Reed Smoot
Born: 10 January 1862
Called to Quorum of Twelve: 8 April 1900
Died: 9 February 1941
Called to Quorum of Twelve: 8 April 1900
Died: 9 February 1941
Biographical Articles
Biographical Encyclopedia, Volume 1
Biographical Encyclopedia, Volume 4
Juvenile Instructor, 15 December 1900, Lives of Our Leaders - The Apostles: Reed Smoot
Juvenile Instructor, 1 April 1903, Honorable Reed Smoot and the Senatorship
Improvement Era, February 1909, Hon. Reed Smoot Re-Elected Senator
Improvement Era, December 1920, Senator Reed Smoot
Young Woman's Journal, August 1923, An Appreciation of Senator Reed Smoot
Young Woman's Journal, December 1926, Why I Am a Mormon
Improvement Era, February 1932, Greatness in Men - Reed Smoot
Improvement Era, April 1933, Apostle Reed Smoot
Instructor, September 1934, Elder Reed Smoot
Improvement Era, February 1937, Reed Smoot at Seventy-Five
Improvement Era, March 1941, Reed Smoot and His Mother
Improvement Era, March 1941, Reed Smoot, the Passing of a Great American
Improvement Era, March 1941, Reed Smoot
Instructor, March 1941, On the Passing of Elder Reed Smoot
Relief Society Magazine, March 1941, Elder Reed Smoot
Improvement Era, February 1942, A Tribute to Senator Reed Smoot
Improvement Era, January 1943, Reed Smoot and the Big Horn
Biographical Encyclopedia, Volume 4
Juvenile Instructor, 15 December 1900, Lives of Our Leaders - The Apostles: Reed Smoot
Juvenile Instructor, 1 April 1903, Honorable Reed Smoot and the Senatorship
Improvement Era, February 1909, Hon. Reed Smoot Re-Elected Senator
Improvement Era, December 1920, Senator Reed Smoot
Young Woman's Journal, August 1923, An Appreciation of Senator Reed Smoot
Young Woman's Journal, December 1926, Why I Am a Mormon
Improvement Era, February 1932, Greatness in Men - Reed Smoot
Improvement Era, April 1933, Apostle Reed Smoot
Instructor, September 1934, Elder Reed Smoot
Improvement Era, February 1937, Reed Smoot at Seventy-Five
Improvement Era, March 1941, Reed Smoot and His Mother
Improvement Era, March 1941, Reed Smoot, the Passing of a Great American
Improvement Era, March 1941, Reed Smoot
Instructor, March 1941, On the Passing of Elder Reed Smoot
Relief Society Magazine, March 1941, Elder Reed Smoot
Improvement Era, February 1942, A Tribute to Senator Reed Smoot
Improvement Era, January 1943, Reed Smoot and the Big Horn
Jenson, Andrew. "Smoot, Reed." Biographical Encyclopedia. Volume 1. pg. 178-181.
SMOOT, Reed, a member of the Council of Twelve Apostles since 1898, is the son of Abraham O. Smoot and Anna Kirstine Mouritsen, and was born Jan. 10, 1862, in Salt Lake City, Utah. He received his first schooling under Miss Barbara Romney, daughter of George Romney of the Twentieth Ward, who in 1868 opened a small school in her father's house. The following year the boy attended the Ward school, taught by Wm. Willes, and kept up his attendance until after the school was taken in charge by Dr. Karl G. Maeser in the year 1870. Two years later that part of Abraham O. Smoot's family of which Reed was a member removed to Provo, where another portion of the family had resided since 1868 and where Bishop Smoot, ex-mayor of Salt Lake City, was elected to a similar office and was also appointed president of the Utah Stake of Zion. His son Reed has continued to live there up to the present time. At Provo he attended the Timpanogas branch of the University of Deseret, the predecessor of the Brigham Young Academy, which, next to the great man whose name it bears, and co-equally with Dr. Maeser, its educational founder, owes its existence to our Apostle's honored sire, the late Pres. Abraham O. Smoot. Reed attended the Academy's first term in April, 1876, being one of twenty-nine students with which the institution opened. He passed through all the higher branches then taught there, and at one time was the only student in the academic department, from which he was graduated in 1879. He studied principally along commercial lines, and at intervals, mainly during vacations, worked in the Provo Woolen Mills, which his father and others had founded and which started up in 1872. There he obtained his first insight into manufacture, a practical insight, for he worked in every department of the factory. Immediately upon entering the mills, he formed the characteristic resolve to one day become their manager; an ambition realized eleven years later. Upon leaving school, and after conferring with his father and his tutor. Dr. Maeser, he fully made up his mind to pursue a commercial career, and with that in view took a humble position in the Provo Co-operative Institution, the first co-operative store organized in Utah under the impetus of the great co-operative movement projected by Pres. Brigham Young in 1868. Beginning at the bottom of the ladder, Reed went to work sacking fruit, sorting potatoes, and doing odd jobs about the place, but all the while keeping his eye on the mark for which he had set out. One day his father entered the store, and in conversation with the superintendent, Robert C. Kirkwood, happened to say, "I see you have Reed here, but I guess he won't stay with you very long." Reed overheard the remark, and though not meant unkindly nor said slightingly, it caused the youthful sacker of potatoes to set his teeth together and inwardly determine: "I will stay here until I am superintendent of this institution." That determination was adhered to, and in September, 1880, less than eighteen months after he uttered the prediction, it was fulfilled. He became superintendent of the Co-operative Institution and remained such until April, 1884, when he was made manager of the Provo Woolen Mills; thus realizing his previous resolve. His first call to the mission field—supplementing a notice previously given—came in the year 1880, but was rescinded, as his services were needed as superintendent of the cooperative store. His second call was in March, 1884, when he was again stopped from going abroad, and given by Pres. John Taylor a five years' mission as manager of the Woollen Mills. Another call was made upon him in October, 1890, and in November of that year, he left home en route for Liverpool, the headquarters of the European Mission. This was his first absence from America, barring a brief visit with his father to the Hawaiian Islands, from May 2nd to July 19th, 1880; but he had visited on business nearly every State of the Union. Prior to going upon his mission he had not been very active in religious matters, but had thrown his whole soul into business and was fast becoming a man of means and of consequent financial influence in the community. In fact, he was so prosperous, and so intensely interested in money making, that it was feared and said by some that Reed Smoot and religion were drifting apart. Some went so far as to predict that if another call came for a mission (he had already had two, and had been prevented from going through no fault of his own) he would refuse to accept it. How groundless these fears and assertions, and how unwarranted such a prediction, was shown by his prompt departure for Europe in the fall of 1890, and by the subsequent great change that came over him in relation to spiritual things. While abroad he labored principally in the Liverpool office as bookkeeper and emigration clerk, under the presidency of Apostle Brigham Young. He also visited and spoke at the various conferences, and from July 2nd to August 6th, 1891, was absent from England touring the continent with Dr. James E. Talmage, who was visiting Europe,and Elder Samuel A. King, one of the Utah missionaries. The party passed successively through Belgium, Holland, Germany, Switzerland, Italy and France. While at Liverpool Elder Smoot became well acquainted with the leading officials of the Guion Steamship line, which had for many years the bulk of the "Mormon" emigration from Liverpool, and was treated by them with the greatest courtesy and consideration. Mr. George Ramsden, the old-time manager of the Guion shipping agency, made him welcome at his home and manifested almost a father's love for him. Mr. John A. Marsh, the head man of the Guion company, also took much interest in him, and appointed him his agent as a passage broker; a situation which, though it brought no salary, was of advantage to the emigrational interests of the Church. While he was acting in this capacity the change was made by which "Mormon" emigrants, who formerly had but the usual steerage accommodations, were provided with intermediate passage over the Atlantic. Elder Smoot was called home by a telegram from Pres. Wilford Woodruff, which informed him of the serious illness of his father, and in response to this summons he sailed from Liverpool on the 19th of September, and arrived at Provo Oct. 1, 1891. For a short time he assisted his father as manager of the Provo Lumber Manufacturing and Building Company, one of the industries that Pres. Smoot had established, and straightened out a contract between that company and the Territorial Insane Asylum. In the spring of 1892. he resumed his former position as manager of the Provo Woolen Mills, which under his able superintendency have achieved a splendid success. That position he still holds. At the time Elder Smoot went to Europe he was a married man and had been since Sept. 17, 1884, when he wedded Miss Alpha M. Eldredge, daughter of Horace S. Eldredge, one of the First Seven Presidents of the Seventies. Her mother was Mrs. Chloe A. Redfield Eldredge, daughter of Harlow Redfield, one of the founders of Provo. There Elder Smoot built a handsome home as the domicile of himself and wife and their steadily increasing family. They have had six children, five of whom are living, and their married life has been a happy one. After his return from England, he launched out in business more extensively than ever, and his spiritual development, which his mission had awakened, likewise continued. He was the main promoter of the Provo Commercial and Savings Bank, one of the soundest institutions in the State, and has been from the first its president. He engaged considerably in mining,and was made vice president of the famous Grand Central Mining Company; also of the Victoria Mining Company. He erected a number of business blocks, and became a director in the Clark- Eldredge Company of Salt Lake City, as well as in various other important concerns. His latest notable appointment was a directorship of the much talked of Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad, about to be constructed. In politics Mr. Smoot is a staunch Republican. He has never sought an office, but has been honored with important official positions. From March 15, 1894, until the advent of Statehood, he served as a director of the Territorial Insane Asylum, by appointment of Governor Caleb W. West, and after Utah entered the Union, he was appointed by Governor Heber M. Wells as a member of the Semi-Centennial Commission, which in 1897 conducted the great Pioneer Jubilee. Elder Smoot's ecclesiastical record is as follows: He was baptized at eight years of age in the Endowment House at Salt Lake City, and was ordained a Deacon July 15, 1877. In 1879 he was made a Priest, and in April, 1880, an Elder. Four years later he was ordained a Seventy by Elder Abraham H. Cannon, and in April, 1895, was ordained a High Priest under the hands of Pres. Joseph F. Smith. At the same time he was appointed second counselor to Pres. Edward Partridge, who had succeeded Pres. Abraham O. Smoot, deceased, as the presiding authority of the Utah Stake of Zion. Elder Smoot continued to serve as one of the presidency of that Stake until called to the Apostleship April 8, 1900. The same day he was sustained in that exalted position by the voice of the general conference, and was ordained an Apostle by Pres. Lorenzo Snow the day following. While a member of the Utah Stake presidency he was appointed to raise means to pay off the debt hanging over the unfinished Stake Tabernacle, and to complete that structure. That duty he performed with his usual promptitude and success, the debt being cancelled and the building completed. He has acted for years as one of the board of trustees of the Brigham Young Academy, and is a member of its executive committee. He solicited subscriptions for and was the main instrument in the erection of the new college hall, an adjunct to the Academy. In the success of this worthy institution he has ever been deeply interested. It can truly be said of Apostle Smoot that he has never sought preferment, either civil or ecclesiastical. He has worked honestly and faithfully at whatever he had in hand—industry and continuity being his watchwords, recognized by him even while a boy as the keys to success and prosperity — and his talents and labors alone have recommended him for promotion. This accounts for the general feeling of satisfaction manifested by the vast congregation, which, in the afternoon of Sunday, April 8, 1900, at the great Tabernacle in Salt Lake City, voted unanimously to sustain him as one of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Much of this good feeling was doubtless due to the fact that many present were acquainted, not only with the marked ability of the young man, but with the good and wise use he has made of that ability. Many know of the valuable aid Reed Smoot has rendered from time to time in a financial and executive way to this or that struggling institution, but few are aware of his private acts of beneficence. It has been said that ostentatious charity insults the misery it would relieve. Reed Smoot's charity is not of that kind. He does not ask a friend in trouble, "What can I do for you?" or say, "If there is anything you want, let me know;" thus throwing upon the afflicted soul an additional burden and subjecting it to unnecessary humiliation. He shrewdly sees the need and tactfully supplies it, without speaking or awaiting a word. And this is charity, true charity; for it is generosity, it is bigness of heart, and as far outsoars mere almsgiving as the eagle outsoars the swan. In person Apostle Smoot is tall and well built, though his unusual height makes him appear almost slender in frame. He moves with the rapid, energetic stride characteristic of the rustling business man. He is punctual in keeping his appointments, and, as he says, owes his greatest losses in time to the failure of other men to promptly keep theirs. He possesses a fearless candor, says exactly what he things, and yet is courteous, considerate and kind-hearted. While neither a preacher nor a writer, he expresses himself with intelligence, earnestness and humility, both by tongue and pen. His genius is practical and progressive. As a financier and an executive his talents are of the first order, and the fallacy is long since exploded that the Lord needs but one class of men in any department of His mighty and marvelous work. “My duty first, my pleasure afterwards,” may be said to be our Apostle’s favorite motto, one that he faithfully exemplifies. His father was born int he State of Kentucky, and his mother was a native of Norway. Both were of heroic mould and mettle, both sacrificed much for the gospel’s sake, and the Apostle is the inheritor of many of their noblest qualities; chief among which is the ability and inclination to do good, publicly and privately, and to thoroughly enjoy the doing.—Orson F. Whitney.
