who have accumulated a respectable fortune and who are in good business enterprises.

I think it will interest my readers to know that there are colored Mormons in Utah. I met several of these. Many of them came here in the old days. In fact, Brigham Young brought colored people with him to this country, and they or their descendants have remained. Of course in the old days plural wives were not prohibited by law, but I have made careful inquiry and could find no case where a colored man ever had more than one wife. It seems to ahve been the custom in the old days that a man could not take a second or third or fourth wife without the consent of his first wife, and I was told that no colored woman in Utah would ever give her consent for her husband to take a second wife.

I met one colored man who came out here in the early days. He is now eighty-two years of age. He is a staunch Mormon, and neither the Baptist church nor the Methodist church can get hold of him. He came here from Mississippi. He is a fine looking old fellow, a kind of colored Brigham Young. He has a farm worth $25,000, and lives in the midst of a Mormon colored colony of which he is the leader. I am told that the Mormon church treated the colored people well. I will, in my next letter, discuss the Mormons further, and call attention to their creed, and so forth.