SMOOT, Reed, a member of the Council of Twelve Apostles since 1898, is the son of Abraham O. Smoot and Anna Kirstine Mouritsen, and was born Jan. 10, 1862, in Salt Lake City, Utah. He received his first schooling under Miss Barbara Romney, daughter of George Romney of the Twentieth Ward, who in 1868 opened a small school in her father's house. The following year the boy attended the Ward school, taught by Wm. Willes, and kept up his attendance until after the school was taken in charge by Dr. Karl G. Maeser in the year 1870. Two years later that part of Abraham O. Smoot's family of which Reed was a member removed to Provo, where another portion of the family had resided since 1868 and where Bishop Smoot, ex-mayor of Salt Lake City, was elected to a similar office and was also appointed president of the Utah Stake of Zion. His son Reed has continued to live there up to the present time. At Provo he attended the Timpanogas branch of the University of Deseret, the predecessor of the Brigham Young Academy, which, next to the great man whose name it bears, and co-equally with Dr. Maeser, its educational founder, owes its existence to our Apostle's honored sire, the late Pres. Abraham O. Smoot. Reed attended the Academy's first term in April, 1876, being one of twenty-nine students with which the institution opened. He passed through all the higher branches then taught there, and at one time was the only student in the academic department, from which he was graduated in 1879. He studied principally along commercial lines, and at intervals, mainly during vacations, worked in the Provo Woolen Mills, which his father and others had founded and which started up in 1872. There he obtained his first insight into manufacture, a practical insight, for he worked in every department of the factory. Immediately upon entering the mills, he formed the characteristic resolve to one day become their manager; an ambition realized eleven years later. Upon leaving school, and after conferring with his father and his tutor. Dr. Maeser, he fully made up his mind to pursue a commercial career, and with that in view took a humble position in the Provo Co-operative Institution, the first co-operative store organized in Utah under the impetus of the great co-operative movement projected by Pres. Brigham Young in 1868. Beginning at the bottom of the ladder, Reed went to work sacking fruit, sorting potatoes, and doing odd jobs about the place, but all the while keeping his eye on the mark for which he had set out. One day his father entered the store, and in conversation with the superintendent, Robert C. Kirkwood, happened to say, "I see you have Reed here, but I guess he won't stay with you very long." Reed overheard the remark, and though not meant unkindly nor said slightingly, it caused the youthful sacker of potatoes to set his teeth together and inwardly determine: "I will stay here until I am superintendent of this institution." That determination was adhered to, and in September, 1880, less than eighteen months after he uttered the prediction, it was fulfilled. He became superintendent of the Co-operative Institution and remained such until April, 1884, when he was made manager of the Provo Woolen Mills; thus realizing his previous resolve. His first call to the mission field—supplementing a notice previously given—came in the year 1880, but was rescinded, as his services were needed as superintendent of the cooperative store. His second call was in March, 1884, when he was again stopped from going abroad, and given by Pres. John Taylor a five years' mission as manager of the Woollen Mills. Another call was made upon him in October, 1890, and in November of that year, he left home en route for Liverpool, the headquarters of the European Mission. This was his first absence from America, barring a brief visit with his father to the Hawaiian Islands, from May 2nd to July 19th, 1880; but he had visited on business nearly every State of the Union. Prior to going upon his mission he had not been very active in religious matters, but had thrown his whole soul into business and was fast becoming a man of means and of consequent financial influence in the community. In fact, he was so prosperous, and so intensely interested in money making, that it was feared and said by some that Reed Smoot and religion were drifting apart. Some went so far as to predict that if another call came for a mission (he had already had two, and had been prevented from going through no fault of his own) he would refuse to accept it. How groundless these fears and assertions, and how unwarranted such a prediction, was shown by his prompt departure for Europe in the fall of 1890, and by the subsequent great change that came over him in relation to spiritual things. While abroad he labored principally in the Liverpool office as bookkeeper and emigration clerk, under the presidency of Apostle Brigham Young. He also visited and spoke at the various conferences, and from July 2nd to August 6th, 1891, was absent from England touring the continent with Dr. James E. Talmage, who was visiting Europe,and Elder Samuel A. King, one of the Utah missionaries. The party passed successively through Belgium, Holland, Germany, Switzerland, Italy and France. While at Liverpool Elder Smoot became well acquainted with the leading officials of the Guion Steamship line, which had for many years the bulk of the "Mormon" emigration from Liverpool, and was treated by them with the greatest courtesy and consideration. Mr. George Ramsden, the old-time manager of the Guion shipping agency, made him welcome at his home and manifested almost a father's love for him. Mr. John A. Marsh, the head man of the Guion company, also took much interest in him, and appointed him his agent as a passage broker; a situation which, though it brought no salary, was of advantage to the emigrational interests of the Church. While he was acting in this capacity the change was made by which "Mormon" emigrants, who formerly had but the usual steerage accommodations, were provided with intermediate passage over the Atlantic. Elder Smoot was called home by a telegram from Pres. Wilford Woodruff, which informed him of the serious illness of his father, and in response to this summons he sailed from Liverpool on the 19th of September, and arrived at Provo Oct. 1, 1891. For a short time he assisted his father as manager of the Provo Lumber Manufacturing and Building Company, one of the industries that Pres. Smoot had established, and straightened out a contract between that company and the Territorial Insane Asylum. In the spring of 1892. he resumed his former position as manager of the Provo Woolen Mills, which under his able superintendency have achieved a splendid success. That position he still holds. At the time Elder Smoot went to Europe he was a married man and had been since Sept. 17, 1884, when he wedded Miss Alpha M. Eldredge, daughter of Horace S. Eldredge, one of the First Seven Presidents of the Seventies. Her mother was Mrs. Chloe A. Redfield Eldredge, daughter of Harlow Redfield, one of the founders of Provo. There Elder Smoot built a handsome home as the domicile of himself and wife and their steadily increasing family. They have had six children, five of whom are living, and their married life has been a happy one. After his return from England, he launched out in business more extensively than ever, and his spiritual development, which his mission had awakened, likewise continued. He was the main promoter of the Provo Commercial and Savings Bank, one of the soundest institutions in the State, and has been from the first its president. He engaged considerably in mining,and was made vice president of the famous Grand Central Mining Company; also of the Victoria Mining Company. He erected a number of business blocks, and became a director in the Clark- Eldredge Company of Salt Lake City, as well as in various other important concerns. His latest notable appointment was a directorship of the much talked of Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad, about to be constructed. In politics Mr. Smoot is a staunch Republican. He has never sought an office, but has been honored with important official positions. From March 15, 1894, until the advent of Statehood, he served as a director of the Territorial Insane Asylum, by appointment of Governor Caleb W. West, and after Utah entered the Union, he was appointed by Governor Heber M. Wells as a member of the Semi-Centennial Commission, which in 1897 conducted the great Pioneer Jubilee. Elder Smoot's ecclesiastical record is as follows: He was baptized at eight years of age in the Endowment House at Salt Lake City, and was ordained a Deacon July 15, 1877. In 1879 he was made a Priest, and in April, 1880, an Elder. Four years later he was ordained a Seventy by Elder Abraham H. Cannon, and in April, 1895, was ordained a High Priest under the hands of Pres. Joseph F. Smith. At the same time he was appointed second counselor to Pres. Edward Partridge, who had succeeded Pres. Abraham O. Smoot, deceased, as the presiding authority of the Utah Stake of Zion. Elder Smoot continued to serve as one of the presidency of that Stake until called to the Apostleship April 8, 1900. The same day he was sustained in that exalted position by the voice of the general conference, and was ordained an Apostle by Pres. Lorenzo Snow the day following. While a member of the Utah Stake presidency he was appointed to raise means to pay off the debt hanging over the unfinished Stake Tabernacle, and to complete that structure. That duty he performed with his usual promptitude and success, the debt being cancelled and the building completed. He has acted for years as one of the board of trustees of the Brigham Young Academy, and is a member of its executive committee. He solicited subscriptions for and was the main instrument in the erection of the new college hall, an adjunct to the Academy. In the success of this worthy institution he has ever been deeply interested. It can truly be said of Apostle Smoot that he has never sought preferment, either civil or ecclesiastical. He has worked honestly and faithfully at whatever he had in hand—industry and continuity being his watchwords, recognized by him even while a boy as the keys to success and prosperity — and his talents and labors alone have recommended him for promotion. This accounts for the general feeling of satisfaction manifested by the vast congregation, which, in the afternoon of Sunday, April 8, 1900, at the great Tabernacle in Salt Lake City, voted unanimously to sustain him as one of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Much of this good feeling was doubtless due to the fact that many present were acquainted, not only with the marked ability of the young man, but with the good and wise use he has made of that ability. Many know of the valuable aid Reed Smoot has rendered from time to time in a financial and executive way to this or that struggling institution, but few are aware of his private acts of beneficence. It has been said that ostentatious charity insults the misery it would relieve. Reed Smoot's charity is not of that kind. He does not ask a friend in trouble, "What can I do for you?" or say, "If there is anything you want, let me know;" thus throwing upon the afflicted soul an additional burden and subjecting it to unnecessary humiliation. He shrewdly sees the need and tactfully supplies it, without speaking or awaiting a word. And this is charity, true charity; for it is generosity, it is bigness of heart, and as far outsoars mere almsgiving as the eagle outsoars the swan. In person Apostle Smoot is tall and well built, though his unusual height makes him appear almost slender in frame. He moves with the rapid, energetic stride characteristic of the rustling business man. He is punctual in keeping his appointments, and, as he says, owes his greatest losses in time to the failure of other men to promptly keep theirs. He possesses a fearless candor, says exactly what he things, and yet is courteous, considerate and kind-hearted. While neither a preacher nor a writer, he expresses himself with intelligence, earnestness and humility, both by tongue and pen. His genius is practical and progressive. As a financier and an executive his talents are of the first order, and the fallacy is long since exploded that the Lord needs but one class of men in any department of His mighty and marvelous work. “My duty first, my pleasure afterwards,” may be said to be our Apostle’s favorite motto, one that he faithfully exemplifies. His father was born int he State of Kentucky, and his mother was a native of Norway. Both were of heroic mould and mettle, both sacrificed much for the gospel’s sake, and the Apostle is the inheritor of many of their noblest qualities; chief among which is the ability and inclination to do good, publicly and privately, and to thoroughly enjoy the doing.—Orson F. Whitney.
Jenson, Andrew. "Smoot, Reed." Biographical Encyclopedia. Volume 4. pg. 247.
SMOOT, Reed, a member of the General Board of Y. M. M. I. A. from 1900 to 1912. (See Biographical Encyclopedia, Vol. 1, p. 178.)
SMOOT, Reed, a member of the General Board of Y. M. M. I. A. from 1900 to 1912. (See Biographical Encyclopedia, Vol. 1, p. 178.)
Whitney, O. F. "Lives of Our Leaders - The Apostles: Reed Smoot." Juvenile Instructor. 15 December 1900. pg. 800-805.
LIVES OF OUR LEADERS—THE APOSTLES.
REED SMOOT.
THOU shalt be associated in thy labors with the wise counselors of Israel, and if thou art faithful, thou shalt not be a whit behind the chiefest of the Apostles.
This promise, one of many, was made to Reed Smoot, our latest ordained Apostle, by his father. President A. O. Smoot, in a patriarchal blessing given to him on the 24th day of November, 1874, nearly twenty-six years prior to his call to the Apostleship, and at a time when there was no probability that such a call would come. But the spirit of prophecy, which ignores probabilities, and sets at naught all seeming obstacles to the fulfillment of its decrees, placed the seal of truth upon the inspired utterance, and it only remained for time and Providence to do the rest.
We say there was no probability at that time that Reed Smoot would be an Apostle. This will be plainly apparent to the reader when he is informed that the blessing of which this prophecy is a part was pronounced when the subject of this sketch was a mere lad, between twelve and thirteen years of age. Nor was it much more probable ten or fifteen years later; for while not lacking in uprightness and integrity, and while strictly moral and temperate in his habits, he was not what is called spiritually-minded —was not religiously inclined; though he was beginning to head that way. The wise and excellent precepts of his godly parents had taken root in his soul, their prayers in his behalf were about to be answered, and the budding promises of piety and spiritual power were beginning to show themselves. He was a child of destiny, God's eye was upon him, and unconsciously he was being moulded by the influence of that Spirit which he had received at baptism while in childhood—that "divinity which shapes our ends, rough-hew them as we will.”
From a boy Reed Smoot had determined to be a business man, a financier, a commercial pillar of the commonwealth. This is no exaggeration; all his instincts and inclinations were in that direction, and as soon as he was old enough to form a purpose and mark out a career for himself, that was the end at which he aimed. He inherited from both his parents business acumen, financial tact and executive ability, along with that industrious energy and continuity of purpose which are the main secrets of every man's success.
The third child and eldest son of Abraham Owen Smoot and his fourth wife, Anna Kerstina Morrison he was born .January 10th, 1862, at the old Smoot homestead in the Twentieth Ward, Salt Lake City. The spot where stood the house of his birth is now occupied by the residence of Hon. James Sharp. He received his first schooling under Miss Barbara Romney, daughter of George Romney, the present Bishop of the Twentieth Ward, who in the year ISGS opened a small school in her father's house. The following year the boy attended the ward school, taught by William Willes, and kept up his attendance until after the school was taken in charge by Dr. Karl G. Maeser, in the year 1870.
Two years later came a change of residence for Reed and the other members of his mother's branch of the family. As early as 1868 his father and a portion of the household had moved to Provo, where ex-Mayor Smoot of Salt Lake City was elected to a similar office and was also the president of the Utah Stake of Zion. There the rest of his family now joined him, and there his son Reed has continued to reside up to the present time.
At Provo he attended the Timpanogas branch of the University of Deseret, which was succeeded by the Brigham Young Academy, which, next to the great man whose name it bears, and co-equally with Dr. Maeser, its educational founder, owes its existence to our Apostle's honored sire, the late President A. O. Smoot. Reed attended the Academy's first term in April, 1876, being one of twenty-nine students with which the institution opened. He passed through all the higher branches then taught there, and at one time was the only student in the academic department, from which he was graduated in 1879. He studied principally along commercial lines, and at intervals, mainly during vacations, worked in the Provo Woolen Mills, which his father and others had founded and which had started up in the year 1872. There he obtained his first insight into manufacture, and it was a practical insight too, for he worked in every department of the factory. Immediately upon entering the mills, he formed the characteristic resolve to one day become their manager; an ambition realized eleven years later.
Upon leaving school, and after conferring with his father and his tutor. Dr. Maeser, he fully made up his mind to pursue a commercial career, and with that end in view took a humble position in the Provo Co-operative Institution, the first CO operative store organized in Utah under the impetus of the great co-operative movement projected by President Brigham Young in the year 1868. Beginning at the bottom round of the ladder, Reed went to work sacking fruit, sorting potatoes, and doing other odd jobs about the place, but all the while keeping his eye on the mark for which he had set out. One day his father entered the store, and in conversation with the superintendent, R. C. Kirkwood, happened to remark, “I see you have Reed here, but I guess he won't stay with you very long.” Reed overheard the remark, and though it was not meant unkindly nor said slightingly, it caused the youthful sacker of potatoes to set his teeth doggedly together and to inwardly determine: “I will stay here until I am superintendent of this institution.” That determination was adhered to, and in September, 1880, less than eighteen months from the time he uttered the prediction, it was fulfilled. He became superintendent of the Co-operative Institution and remained such until April, 1884, when he was made manager of the Provo Woolen Mills; thus realizing his previous resolve.
His first call to the mission field—supplementing a notice previously given—came in the year 1880, but was rescinded, as his services were needed as superintendent of the co-operative store. His second call was in March, 1884, when he was again stopped from going abroad, and was given by President John Taylor a five years mission as manager of the Woollen Mills. Another call was made upon him in October, 1890, and in November of that year, he left home en route for Liverpool, the headquarters of the European Mission. This was his first absence from America, barring a brief visit with his father to the Hawaiian Islands, upon which he was gone from May 2nd to July 19th, 1880; but he had visited on business nearly every State of the Union.
Prior to going upon his mission he had not been very active in religious matters, but had thrown his whole soul into business and was fast becoming wealthy, or at all events a man of means and of consequent financial influence in the community. His first business venture was the purchase with N. C. Larsen, in December, 1883, of the drug department of the Prove Co-operative Institution. A year later he purchased his partner's half interest and became the sole owner of that successful business, the beginning of the now widely known Smoot Drug Company, the leading drug store of central and southern Utah. In 1885 he went into the sheep business, in which he made more money than at anything else. He owned at one time eleven thousand head of sheep. He was also lucky in real estate deals, particularly at the time of "the boom," which favored so few and ruined so many. In fact, he was so prosperous, and so intensely interested in money making, that it was feared and said by some that Reed Smoot and religion were drifting apart. Some went so far as to predict that if another call came for a mission (he had already had two, and had been prevented from going through no fault of his own) he would refuse to accept it. How groundless were these fears and assertions, and how unwarranted such a prediction, was shown by his prompt departure for Europe in the fall of 1890, and by the subsequent great change that came over him in relation to spiritual things.
While abroad he labored principally in the Liverpool office as bookkeeper and emigration clerk, under the presidency of Apostle Brigham Young. He also visited and spoke at the various conferences, and from July 2nd to August 6th of 1891 was absent from England touring the continent in company with Dr. James E. Talmage, who was visiting Europe, and Elder Samuel A. King, one of the Utah missionaries. The party passed successively through Belgium, Holland, Germany. Switzerland, Italy and France. While at Liverpool Elder [Smoot became well acquainted with the leading officials of the Guion Steamship line, which had for many years the bulk of the Mormon emigration from Liverpool, and was treated by them with the greatest courtesy and consideration. Mr. George Ramsden, the old-time manager of the Guion shipping agency, made him welcome at his home and manifested almost a father's love for him. Mr. John A. Marsh, the head man of the Guion company, also took much interest in him, and appointed him his agent as a passage broker; a situation which, though it brought no salary, was of additional advantage to the emigrational interests of the Church. While he was acting in this capacity the change was made by which Mormon emigrants, who formerly had but the usual steerage accommodations, were provided with intermediate passage over the Atlantic.
Elder Smoot was called home by a telegram from President Wilford Woodruff, which informed him of the serious illness of his father, and in response to this summons he sailed from Liverpool on the 19th of September, and arrived at Prove on the 1st of October, 1891. For a short time he assisted his father as manager of the Provo Lumber Manufacturing and Building Company, one of the industries that President Smoot had established, and straightened out a contract between that company and the Territorial Insane Asylum. In the spring of 1892, he resumed his former position as manager of the Provo Woolen Mills, which under his able superintendence have achieved a splendid success. That position he still holds.
At the time that Elder Smoot went to Europe he was a married man and had been one since the 17th of September, 1884, when he wedded Miss Alpha M. Eldredge, daughter of the well known Salt Lake merchant, Horace S. Eldredge, who was also one of the First Seven Presidents of the Seventies. Her mother was Mrs. Chloe A. Redfield Eldredge, daughter of Harlow Redfield, one of the founders of Provo. There Elder Smoot built a handsome home as the domicile of himself and wife and their steadily increasing family. They have had six children, five of whom are living, and their married life has been a happy one.
After his return from England, he launched out in business more extensively than ever, and his spiritual development, which his mission had awakened, likewise continued. He was the main promoter of the Provo Commercial and Savings Bank, one of the soundest institutions in the State, and he became its first president, a position held by him at the present time. He engaged considerably in mining, erected a number of business blocks, and became a director in the Clark-Eldredge Company of Salt Lake City, as well as in various other important concerns. His first mining venture was in conjunction with C. E. Loose, S. S. Jones and Thomas R. Cutler, in the Sioux Consolidated and Utah Consolidated Mining companies. Selling out at a profit, he next invested in the Grand Central and was one of the original incorporators of that now famous mine. He was made vice-president of the Grand Central Mining Company, also of the Victoria Mining Company, of which also he was one of the incorporators. His latest notable appointment was as a director of the much talked of Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad, which is about to be constructed.
In politics Mr. Smoot is a staunch Republican. He has never sought an office, but has been honored with important official positions. From March 15, 1894, until the advent of Statehood, he served as a director of the Territorial Insane Asylum, by appointment of Governor Caleb W. West, and after Utah entered the Union, a sovereign commonwealth, he was appointed by Governor Heber M. Wells as a member of the Semicentennial Commission, which in 1897 conducted so successfully the great Pioneer Jubilee.
Elder Smoot's ecclesiastical record is as follows: He was baptized at eight years of age in the Endowment House at Salt Lake City, and was ordained a Deacon July 15, 1877. In 1879 he was made a Priest, and in April, 1880, an Elder. Four years later he was ordained a Seventy by Elder Abraham H. Cannon, one of the First Council of Seventies, and in April, 1895, was ordained a High Priest under the hands of President Joseph F. Smith. At the same time he was appointed second counselor to President Edward Partridge, who had succeeded President A. O. Smoot, deceased, as the presiding authority of the Utah Stake of Zion. Elder Smoot continued to serve as one of the presidency of that stake until called to the Apostleship on the 8th day of April, 1900. The same day he was sustained in that exalted position by the voice of the general conference, and was ordained an Apostle by President Lorenzo Snow on the day following.
While a member of the Utah Stake presidency he was appointed to raise means to pay off the debt then hanging over the unfinished Stake Tabernacle, and to complete that structure. This duty he performed with his usual promptitude and success, the debt being cancelled and the building completed accordingly. He has acted for years as one of the board of trustees of the Brigham Young Academy, and is a member of its executive committee. He solicited subscriptions for and was the main instrument in the erection of the new college hall, an adjunct to the Academy, in the success of which he has ever been deeply interested.
It can truly be said of Apostle Smoot that he has never sought preferment either civil or ecclesiastical. He has worked honestly and faithfully at whatever he had in hand — industry and continuity being his watchwords, recognized by him even while a boy as the keys to success and prosperity—and his talents and his labors alone have recommended him for promotion. This accounts for the general feeling of satisfaction manifested by the vast congregation, which, in the afternoon of Sunday, April 8, 1900, at the great tabernacle in Salt Lake City, voted unanimously, with their hearts as well as their hands, to sustain him as one of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Much of this good feeling was doubtless due to the fact that many present were acquainted, not only with the marked ability of this young man, but with the good and wise use that he has made of that ability and of the means it has enabled him to accumulate.
Many know of the valuable aid that Reed Smoot has rendered from time to time in a financial and executive way to this or that struggling institution, but few are aware of how numerous are his private acts of beneficence. Truly has it been said that ostentatious charity insults the misery it would relieve. Reed Smoot's charity is not of that kind. He does not ask a friend in trouble, “What can I do for you?" or say, “If there is anything you want, let me know;” thus throwing upon the afflicted soul an additional burden and subjecting it to unnecessary humiliation. He shrewdly sees the need and tactfully supplies it, without speaking or awaiting a word. And this is charity, true charity; for it is generosity, it is bigness of heart, and as far outsoars mere almsgiving as the eagle outsoars the swan.
In person Apostle Smoot is tall and well built, though his unusual height makes him appear almost slender in frame. He moves with the rapid, energetic stride characteristic of the rustling business man. He is punctual in keeping his appointments, and, as he says, owes his greatest losses in time to the failure of other men to promptly keep theirs. He possesses a fearless candor, "speaks right out in meeting," says exactly what he thinks, and yet is courteous, considerate and kind-hearted. He is neither a preacher nor a writer, but expresses himself with intelligence, earnestness and humility, both by tongue and pen. His genius is practical and progressive. As a financier and an executive his talents are of the fir.st order, and the fallacy is long since exploded that the Lord has need of but one class of men in any department of His mighty and marvelous work. “My duty first, ray pleasure afterwards." may be said to be our Apostle's favorite motto, one that he faithfully exemplifies; and this is just as true since the great spiritual awakening experienced by him as the result of his foreign mission and his appointment as one of the presidency of the Utah Stake, as it was when he was devoting himself heart and soul almost entirely to commercial pursuits.
In his lineal descent he is a joint product of two great races famous for their sterling qualities and the inestimable services they have rendered civilization. His father came of the old Anglo-Saxon stock that peopled the eastern shores of North America, while his mother sprang from a lineage more ancient still, her ancestors being the adventurous Norsemen, the first European discoverers of this continent. His father was born in the State of Kentucky, and his mother was a native of Brekka, Norway. Both were of heroic mould and mettle, both sacrificed much for the Gospel's sake, and the Apostle is the inheritor of many of their noblest qualities; chief among which is the ability and inclination to do good, publicly and privately, and to thoroughly enjoy the doing of it.
O. F. Whitney.
LIVES OF OUR LEADERS—THE APOSTLES.
REED SMOOT.
THOU shalt be associated in thy labors with the wise counselors of Israel, and if thou art faithful, thou shalt not be a whit behind the chiefest of the Apostles.
This promise, one of many, was made to Reed Smoot, our latest ordained Apostle, by his father. President A. O. Smoot, in a patriarchal blessing given to him on the 24th day of November, 1874, nearly twenty-six years prior to his call to the Apostleship, and at a time when there was no probability that such a call would come. But the spirit of prophecy, which ignores probabilities, and sets at naught all seeming obstacles to the fulfillment of its decrees, placed the seal of truth upon the inspired utterance, and it only remained for time and Providence to do the rest.
We say there was no probability at that time that Reed Smoot would be an Apostle. This will be plainly apparent to the reader when he is informed that the blessing of which this prophecy is a part was pronounced when the subject of this sketch was a mere lad, between twelve and thirteen years of age. Nor was it much more probable ten or fifteen years later; for while not lacking in uprightness and integrity, and while strictly moral and temperate in his habits, he was not what is called spiritually-minded —was not religiously inclined; though he was beginning to head that way. The wise and excellent precepts of his godly parents had taken root in his soul, their prayers in his behalf were about to be answered, and the budding promises of piety and spiritual power were beginning to show themselves. He was a child of destiny, God's eye was upon him, and unconsciously he was being moulded by the influence of that Spirit which he had received at baptism while in childhood—that "divinity which shapes our ends, rough-hew them as we will.”
From a boy Reed Smoot had determined to be a business man, a financier, a commercial pillar of the commonwealth. This is no exaggeration; all his instincts and inclinations were in that direction, and as soon as he was old enough to form a purpose and mark out a career for himself, that was the end at which he aimed. He inherited from both his parents business acumen, financial tact and executive ability, along with that industrious energy and continuity of purpose which are the main secrets of every man's success.
The third child and eldest son of Abraham Owen Smoot and his fourth wife, Anna Kerstina Morrison he was born .January 10th, 1862, at the old Smoot homestead in the Twentieth Ward, Salt Lake City. The spot where stood the house of his birth is now occupied by the residence of Hon. James Sharp. He received his first schooling under Miss Barbara Romney, daughter of George Romney, the present Bishop of the Twentieth Ward, who in the year ISGS opened a small school in her father's house. The following year the boy attended the ward school, taught by William Willes, and kept up his attendance until after the school was taken in charge by Dr. Karl G. Maeser, in the year 1870.
Two years later came a change of residence for Reed and the other members of his mother's branch of the family. As early as 1868 his father and a portion of the household had moved to Provo, where ex-Mayor Smoot of Salt Lake City was elected to a similar office and was also the president of the Utah Stake of Zion. There the rest of his family now joined him, and there his son Reed has continued to reside up to the present time.
At Provo he attended the Timpanogas branch of the University of Deseret, which was succeeded by the Brigham Young Academy, which, next to the great man whose name it bears, and co-equally with Dr. Maeser, its educational founder, owes its existence to our Apostle's honored sire, the late President A. O. Smoot. Reed attended the Academy's first term in April, 1876, being one of twenty-nine students with which the institution opened. He passed through all the higher branches then taught there, and at one time was the only student in the academic department, from which he was graduated in 1879. He studied principally along commercial lines, and at intervals, mainly during vacations, worked in the Provo Woolen Mills, which his father and others had founded and which had started up in the year 1872. There he obtained his first insight into manufacture, and it was a practical insight too, for he worked in every department of the factory. Immediately upon entering the mills, he formed the characteristic resolve to one day become their manager; an ambition realized eleven years later.
Upon leaving school, and after conferring with his father and his tutor. Dr. Maeser, he fully made up his mind to pursue a commercial career, and with that end in view took a humble position in the Provo Co-operative Institution, the first CO operative store organized in Utah under the impetus of the great co-operative movement projected by President Brigham Young in the year 1868. Beginning at the bottom round of the ladder, Reed went to work sacking fruit, sorting potatoes, and doing other odd jobs about the place, but all the while keeping his eye on the mark for which he had set out. One day his father entered the store, and in conversation with the superintendent, R. C. Kirkwood, happened to remark, “I see you have Reed here, but I guess he won't stay with you very long.” Reed overheard the remark, and though it was not meant unkindly nor said slightingly, it caused the youthful sacker of potatoes to set his teeth doggedly together and to inwardly determine: “I will stay here until I am superintendent of this institution.” That determination was adhered to, and in September, 1880, less than eighteen months from the time he uttered the prediction, it was fulfilled. He became superintendent of the Co-operative Institution and remained such until April, 1884, when he was made manager of the Provo Woolen Mills; thus realizing his previous resolve.
His first call to the mission field—supplementing a notice previously given—came in the year 1880, but was rescinded, as his services were needed as superintendent of the co-operative store. His second call was in March, 1884, when he was again stopped from going abroad, and was given by President John Taylor a five years mission as manager of the Woollen Mills. Another call was made upon him in October, 1890, and in November of that year, he left home en route for Liverpool, the headquarters of the European Mission. This was his first absence from America, barring a brief visit with his father to the Hawaiian Islands, upon which he was gone from May 2nd to July 19th, 1880; but he had visited on business nearly every State of the Union.
Prior to going upon his mission he had not been very active in religious matters, but had thrown his whole soul into business and was fast becoming wealthy, or at all events a man of means and of consequent financial influence in the community. His first business venture was the purchase with N. C. Larsen, in December, 1883, of the drug department of the Prove Co-operative Institution. A year later he purchased his partner's half interest and became the sole owner of that successful business, the beginning of the now widely known Smoot Drug Company, the leading drug store of central and southern Utah. In 1885 he went into the sheep business, in which he made more money than at anything else. He owned at one time eleven thousand head of sheep. He was also lucky in real estate deals, particularly at the time of "the boom," which favored so few and ruined so many. In fact, he was so prosperous, and so intensely interested in money making, that it was feared and said by some that Reed Smoot and religion were drifting apart. Some went so far as to predict that if another call came for a mission (he had already had two, and had been prevented from going through no fault of his own) he would refuse to accept it. How groundless were these fears and assertions, and how unwarranted such a prediction, was shown by his prompt departure for Europe in the fall of 1890, and by the subsequent great change that came over him in relation to spiritual things.
While abroad he labored principally in the Liverpool office as bookkeeper and emigration clerk, under the presidency of Apostle Brigham Young. He also visited and spoke at the various conferences, and from July 2nd to August 6th of 1891 was absent from England touring the continent in company with Dr. James E. Talmage, who was visiting Europe, and Elder Samuel A. King, one of the Utah missionaries. The party passed successively through Belgium, Holland, Germany. Switzerland, Italy and France. While at Liverpool Elder [Smoot became well acquainted with the leading officials of the Guion Steamship line, which had for many years the bulk of the Mormon emigration from Liverpool, and was treated by them with the greatest courtesy and consideration. Mr. George Ramsden, the old-time manager of the Guion shipping agency, made him welcome at his home and manifested almost a father's love for him. Mr. John A. Marsh, the head man of the Guion company, also took much interest in him, and appointed him his agent as a passage broker; a situation which, though it brought no salary, was of additional advantage to the emigrational interests of the Church. While he was acting in this capacity the change was made by which Mormon emigrants, who formerly had but the usual steerage accommodations, were provided with intermediate passage over the Atlantic.
Elder Smoot was called home by a telegram from President Wilford Woodruff, which informed him of the serious illness of his father, and in response to this summons he sailed from Liverpool on the 19th of September, and arrived at Prove on the 1st of October, 1891. For a short time he assisted his father as manager of the Provo Lumber Manufacturing and Building Company, one of the industries that President Smoot had established, and straightened out a contract between that company and the Territorial Insane Asylum. In the spring of 1892, he resumed his former position as manager of the Provo Woolen Mills, which under his able superintendence have achieved a splendid success. That position he still holds.
At the time that Elder Smoot went to Europe he was a married man and had been one since the 17th of September, 1884, when he wedded Miss Alpha M. Eldredge, daughter of the well known Salt Lake merchant, Horace S. Eldredge, who was also one of the First Seven Presidents of the Seventies. Her mother was Mrs. Chloe A. Redfield Eldredge, daughter of Harlow Redfield, one of the founders of Provo. There Elder Smoot built a handsome home as the domicile of himself and wife and their steadily increasing family. They have had six children, five of whom are living, and their married life has been a happy one.
After his return from England, he launched out in business more extensively than ever, and his spiritual development, which his mission had awakened, likewise continued. He was the main promoter of the Provo Commercial and Savings Bank, one of the soundest institutions in the State, and he became its first president, a position held by him at the present time. He engaged considerably in mining, erected a number of business blocks, and became a director in the Clark-Eldredge Company of Salt Lake City, as well as in various other important concerns. His first mining venture was in conjunction with C. E. Loose, S. S. Jones and Thomas R. Cutler, in the Sioux Consolidated and Utah Consolidated Mining companies. Selling out at a profit, he next invested in the Grand Central and was one of the original incorporators of that now famous mine. He was made vice-president of the Grand Central Mining Company, also of the Victoria Mining Company, of which also he was one of the incorporators. His latest notable appointment was as a director of the much talked of Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad, which is about to be constructed.
In politics Mr. Smoot is a staunch Republican. He has never sought an office, but has been honored with important official positions. From March 15, 1894, until the advent of Statehood, he served as a director of the Territorial Insane Asylum, by appointment of Governor Caleb W. West, and after Utah entered the Union, a sovereign commonwealth, he was appointed by Governor Heber M. Wells as a member of the Semicentennial Commission, which in 1897 conducted so successfully the great Pioneer Jubilee.
Elder Smoot's ecclesiastical record is as follows: He was baptized at eight years of age in the Endowment House at Salt Lake City, and was ordained a Deacon July 15, 1877. In 1879 he was made a Priest, and in April, 1880, an Elder. Four years later he was ordained a Seventy by Elder Abraham H. Cannon, one of the First Council of Seventies, and in April, 1895, was ordained a High Priest under the hands of President Joseph F. Smith. At the same time he was appointed second counselor to President Edward Partridge, who had succeeded President A. O. Smoot, deceased, as the presiding authority of the Utah Stake of Zion. Elder Smoot continued to serve as one of the presidency of that stake until called to the Apostleship on the 8th day of April, 1900. The same day he was sustained in that exalted position by the voice of the general conference, and was ordained an Apostle by President Lorenzo Snow on the day following.
While a member of the Utah Stake presidency he was appointed to raise means to pay off the debt then hanging over the unfinished Stake Tabernacle, and to complete that structure. This duty he performed with his usual promptitude and success, the debt being cancelled and the building completed accordingly. He has acted for years as one of the board of trustees of the Brigham Young Academy, and is a member of its executive committee. He solicited subscriptions for and was the main instrument in the erection of the new college hall, an adjunct to the Academy, in the success of which he has ever been deeply interested.
It can truly be said of Apostle Smoot that he has never sought preferment either civil or ecclesiastical. He has worked honestly and faithfully at whatever he had in hand — industry and continuity being his watchwords, recognized by him even while a boy as the keys to success and prosperity—and his talents and his labors alone have recommended him for promotion. This accounts for the general feeling of satisfaction manifested by the vast congregation, which, in the afternoon of Sunday, April 8, 1900, at the great tabernacle in Salt Lake City, voted unanimously, with their hearts as well as their hands, to sustain him as one of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Much of this good feeling was doubtless due to the fact that many present were acquainted, not only with the marked ability of this young man, but with the good and wise use that he has made of that ability and of the means it has enabled him to accumulate.
Many know of the valuable aid that Reed Smoot has rendered from time to time in a financial and executive way to this or that struggling institution, but few are aware of how numerous are his private acts of beneficence. Truly has it been said that ostentatious charity insults the misery it would relieve. Reed Smoot's charity is not of that kind. He does not ask a friend in trouble, “What can I do for you?" or say, “If there is anything you want, let me know;” thus throwing upon the afflicted soul an additional burden and subjecting it to unnecessary humiliation. He shrewdly sees the need and tactfully supplies it, without speaking or awaiting a word. And this is charity, true charity; for it is generosity, it is bigness of heart, and as far outsoars mere almsgiving as the eagle outsoars the swan.
In person Apostle Smoot is tall and well built, though his unusual height makes him appear almost slender in frame. He moves with the rapid, energetic stride characteristic of the rustling business man. He is punctual in keeping his appointments, and, as he says, owes his greatest losses in time to the failure of other men to promptly keep theirs. He possesses a fearless candor, "speaks right out in meeting," says exactly what he thinks, and yet is courteous, considerate and kind-hearted. He is neither a preacher nor a writer, but expresses himself with intelligence, earnestness and humility, both by tongue and pen. His genius is practical and progressive. As a financier and an executive his talents are of the fir.st order, and the fallacy is long since exploded that the Lord has need of but one class of men in any department of His mighty and marvelous work. “My duty first, ray pleasure afterwards." may be said to be our Apostle's favorite motto, one that he faithfully exemplifies; and this is just as true since the great spiritual awakening experienced by him as the result of his foreign mission and his appointment as one of the presidency of the Utah Stake, as it was when he was devoting himself heart and soul almost entirely to commercial pursuits.
In his lineal descent he is a joint product of two great races famous for their sterling qualities and the inestimable services they have rendered civilization. His father came of the old Anglo-Saxon stock that peopled the eastern shores of North America, while his mother sprang from a lineage more ancient still, her ancestors being the adventurous Norsemen, the first European discoverers of this continent. His father was born in the State of Kentucky, and his mother was a native of Brekka, Norway. Both were of heroic mould and mettle, both sacrificed much for the Gospel's sake, and the Apostle is the inheritor of many of their noblest qualities; chief among which is the ability and inclination to do good, publicly and privately, and to thoroughly enjoy the doing of it.
O. F. Whitney.
"Honorable Reed Smoot and the Senatorship." Juvenile Instructor. 1 April 1903. pg. 218-219.
TOPICS OF THE TIMES.
HONORABLE REED SMOOT AND THE SENATORSHIP.
THE Latter-day Saints generally are not at all deceived by the agitation of those most active in their opposition to Honorable Reed Smoot as a senator of the United States. The opposition arises chiefly from the religious organizations of the country. They contend that it is highly improper for a man of advanced ecclesiastical standing to aspire to senatorial honors. The bishops and archbishops of the Roman Catholic church and the leading officials and preachers of the Protestant churches are cited as examples of those whose practices we should follow in all our aspirations for political office. It will be observed that our ministerial opponents are ever ready to compare men m authority in the Mormon Church with those high in authority in their own churches: but the Latter-day Saints understand how insincere the comparisons are, that they are not honestly meant, but are gotten up to serve a purpose— namely, the agitation throughout this country against the Latter-day Saints.
In 1893, our people asked that they might be represented in the Parliament of Religions held at the World's Fair in Chicago, and sent a representative there, but they were informed that "Mormonism" was not a religion. And while Christians, Mohammedans, Buddhists, and other sects of the world could be heard, the Latter-day Saints must have no voice in that parliament. It was not a religion then; its ministers were not entitled to the name. Now it is a religion, and its ministers are compared with the highest authorities of the most numerous religious organizations of Christendom. We have been characterized as so grossly materialistic in our teachings as to be unworthy the name of Christians.
The Latter-day Saints are not deceived when the ministers would keep them OHt of religious parliaments because they are not religionists, and keep them out of the United States Senate because they are. The facts are that the Latter-day Saints have persistently avoided, and wisely so, the creation of a priestly class—small, exclusive and distinct. The priesthood is regarded among them as the rightful blessing of every man who leads a worthy and consistent life in their midst. There is no reason why an honest Elder or High Priest should not be an honest banker or an honest merchant. It may be necessary in the world to keep the ministers away from the public life and worldly callings of members of their flocks; but that necessity is not felt among the Latter-day Saints. Hence the freedom of the authorities among them to engage in public and political pursuits when it may meet their circumstances and is in keeping with their abilities.
TOPICS OF THE TIMES.
HONORABLE REED SMOOT AND THE SENATORSHIP.
THE Latter-day Saints generally are not at all deceived by the agitation of those most active in their opposition to Honorable Reed Smoot as a senator of the United States. The opposition arises chiefly from the religious organizations of the country. They contend that it is highly improper for a man of advanced ecclesiastical standing to aspire to senatorial honors. The bishops and archbishops of the Roman Catholic church and the leading officials and preachers of the Protestant churches are cited as examples of those whose practices we should follow in all our aspirations for political office. It will be observed that our ministerial opponents are ever ready to compare men m authority in the Mormon Church with those high in authority in their own churches: but the Latter-day Saints understand how insincere the comparisons are, that they are not honestly meant, but are gotten up to serve a purpose— namely, the agitation throughout this country against the Latter-day Saints.
In 1893, our people asked that they might be represented in the Parliament of Religions held at the World's Fair in Chicago, and sent a representative there, but they were informed that "Mormonism" was not a religion. And while Christians, Mohammedans, Buddhists, and other sects of the world could be heard, the Latter-day Saints must have no voice in that parliament. It was not a religion then; its ministers were not entitled to the name. Now it is a religion, and its ministers are compared with the highest authorities of the most numerous religious organizations of Christendom. We have been characterized as so grossly materialistic in our teachings as to be unworthy the name of Christians.
The Latter-day Saints are not deceived when the ministers would keep them OHt of religious parliaments because they are not religionists, and keep them out of the United States Senate because they are. The facts are that the Latter-day Saints have persistently avoided, and wisely so, the creation of a priestly class—small, exclusive and distinct. The priesthood is regarded among them as the rightful blessing of every man who leads a worthy and consistent life in their midst. There is no reason why an honest Elder or High Priest should not be an honest banker or an honest merchant. It may be necessary in the world to keep the ministers away from the public life and worldly callings of members of their flocks; but that necessity is not felt among the Latter-day Saints. Hence the freedom of the authorities among them to engage in public and political pursuits when it may meet their circumstances and is in keeping with their abilities.
"Hon. Reed Smoot Re-Elected Senator." Improvement Era. February 1909. pg. 321.
HON. REED SMOOT RE-ELECTED SENATOR.
The Republican Legislative caucus on the 18th of January, chose Senator Reed Smoot by acclamation to succeed himself as United States Senator. On the following day the Senate and the House unanimously elected him. Hon. Carl A. Badger making the nominating speech in the Senate, and Hon. John H. Wootton in the House. On Wednesday, January 20, the Joint Assembly ratified the election, and President Gardner and Speaker Robinson signed his certificate of election, declaring him legally Senator from Utah. There are only two Democrats in the Legislature and these, Hon. David H. Morris and Fletcher B. Hammond, voted for Hon. Wm. H. King. The re-election of Senator Smoot is a fitting tribute to his ability, and his careful labors for Utah, and will meet with enthusiastic approval throughout the state.
HON. REED SMOOT RE-ELECTED SENATOR.
The Republican Legislative caucus on the 18th of January, chose Senator Reed Smoot by acclamation to succeed himself as United States Senator. On the following day the Senate and the House unanimously elected him. Hon. Carl A. Badger making the nominating speech in the Senate, and Hon. John H. Wootton in the House. On Wednesday, January 20, the Joint Assembly ratified the election, and President Gardner and Speaker Robinson signed his certificate of election, declaring him legally Senator from Utah. There are only two Democrats in the Legislature and these, Hon. David H. Morris and Fletcher B. Hammond, voted for Hon. Wm. H. King. The re-election of Senator Smoot is a fitting tribute to his ability, and his careful labors for Utah, and will meet with enthusiastic approval throughout the state.
"Senator Reed Smoot." Improvement Era. December 1920. pg. 165.
SENATOR REED SMOOT Born, Salt Lake City, January 10, 1862, educated in the public schools, University of Utah, and Brigham Young Academy, Provo, from which he graduated. Interested in many business projects in the state. Married Sept. 17, 1884, to Miss Alpha Eldredge, a daughter of Horace Eldredge of Salt Lake City. They have six children. Chosen a member of the Council of the Twelve Apostles, April 8, 1900; elected to the Senate of the United States by the legislature of Utah, in 1903, where he has rendered distinguished service. Reelected senator by the people, Nov. 2, 1920. An untiring worker in the interest, of not only the West but of the whole United States, he is ever on the side of honest, beneficial and progressive legislation. |
Hyde, Jeannette A. "An Appreciation of Senator Reed Smoot." Young Woman's Journal. August 1923. pg. 430-434.
An Appreciation of Senator Reed Smoot
By Jeanette A, Hyde
A man is judged as a man for what he does, not what he says or thinks. A man held under the scrutinizing gaze of thousands of friends and skeptical analyzers; a man whose every movement is watched and weighed by an interested body politic, is a great man, when from under this avalanche of critical viewpoint he can be pointed to by his friends in pride and by his opponents in admiration and respect.
Senator Reed Smoot, Utah’s Senior Senator, has accomplished such magnificent feats in legislative work, has won such lasting laurels in his life that he has no fear of public censure. For even though it is beyond the power of man to act without error, he can and does always face his antagonists with a well tuned conscience, knowing that he has acted in the interest of his state, his people, and his country.
Senator Smoot has not won his place in the public admiration by the use of psychological manipulation, nor by the aid of the god chance. He has become a staple pillar in our congressional hall by earnest endeavor and unceasing personal labor, toiling always with as great sincerity at the annoying details of personal requests as the ponderous questions of national welfare. To him the appeal of the poor obscure farmer is taken with that same intensity and prompt consideration as that of an esteemed leader of public affairs, or the governors of the exchanges of finance. He has never outgrown his own feeling of true comradeship with those whom circumstances of his boyhood placed around him in the woolen mills or the farm. He has never turned with scorn upon the lowly steps by which he ascended the ladder of fame.
The foregoing statements of the incalculable value of our esteemed senator are not made without the absolute background of statistical information and undisputed acknowledgment of the gigantic powers he possesses, by thinking men and communities unbiased by personal pride or family attachment.
The nation’s biggest newspapers flaunt Senator Smoot as an outstanding prominent figure and motive power in national success.
Only recently did President Harding honor his ability and sagacity in his financial work in our government by proving to the people in an evening’s address the efficiency of the Finance Committee of which Senator Smoot is the inspirational advisor.
He was aptly termed by a foremost editor, “America’s Greatest Human Adding Machine.”
He has a vision of finances and the basic principles of national accumulation and disposition of wealth which few are so blessed in possessing.
Closely allied to his interesting work in the Committee of Finance Appropriation is Senator Smoot’s increasing effort in tariff adjustment. Even colleagues of Senator Smoot who disagree with him in the Republican policy of tariff for the protection and encouragement of American industries, admit that he is without a doubt the best informed member of the Senate on matters of tariff legislation and tariff application. It is with great skill and accuracy that Senator Smoot digests a vast amount of material fact dealing with the tariff system. Senator Smoot has never delved into the tariff problem without boldly considering the special needs of the west, whose interest he holds as a personal one. When sectional debates are poured forth in the Senate, Senator Smoot has ready his own convincing arguments for the benefit of his Rocky Mountain people and the upkeep and progress of their life sustaining industries.
It is often the case with the so-called big men that their public morals are in no way harmonious with the morals of their private life. Many have a twofold standard of honor. But Senator Smoot, when acting as a member of the Committee of Claims, insisted that the private sense of honor should be carried over bodily into the business of our government.
He instituted the rule, “Not to favor any claim against the government which does not possess such merit as would justify its payment in a private business transaction. No matter what the influence in favor of claims of another character, they were excluded: while just claims in many instances, those where the claimants had no powerful influence behind them, received the favorable consideration to which they were entitled.”
Another one of the many instances in Senator Smoot’s public career which shows native stability and keen ability was in his effecting a great economic reform at the time when he was acting as the chairman of Senate Committee on Printing, the Joint Senate and House Committee on Printing and the Joint Printing Investigation Committee. He succeeded in eliminating the waste of $400,000 to $500,000, per year, in the government printing division, yet not a competent, honest workman lost his job. For that type of economic retrenchment Senator Smoot should receive lasting appreciation from his countrymen.
Many states expressed openly opposition to his “Dry Farm Bill.” But later after witnessing the advantages accruing to Utah through her acceptance, asked that the provisions formerly declined be applied to them. The provision being that homesteading be permitted of three hundred and twenty acres of arid, non-irrigable, non-timbered, non-mineral land without the usual requirement of residence therein. It was only after effective argument that he won the approval of the majority of the Senate. Only a few years later, did the representatives of Utah’s neighbor states plead for like advantages, showing again a great foresight into beneficial means of progression for his western people.
In accordance with Senator Smoot’s ideal of justice and righteous compensation, many deserving Utah citizens have received remuneration for unstinted service and loyalty.
Senator Smoot as a member of the Committee on Pensions, took special interest in the very necessary care of the nation’s veteran defenders and their widows. He has since been instrumental in securing many improvements, in recent years in the pension laws. He made special effort which has resulted effectively in including The Walker Indian War Veterans and Veterans of later Indian Wars in Utah, under the pension service, even including the amount due plus that accumulated for previous years.
Senator Smoot believing firmly that no state can be progressive if a part of its population is denied opportunity for advancement, strove to improve and increase the Indian’s advantages in Utah by attending diligently to legislation which provided for necessary extensions of time for homesteading and community improvements in the Uintah District and also other districts in Utah designated for the Indian’s welfare.
Among the seeming unending list of Senator Smoot’s accomplishments during his activity in the Senate is his “Long and Short Haul Clause,” which contains so much of vital importance to the west. Capable and strong senators particularly those from the East opposed the clause vigorously; but by his thorough knowledge of western as well as eastern conditions, Senator Smoot was able to add through vigorous and convincing arguments, his clause to the railroad enactments.
Of notable effort was Senator Smoot’s Bill dealing with National Copyright Laws. Our national copyright laws had been in a very unsatisfactory condition but with his bill to amend and consolidate the acts respecting “copyright,” satisfactory results were achieved, however only after three years of his persistent labor. Public hearings were held over which Senator Smoot had charge. These were second only to those held on the tariff. Showing the indisputably happy situation resulting from his amendment, The Century Magazine commenting on the piece of legislation said, “By the soundness of its principles, and the adequacy of its remedies, it would be the law of the land for many years to come.” The “Musical Age,” J. J. Sulivan, chairman of the Copyright Committee of the International Typographical Union and many other prominent men commented favorably upon the splendid work on the Copyright Law.
Showing Senator Smoot’s versatility in legislative interests was the foremost position which he held in behalf of a judicious forestry policy for the nation. President Roosevelt, being thoroughly aware of each Senator’s ability, honored Senator Smoot with the chairmanship of the Section of Forests of the National Conservation Commission. Senator Smoot stood firmly against extravagant and extreme theories for forest preservation. He supplied intelligent and sane measures for our national forest conservation. The Colorado State Forestry Association designated his speech as “a masterpiece,” and declared “The friends of forest legislation owe you a debt of unbounded gratitude.”
Part of the Senator’s scheduled responsibility is his committee work. Proving the great confidence held in Senator Smoot in his long list of committee affiliations. Among the many a few are here listed: Chairman of Committee on Standard Weight and Measure, chairman of Joint Committee on Printing (House and Senate), chairman of the Committee on Public Lands, chairman of the Committee on Expenditures in the Interior Department, chairman of the Printing Investigation Committee. He has been appointed a member of the Committee on Pensions, Committee on Railroads, Committee on Finance, Committee on Appropriations, Committee on Civil Service and Retrenchment, Committee on Public Health and National Quarantine, Committee for University of the United States, Committee on Committees, member of Special Committee to Investigate High Cost of living and member of Joint Alaskan Commission. He was also chairman of the Forest Section of the National Conservation Commission appointed by President Roosevelt.
There is hardly any oilier action of Senator Smoot’s which deserves greater comment than his unstinted effort to give to the women of other states that privilege which those women of his own state so cherish, the Suffrage. Showing his national viewpoint he labored diligently for women’s suffrage for other states, not because of personal appreciation he would receive from Utahns but because of his desire to see a principle of right and justice firmly established in the United States.
In international relations Senator Smoot has shown his undivided, loyal and patriotic adherence to America’s interest based upon a magnificent faith in America’s ideals and material standards. Yet he has always evidenced a firm resolve toward the fair, honorable procedure with other nations, which all proves his own magnanimous spirit of right for right’s sake and justice to all.
Senator Smoot is held in great respect even by his opponents, partly because he has always exhibited somewhat of the spirituality which made Lincoln stand out for the higher things. Senator Smoot’s spontaneous prayer in the Senate on an occasion in which America was in distress was in itself indicative of his higher spiritual being. Feeling at the time that the human mind was insignificant in comparison to the Herculean task before it, he called on God to guide the leaders of our nation to peace and righteous adjustment. Through Senator Smoot’s training received early at the hands of a devoted mother, he has been able to withstand great temptations. His religious enthusiasm has been a motive power in his great successes and the basis of a great national confidence in him.
During Senator Smoot’s twenty years of devoted service to the will and needs of his people and our nation, he has always shown the courage of his convictions, great foresight into the material needs of our country, an honorable method of procedure, an unselfish consideration of his fellow countrymen and lasting faith in the glowing possibilities of the ideal Democratic Government.
To Senator Smoot the people of Utah especially, owe debts of appreciation and gratitude for his carrying the spirit of the mountain’s strength, the West’s standards of honor and high idealism into the halls of national accomplishments, with the white flag of honor and peace ever before his eyes.
An Appreciation of Senator Reed Smoot
By Jeanette A, Hyde
A man is judged as a man for what he does, not what he says or thinks. A man held under the scrutinizing gaze of thousands of friends and skeptical analyzers; a man whose every movement is watched and weighed by an interested body politic, is a great man, when from under this avalanche of critical viewpoint he can be pointed to by his friends in pride and by his opponents in admiration and respect.
Senator Reed Smoot, Utah’s Senior Senator, has accomplished such magnificent feats in legislative work, has won such lasting laurels in his life that he has no fear of public censure. For even though it is beyond the power of man to act without error, he can and does always face his antagonists with a well tuned conscience, knowing that he has acted in the interest of his state, his people, and his country.
Senator Smoot has not won his place in the public admiration by the use of psychological manipulation, nor by the aid of the god chance. He has become a staple pillar in our congressional hall by earnest endeavor and unceasing personal labor, toiling always with as great sincerity at the annoying details of personal requests as the ponderous questions of national welfare. To him the appeal of the poor obscure farmer is taken with that same intensity and prompt consideration as that of an esteemed leader of public affairs, or the governors of the exchanges of finance. He has never outgrown his own feeling of true comradeship with those whom circumstances of his boyhood placed around him in the woolen mills or the farm. He has never turned with scorn upon the lowly steps by which he ascended the ladder of fame.
The foregoing statements of the incalculable value of our esteemed senator are not made without the absolute background of statistical information and undisputed acknowledgment of the gigantic powers he possesses, by thinking men and communities unbiased by personal pride or family attachment.
The nation’s biggest newspapers flaunt Senator Smoot as an outstanding prominent figure and motive power in national success.
Only recently did President Harding honor his ability and sagacity in his financial work in our government by proving to the people in an evening’s address the efficiency of the Finance Committee of which Senator Smoot is the inspirational advisor.
He was aptly termed by a foremost editor, “America’s Greatest Human Adding Machine.”
He has a vision of finances and the basic principles of national accumulation and disposition of wealth which few are so blessed in possessing.
Closely allied to his interesting work in the Committee of Finance Appropriation is Senator Smoot’s increasing effort in tariff adjustment. Even colleagues of Senator Smoot who disagree with him in the Republican policy of tariff for the protection and encouragement of American industries, admit that he is without a doubt the best informed member of the Senate on matters of tariff legislation and tariff application. It is with great skill and accuracy that Senator Smoot digests a vast amount of material fact dealing with the tariff system. Senator Smoot has never delved into the tariff problem without boldly considering the special needs of the west, whose interest he holds as a personal one. When sectional debates are poured forth in the Senate, Senator Smoot has ready his own convincing arguments for the benefit of his Rocky Mountain people and the upkeep and progress of their life sustaining industries.
It is often the case with the so-called big men that their public morals are in no way harmonious with the morals of their private life. Many have a twofold standard of honor. But Senator Smoot, when acting as a member of the Committee of Claims, insisted that the private sense of honor should be carried over bodily into the business of our government.
He instituted the rule, “Not to favor any claim against the government which does not possess such merit as would justify its payment in a private business transaction. No matter what the influence in favor of claims of another character, they were excluded: while just claims in many instances, those where the claimants had no powerful influence behind them, received the favorable consideration to which they were entitled.”
Another one of the many instances in Senator Smoot’s public career which shows native stability and keen ability was in his effecting a great economic reform at the time when he was acting as the chairman of Senate Committee on Printing, the Joint Senate and House Committee on Printing and the Joint Printing Investigation Committee. He succeeded in eliminating the waste of $400,000 to $500,000, per year, in the government printing division, yet not a competent, honest workman lost his job. For that type of economic retrenchment Senator Smoot should receive lasting appreciation from his countrymen.
Many states expressed openly opposition to his “Dry Farm Bill.” But later after witnessing the advantages accruing to Utah through her acceptance, asked that the provisions formerly declined be applied to them. The provision being that homesteading be permitted of three hundred and twenty acres of arid, non-irrigable, non-timbered, non-mineral land without the usual requirement of residence therein. It was only after effective argument that he won the approval of the majority of the Senate. Only a few years later, did the representatives of Utah’s neighbor states plead for like advantages, showing again a great foresight into beneficial means of progression for his western people.
In accordance with Senator Smoot’s ideal of justice and righteous compensation, many deserving Utah citizens have received remuneration for unstinted service and loyalty.
Senator Smoot as a member of the Committee on Pensions, took special interest in the very necessary care of the nation’s veteran defenders and their widows. He has since been instrumental in securing many improvements, in recent years in the pension laws. He made special effort which has resulted effectively in including The Walker Indian War Veterans and Veterans of later Indian Wars in Utah, under the pension service, even including the amount due plus that accumulated for previous years.
Senator Smoot believing firmly that no state can be progressive if a part of its population is denied opportunity for advancement, strove to improve and increase the Indian’s advantages in Utah by attending diligently to legislation which provided for necessary extensions of time for homesteading and community improvements in the Uintah District and also other districts in Utah designated for the Indian’s welfare.
Among the seeming unending list of Senator Smoot’s accomplishments during his activity in the Senate is his “Long and Short Haul Clause,” which contains so much of vital importance to the west. Capable and strong senators particularly those from the East opposed the clause vigorously; but by his thorough knowledge of western as well as eastern conditions, Senator Smoot was able to add through vigorous and convincing arguments, his clause to the railroad enactments.
Of notable effort was Senator Smoot’s Bill dealing with National Copyright Laws. Our national copyright laws had been in a very unsatisfactory condition but with his bill to amend and consolidate the acts respecting “copyright,” satisfactory results were achieved, however only after three years of his persistent labor. Public hearings were held over which Senator Smoot had charge. These were second only to those held on the tariff. Showing the indisputably happy situation resulting from his amendment, The Century Magazine commenting on the piece of legislation said, “By the soundness of its principles, and the adequacy of its remedies, it would be the law of the land for many years to come.” The “Musical Age,” J. J. Sulivan, chairman of the Copyright Committee of the International Typographical Union and many other prominent men commented favorably upon the splendid work on the Copyright Law.
Showing Senator Smoot’s versatility in legislative interests was the foremost position which he held in behalf of a judicious forestry policy for the nation. President Roosevelt, being thoroughly aware of each Senator’s ability, honored Senator Smoot with the chairmanship of the Section of Forests of the National Conservation Commission. Senator Smoot stood firmly against extravagant and extreme theories for forest preservation. He supplied intelligent and sane measures for our national forest conservation. The Colorado State Forestry Association designated his speech as “a masterpiece,” and declared “The friends of forest legislation owe you a debt of unbounded gratitude.”
Part of the Senator’s scheduled responsibility is his committee work. Proving the great confidence held in Senator Smoot in his long list of committee affiliations. Among the many a few are here listed: Chairman of Committee on Standard Weight and Measure, chairman of Joint Committee on Printing (House and Senate), chairman of the Committee on Public Lands, chairman of the Committee on Expenditures in the Interior Department, chairman of the Printing Investigation Committee. He has been appointed a member of the Committee on Pensions, Committee on Railroads, Committee on Finance, Committee on Appropriations, Committee on Civil Service and Retrenchment, Committee on Public Health and National Quarantine, Committee for University of the United States, Committee on Committees, member of Special Committee to Investigate High Cost of living and member of Joint Alaskan Commission. He was also chairman of the Forest Section of the National Conservation Commission appointed by President Roosevelt.
There is hardly any oilier action of Senator Smoot’s which deserves greater comment than his unstinted effort to give to the women of other states that privilege which those women of his own state so cherish, the Suffrage. Showing his national viewpoint he labored diligently for women’s suffrage for other states, not because of personal appreciation he would receive from Utahns but because of his desire to see a principle of right and justice firmly established in the United States.
In international relations Senator Smoot has shown his undivided, loyal and patriotic adherence to America’s interest based upon a magnificent faith in America’s ideals and material standards. Yet he has always evidenced a firm resolve toward the fair, honorable procedure with other nations, which all proves his own magnanimous spirit of right for right’s sake and justice to all.
Senator Smoot is held in great respect even by his opponents, partly because he has always exhibited somewhat of the spirituality which made Lincoln stand out for the higher things. Senator Smoot’s spontaneous prayer in the Senate on an occasion in which America was in distress was in itself indicative of his higher spiritual being. Feeling at the time that the human mind was insignificant in comparison to the Herculean task before it, he called on God to guide the leaders of our nation to peace and righteous adjustment. Through Senator Smoot’s training received early at the hands of a devoted mother, he has been able to withstand great temptations. His religious enthusiasm has been a motive power in his great successes and the basis of a great national confidence in him.
During Senator Smoot’s twenty years of devoted service to the will and needs of his people and our nation, he has always shown the courage of his convictions, great foresight into the material needs of our country, an honorable method of procedure, an unselfish consideration of his fellow countrymen and lasting faith in the glowing possibilities of the ideal Democratic Government.
To Senator Smoot the people of Utah especially, owe debts of appreciation and gratitude for his carrying the spirit of the mountain’s strength, the West’s standards of honor and high idealism into the halls of national accomplishments, with the white flag of honor and peace ever before his eyes.
Smoot, Reed. "Why I Am a Mormon." Young Woman's Journal. December 1926. pg. 780-784.
Why I am a Mormon[1]
By Senator Reed Smoot
An introduction by the editor of the Forum.
Some readers will be shocked to find included among our confessions of Christian creed that of the Mormons. To them the Mormons seem but a strange folk given over until lately to the pagan practice of an abhorrent polygamy borrowed from the followers of the Koran. Yet a creed that claims a half-million earnest Americans is surely worth a hearing. To the Mormon plural marriage seemed no more related to unchastity than it does to certain scientists who approve of it today. It was their patriotism, their recognition of the ethics of the social contract, that made them give up this custom and secure the admission of Utah, the state that their pioneer energy had developed, into the Union.
In fact, Mormon preachers today claim that their people are the most Spartan, the most ascetic of our American religionists. They point out that coffee, tea, and narcotics are forbidden in all Mormon homes. They need no Volstead Act. Tobacco is likewise banned. The Mormons of Salt Lake City exhibit the highest American municipal health statistics. Their venereal record in the World War was clean as a whistle. Their elimination of personal waste leads to savings and economic wealth, and like the Quakers and the Jews they produce outstanding captains of finance. One of these experts in national economy is spokesman for the Mormons in this issue of The Forum,—United States Senator Reed Smoot. The visitor to Salt Lake City is a little disturbed by the Mormon overemphasis on the material side of living. This hard practicality, however, is relieved by the beauty of the Tabernacle organ recitals and the legend of the miracle of sea gulls that saved the pioneer farmers of Utah.
The Mormon faith satisfies the craving of large numbers of Christians for continuous revelations from on high. They are not content with a Bible closed and sealed forever in the first century A. D. The Church of Rome has always recognized this craving, and the candles of St. Peter’s celebrated only a few months ago new saints lives added to authentic inspiration. The Mormons, for their part, claim one new revelation after an interval of eighteen hundred years. They are convinced that on September 21, 1823, the Angel Moroni delivered the plates of the Book of Mormon to their prophet Joseph Smith in Ontario County, New York. And their new books of the Bible are American; they deal with pre-Columbian Christianity among the Indians. The Mormons have rebuilt their Temple of Zion at an altitude of four thousand feet near the shores of the Great Salt Lake. In answer to our European critics we can put on the credit side of the American imagination two new religions, Christian Science and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
IN the first place, I was born one. My parents were among the early converts to the teachings
pf Joseph Smith, the founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- day Saints,—my father in Kentucky, his native state; my mother in far- off Norway. What is commonly known as Mormonism had no stauncher adherents than Abraham Owen Smoot and his wife, Anna Kerstina Morrison. That I should have imbibed, from infancy, in the home that sheltered them, the spirit of the religion for which either of them would have laid down life, if necessary, will occasion no surprise to the readers of this article. I was the third-born in the household, and Salt Lake City was my birthplace. Since ten years of age, however, I have resided in the town of Provo, fifty miles south of the Utah capital.
What education I received as a youth was in Mormon schools, notably the Brigham Young Academy at Provo, an institution that my father helped to found. I was one of twenty-nine students with which, in the autumn of 1876, it began its first term. I was then in my fifteenth year.
The founding of the Brigham Young Academy (now University), the parent of a flourishing school system entirely distinct from the public schools, and maintained by the Latter-day Saints at an annual cost of three quarters of a million dollars, was the outgrowth of a sentiment which demanded spiritual as well as mental and physical education for the children of the Mormon community. Joseph Smith was the author of such sayings as these:
“The glory of God is intelligence.” “It is impossible to be saved in ignorance.”
“Seek learning by study and also by faith.”
“Whatever principles of intelligence we attain to in this life will rise with us in the resurrection; and any man who, by his greater diligence acquires more knowledge than another, will have just that much advantage in the world to come.”
The Prophet was true to his principles. He established schools and championed the cause of education. A Mormon writer has said: “His educational ideals passed over the threshold of Time and strode down the halls of Eternity. With a full appreciation of the knowledge that makes men and women capable and skillful in his life, he prized and taught others to prize, above all, the knowledge that maketh wise unto salvation. How to make a living here, how to solve life’s everyday problems, was, of course, important; but how to grapple successfully with the mightier problems of the Great Hereafter, how to store up treasures in heaven and lay hold upon eternal life, was far more consequential. Education meant to him the leading out of all the latent potential powers of the individual, the training to perfection of every divine attribute in man, as the child of God and as a god himself, in embryo. He stood for the full and complete development of the soul, body, and spirit combined,—mental, physical, moral, and spiritual education, the education contemplated and inculcated by the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”
In the Brigham Young Academy were taught, along with the ordinary branches of learning, the doctrines of Christ’s Gospel. The Bible, the Book of Mormon, and other Church publications were among the text books of the institution. Prayer and testimony were required of the students, and the atmosphere of worship pervaded the class rooms. The result was that graduates from this school went forth from its portals firm in the faith, believers in God and in the principles of salvation, equipped not only for expert office work, and skilled labor of various kinds, but also for intelligent and efficient serv ice in the Church schools and mission fields. Being a graduate myself I shared in the advantages of such training; and this, without doubt is one reason why I am a Mormon. Incidentally I will remark that Utah, which is still overwhelmingly Mormon in population, ranks among the leading States of the Union, educationally.
But birth and early training art not the only causes of one’s conversion, if it be real and genuine. In my intercourse with the world I have had ample opportunity to come in contact with other religious systems and to compare them with my own If Mormonism is my preference over all, it is because it appeals to me as the most reasonable of all, the most soul-satisfying religion that 1 have encountered anywhere.
It teaches that man is literally the child of God, fashioned in His image, endowed with divine attributes, and capable, by education and development, of becoming like unto that glorious Being, in whose image or likeness all men are created.
It teaches that this earth, which is but one of millions like it, formed for similar purposes, was made, not out of nothing, as some theologians assert, but out of the eternal elements, spirit and matter, and that after it has filled the measure of its creation as a temporary abode, a place of probation for man, it will be converted into a celestial sphere, that the righteous may inherit it forever. Christ’s millennial reign is to sanctify the earth and prepare it for celestial glory.
Mormonism teaches that the glorified planets are God’s kingdoms, and that to each kingdom a law is given. Whosoever inherits any one of these kingdoms,—celestial, terrestrial, or telestial,—must abide by the law pertaining to that kingdom; all heavenly gifts, whether spiritual or temporal, being predicated upon the principle of obedience.
The Gospel plan, instituted by the Great Creator in the beginning, was designed for the promotion of the lesser intelligences in the midst of which He found Himself the most intelligent of all. This plan includes man’s fall and redemption, both of which were divinely preordained, and are steps in the march of eternal progression. The condition of this promotion,—this advancement of the pre-existent intelligences who become mortal men and women, is their obedience to the principles of the Gospel. They must have faith, must repent of their sins, must be baptized for the remission of sins, must receive the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands, and do all else that the Lord requires of them.
They who “kept the first estate,”—life in the spirit world,—are given a second estate, life on earth, where they demonstrate their worthiness or unworthiness of eternal glory. Satan and his legions, one-third of Heaven’s spirit host, kept not their first estate, and because of their rebellion were not permitted to take bodies, which are a means of eternal increase and exaltation; but two-thirds of that great family of spirits, for their faithfulness in the previous life, were or will yet be given fleshy tabernacles, thus becoming “living souls,” with opportunities for education in the midst of life’s vicissitudes.
All men are to be rewarded according to their works, as shown to John the Revelator in his great vision on Patmos. They who inherit celestial glory, the highest heavenly condition, which is comparable to the light of the sun, are they who receive the gospel in this life; also those who would receive it if the opportunity were offered. They can believe and repent in the spirit world, and receive baptism by proxy in temples erected on earth for that purpose. These are the valiant, who obey Christ in all things.
The inheritors of terrestrial glory are they who yield a partial, but not a full obedience to the divine commands. They receive not the gospel here, but afterwards receive it, and their glory is likened unto that of the moon. Telestial glory is for those who are cast down to hell, are there purged of their sins, and after paying their debt to Eternal Justice, are released from prison, to receive that for which they are fitted and prepared. They are as the twinkling stars, and are servants of the Most High, “but where God and Christ dwell they cannot come, worlds without end.”
All men will be saved except the sons of perdition, who have had every opportunity, not only for salvation, but for exaltation to the highest glory; and then have denied, trampled upon, and thrown it all away. These are the only ones who cannot be saved in some degree of Glory; and the reason why they are lost, is that they have sinned away die power of repentance, upon which all salvation is predicated.
These doctrines look reasonable to me. They are scriptural and consistent. They appeal to my sense of justice, of mercy, and of right. They measure up to the eternal fitness of things. I have never found anything better, in my researches for spiritual light, and because of this and my conviction that they are true, I am a Mormon.
My religion proclaims itself to be the Everlasting Gospel, framed in the heavens before this earth was formed, and revealed to man in a series of dispensations, of which the present one—the dispensation of the fulness of times,—is the greatest and the last. The Gospel’s restoration in this age is preliminary to the gathering of the scattered house of Israel, Zion in America and Jerusalem in Palestine being the places where they will assemble to meet their God and King, who is coming literally to reign upon the earth. The Gentiles, with their wealth and power, their steamships, railroads, and other means of rapid transit and communication, are taking part in this work, and will share in the benefits that flow from it. This age is destined to witness the consummation of God’s purposes in relation to this planet.
The movement known as Mormonism was made possible, humanly speaking, by the establishment of the Government of the United States, whose constitutional guarantee of religious liberty paved the way for the coming forth of this “marvelous work and wonder.” Such is the Mormon position.
The Latter-day Saints believe that they must be loyal to their country, honoring its laws, upholding its institutions, its constituted authorities, and doing all things that American citizens ought to do. They are taught that the Constitution of the United States was inspired of God and framed by wise men whom the Almighty raised up for this very purpose, and that it “should be maintained for the rights and protection of all flesh,” so that every man may act according to the moral agency which God has given him, that he “may be accountable for his own sins in the day of judgment.”
Believing this, they cannot be otherwise than loyal. They do not blame the Government of the United States for their past persecutions at the hands of lawless mobs. They realize that such things were not because of the Constitution and the Government, but in spite of them; and they stand ready at all times to honor the laws of this nation and to defend it against foes without or within. It is because I know this that I am a Mormon.
Indoctrinated from childhood in the principles of the Church to which I belong. I give my heart adherence to its Articles of Faith, as per xl and published by Joseph Smith, the Prophet. They are as follows:
1. We believe in God the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost.
2. We believe that men will be punished for their own sins, and not for Adam’s transgression.
3. We believe that through the Atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel.
4. We believe that the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel are: first, Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ: second. Repentance: third Baptism by immersion for the remission of sins: fourth. Laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost.
5. We believe that a man must be called of God, by prophecy, and by the laying on of hands, by those who are in authority, to preach the Gospel and administer in the ordinances thereof.
6. We believe in the same organization that existed in the Primitive Church, viz., apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, evangelists, etc.
7. We believe in the gift of tongues, prophecv, revelation, visions, healing, interpretation of tongues, etc.
8. We believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly; we also believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God.
9. We believe all that God has revealed, all that He does now reveal, and we believe that He will yet reveal many great and important things pertaining to the Kingdom of God.
10. We believe in the literal gathering of Israel and in the restoration of the Ten Tribes; that Zion will be built upon this (the American) continent; that Christ will reign personally upon the earth: and that the earth will be renewed and receive its paradisiacal glory.
11. We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how’, where, or what they may.
12. We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law.
13. We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men; indeed, we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul,—We believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured many things, and hope to be able to endure all things. If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things.
In conclusion, I am a Mormon because I have received a convincing testimony that Joseph Smith’s mission was of God; that he lived to do good and died a martyr; and that his successors, in building upon the foundation that he laid, are carrying out the will of God, with the welfare of all men in view.
[1] Copyright by The Forum; reprinted by permission.
Why I am a Mormon[1]
By Senator Reed Smoot
An introduction by the editor of the Forum.
Some readers will be shocked to find included among our confessions of Christian creed that of the Mormons. To them the Mormons seem but a strange folk given over until lately to the pagan practice of an abhorrent polygamy borrowed from the followers of the Koran. Yet a creed that claims a half-million earnest Americans is surely worth a hearing. To the Mormon plural marriage seemed no more related to unchastity than it does to certain scientists who approve of it today. It was their patriotism, their recognition of the ethics of the social contract, that made them give up this custom and secure the admission of Utah, the state that their pioneer energy had developed, into the Union.
In fact, Mormon preachers today claim that their people are the most Spartan, the most ascetic of our American religionists. They point out that coffee, tea, and narcotics are forbidden in all Mormon homes. They need no Volstead Act. Tobacco is likewise banned. The Mormons of Salt Lake City exhibit the highest American municipal health statistics. Their venereal record in the World War was clean as a whistle. Their elimination of personal waste leads to savings and economic wealth, and like the Quakers and the Jews they produce outstanding captains of finance. One of these experts in national economy is spokesman for the Mormons in this issue of The Forum,—United States Senator Reed Smoot. The visitor to Salt Lake City is a little disturbed by the Mormon overemphasis on the material side of living. This hard practicality, however, is relieved by the beauty of the Tabernacle organ recitals and the legend of the miracle of sea gulls that saved the pioneer farmers of Utah.
The Mormon faith satisfies the craving of large numbers of Christians for continuous revelations from on high. They are not content with a Bible closed and sealed forever in the first century A. D. The Church of Rome has always recognized this craving, and the candles of St. Peter’s celebrated only a few months ago new saints lives added to authentic inspiration. The Mormons, for their part, claim one new revelation after an interval of eighteen hundred years. They are convinced that on September 21, 1823, the Angel Moroni delivered the plates of the Book of Mormon to their prophet Joseph Smith in Ontario County, New York. And their new books of the Bible are American; they deal with pre-Columbian Christianity among the Indians. The Mormons have rebuilt their Temple of Zion at an altitude of four thousand feet near the shores of the Great Salt Lake. In answer to our European critics we can put on the credit side of the American imagination two new religions, Christian Science and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
IN the first place, I was born one. My parents were among the early converts to the teachings
pf Joseph Smith, the founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- day Saints,—my father in Kentucky, his native state; my mother in far- off Norway. What is commonly known as Mormonism had no stauncher adherents than Abraham Owen Smoot and his wife, Anna Kerstina Morrison. That I should have imbibed, from infancy, in the home that sheltered them, the spirit of the religion for which either of them would have laid down life, if necessary, will occasion no surprise to the readers of this article. I was the third-born in the household, and Salt Lake City was my birthplace. Since ten years of age, however, I have resided in the town of Provo, fifty miles south of the Utah capital.
What education I received as a youth was in Mormon schools, notably the Brigham Young Academy at Provo, an institution that my father helped to found. I was one of twenty-nine students with which, in the autumn of 1876, it began its first term. I was then in my fifteenth year.
The founding of the Brigham Young Academy (now University), the parent of a flourishing school system entirely distinct from the public schools, and maintained by the Latter-day Saints at an annual cost of three quarters of a million dollars, was the outgrowth of a sentiment which demanded spiritual as well as mental and physical education for the children of the Mormon community. Joseph Smith was the author of such sayings as these:
“The glory of God is intelligence.” “It is impossible to be saved in ignorance.”
“Seek learning by study and also by faith.”
“Whatever principles of intelligence we attain to in this life will rise with us in the resurrection; and any man who, by his greater diligence acquires more knowledge than another, will have just that much advantage in the world to come.”
The Prophet was true to his principles. He established schools and championed the cause of education. A Mormon writer has said: “His educational ideals passed over the threshold of Time and strode down the halls of Eternity. With a full appreciation of the knowledge that makes men and women capable and skillful in his life, he prized and taught others to prize, above all, the knowledge that maketh wise unto salvation. How to make a living here, how to solve life’s everyday problems, was, of course, important; but how to grapple successfully with the mightier problems of the Great Hereafter, how to store up treasures in heaven and lay hold upon eternal life, was far more consequential. Education meant to him the leading out of all the latent potential powers of the individual, the training to perfection of every divine attribute in man, as the child of God and as a god himself, in embryo. He stood for the full and complete development of the soul, body, and spirit combined,—mental, physical, moral, and spiritual education, the education contemplated and inculcated by the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”
In the Brigham Young Academy were taught, along with the ordinary branches of learning, the doctrines of Christ’s Gospel. The Bible, the Book of Mormon, and other Church publications were among the text books of the institution. Prayer and testimony were required of the students, and the atmosphere of worship pervaded the class rooms. The result was that graduates from this school went forth from its portals firm in the faith, believers in God and in the principles of salvation, equipped not only for expert office work, and skilled labor of various kinds, but also for intelligent and efficient serv ice in the Church schools and mission fields. Being a graduate myself I shared in the advantages of such training; and this, without doubt is one reason why I am a Mormon. Incidentally I will remark that Utah, which is still overwhelmingly Mormon in population, ranks among the leading States of the Union, educationally.
But birth and early training art not the only causes of one’s conversion, if it be real and genuine. In my intercourse with the world I have had ample opportunity to come in contact with other religious systems and to compare them with my own If Mormonism is my preference over all, it is because it appeals to me as the most reasonable of all, the most soul-satisfying religion that 1 have encountered anywhere.
It teaches that man is literally the child of God, fashioned in His image, endowed with divine attributes, and capable, by education and development, of becoming like unto that glorious Being, in whose image or likeness all men are created.
It teaches that this earth, which is but one of millions like it, formed for similar purposes, was made, not out of nothing, as some theologians assert, but out of the eternal elements, spirit and matter, and that after it has filled the measure of its creation as a temporary abode, a place of probation for man, it will be converted into a celestial sphere, that the righteous may inherit it forever. Christ’s millennial reign is to sanctify the earth and prepare it for celestial glory.
Mormonism teaches that the glorified planets are God’s kingdoms, and that to each kingdom a law is given. Whosoever inherits any one of these kingdoms,—celestial, terrestrial, or telestial,—must abide by the law pertaining to that kingdom; all heavenly gifts, whether spiritual or temporal, being predicated upon the principle of obedience.
The Gospel plan, instituted by the Great Creator in the beginning, was designed for the promotion of the lesser intelligences in the midst of which He found Himself the most intelligent of all. This plan includes man’s fall and redemption, both of which were divinely preordained, and are steps in the march of eternal progression. The condition of this promotion,—this advancement of the pre-existent intelligences who become mortal men and women, is their obedience to the principles of the Gospel. They must have faith, must repent of their sins, must be baptized for the remission of sins, must receive the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands, and do all else that the Lord requires of them.
They who “kept the first estate,”—life in the spirit world,—are given a second estate, life on earth, where they demonstrate their worthiness or unworthiness of eternal glory. Satan and his legions, one-third of Heaven’s spirit host, kept not their first estate, and because of their rebellion were not permitted to take bodies, which are a means of eternal increase and exaltation; but two-thirds of that great family of spirits, for their faithfulness in the previous life, were or will yet be given fleshy tabernacles, thus becoming “living souls,” with opportunities for education in the midst of life’s vicissitudes.
All men are to be rewarded according to their works, as shown to John the Revelator in his great vision on Patmos. They who inherit celestial glory, the highest heavenly condition, which is comparable to the light of the sun, are they who receive the gospel in this life; also those who would receive it if the opportunity were offered. They can believe and repent in the spirit world, and receive baptism by proxy in temples erected on earth for that purpose. These are the valiant, who obey Christ in all things.
The inheritors of terrestrial glory are they who yield a partial, but not a full obedience to the divine commands. They receive not the gospel here, but afterwards receive it, and their glory is likened unto that of the moon. Telestial glory is for those who are cast down to hell, are there purged of their sins, and after paying their debt to Eternal Justice, are released from prison, to receive that for which they are fitted and prepared. They are as the twinkling stars, and are servants of the Most High, “but where God and Christ dwell they cannot come, worlds without end.”
All men will be saved except the sons of perdition, who have had every opportunity, not only for salvation, but for exaltation to the highest glory; and then have denied, trampled upon, and thrown it all away. These are the only ones who cannot be saved in some degree of Glory; and the reason why they are lost, is that they have sinned away die power of repentance, upon which all salvation is predicated.
These doctrines look reasonable to me. They are scriptural and consistent. They appeal to my sense of justice, of mercy, and of right. They measure up to the eternal fitness of things. I have never found anything better, in my researches for spiritual light, and because of this and my conviction that they are true, I am a Mormon.
My religion proclaims itself to be the Everlasting Gospel, framed in the heavens before this earth was formed, and revealed to man in a series of dispensations, of which the present one—the dispensation of the fulness of times,—is the greatest and the last. The Gospel’s restoration in this age is preliminary to the gathering of the scattered house of Israel, Zion in America and Jerusalem in Palestine being the places where they will assemble to meet their God and King, who is coming literally to reign upon the earth. The Gentiles, with their wealth and power, their steamships, railroads, and other means of rapid transit and communication, are taking part in this work, and will share in the benefits that flow from it. This age is destined to witness the consummation of God’s purposes in relation to this planet.
The movement known as Mormonism was made possible, humanly speaking, by the establishment of the Government of the United States, whose constitutional guarantee of religious liberty paved the way for the coming forth of this “marvelous work and wonder.” Such is the Mormon position.
The Latter-day Saints believe that they must be loyal to their country, honoring its laws, upholding its institutions, its constituted authorities, and doing all things that American citizens ought to do. They are taught that the Constitution of the United States was inspired of God and framed by wise men whom the Almighty raised up for this very purpose, and that it “should be maintained for the rights and protection of all flesh,” so that every man may act according to the moral agency which God has given him, that he “may be accountable for his own sins in the day of judgment.”
Believing this, they cannot be otherwise than loyal. They do not blame the Government of the United States for their past persecutions at the hands of lawless mobs. They realize that such things were not because of the Constitution and the Government, but in spite of them; and they stand ready at all times to honor the laws of this nation and to defend it against foes without or within. It is because I know this that I am a Mormon.
Indoctrinated from childhood in the principles of the Church to which I belong. I give my heart adherence to its Articles of Faith, as per xl and published by Joseph Smith, the Prophet. They are as follows:
1. We believe in God the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost.
2. We believe that men will be punished for their own sins, and not for Adam’s transgression.
3. We believe that through the Atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel.
4. We believe that the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel are: first, Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ: second. Repentance: third Baptism by immersion for the remission of sins: fourth. Laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost.
5. We believe that a man must be called of God, by prophecy, and by the laying on of hands, by those who are in authority, to preach the Gospel and administer in the ordinances thereof.
6. We believe in the same organization that existed in the Primitive Church, viz., apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, evangelists, etc.
7. We believe in the gift of tongues, prophecv, revelation, visions, healing, interpretation of tongues, etc.
8. We believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly; we also believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God.
9. We believe all that God has revealed, all that He does now reveal, and we believe that He will yet reveal many great and important things pertaining to the Kingdom of God.
10. We believe in the literal gathering of Israel and in the restoration of the Ten Tribes; that Zion will be built upon this (the American) continent; that Christ will reign personally upon the earth: and that the earth will be renewed and receive its paradisiacal glory.
11. We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how’, where, or what they may.
12. We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law.
13. We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men; indeed, we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul,—We believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured many things, and hope to be able to endure all things. If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things.
In conclusion, I am a Mormon because I have received a convincing testimony that Joseph Smith’s mission was of God; that he lived to do good and died a martyr; and that his successors, in building upon the foundation that he laid, are carrying out the will of God, with the welfare of all men in view.
[1] Copyright by The Forum; reprinted by permission.
Hinckley, Bryant S. "Greatness in Men - Reed Smoot." Improvement Era. February 1932. pg. 201-203, 224-225.
Greatness in Men Reed Smoot By Bryant S. Hinckley, President of Liberty Stake Here is the story of a brand of heroism such as always fires the imagination of ambitious Americans who are proud of the fact that the trail is open to them from the "lowliest cabin to the stars". ONE of the most dramatic and picturesque events of the brave days of pioneering in Utah was the historic journey of three messengers from a camp one hundred miles East of Fort Laramie to Salt Lake City carrying the news of the coming of Johnston's Army. These messengers covered by team a distance of over five hundred miles in five days and three hours. They reached Salt Lake City on the night of July 23, 1857, only to learn that Governor Brigham Young and more than two thousand five hundred citizens were holding a memorable celebration in honor of the tenth anniversary of the advent of the saints into this valley. They were gathered at Brighton in the very tops of these eternal hills with the stars and stripes waving from the loftiest peaks. Hither went these weary and travel-worn messengers and conveyed to Governor Young their startling message. The spokesman and leader of these men was Abraham Owen Smoot, the Mayor of Salt Lake City, the future father of Reed Smoot. The senior Smoot came from the state of Kentucky and belonged to the aristocracy of the South, a man of rugged individualism and of great constructive ability. He properly belonged to that small company who will go down in history as the empire builders of America. THE senator's mother, Anna Krestine Morrison, came from far-off Norway. As a girl she joined the Church and at the age of eighteen years left her kindred and her native land and made the journey here alone, and walked from the Missouri River to Salt Lake City, pushing a hand cart. She was a woman of deep spirituality and great force and sweetness of character. The Senator, as is often the case, received his best inheritance from that source. His parents were both strong individuals of fine mettle and heroic mold. Thus Reed Smoot is the product of two great races, both composite in character and both famous for their sturdy quality and for the signal service which they have given to civilization and to mankind. His iron constitution, his tireless energy, his lofty self-confidence, his scorn for anything false or flabby, his grim determination to achieve his end, his noble self-discipline and the Puritanic practices of his life were all strongly manifest in his heroic mother. ON the 10th of January last, the Senator was seventy years of age. Ten years of his life were spent as a boy in Salt Lake City, thirty years in Provo as a student and business man, and thirty years in the United States Senate. As a boy he attended school and did the things that were common for boys to do in that day. In the summer time he herded cows on what was known then as “Tenth Ward Bench" — now one of the most beautiful residential sections of the city. We suppose no one thought when they saw this long-limbed, serious lad driving his cows up those unpaved streets that he would one day stand as a tribune of the common people of America in one of the greatest and most dignified legislative bodies in the world. Incidents like this admonish one to have both respect and consideration for boys, for in this land of opportunity, who can prophesy just where a few years will take an honest, industrious boy? Four years after going to Provo, he registered as one of the twenty-nine original students in the Brigham Young Academy (now University) which opened in April. 1876, under the direction of Dr. Karl G. Maeser. In 1879 he was graduated from that institution and at one time was the only student registered in the Academic department. Dr. Maeser was not only a very effective disciplinarian and a superior teacher but a rare technician in character building. Reed Smoot's contact with him and his attendance at that institution were significant, for they left forever their impress upon his life. Religious as well as secular instruction was given. His heart was touched with the expanding power of a radiant and conquering faith, a faith typified by vision plus valor, and this is the foundation upon which great men operate. From that day to this he has been one of the most ardent supporters and one of the most powerful friends his Alma Mater has ever had. FROM his very boyhood he showed a pronounced instinct for business. During his vacations and at intervals while attending school he worked in the Provo Woolen Mills, an institution founded by his father. With his characteristic diligence and his phenomenal capacity for mastering details he soon had a practical insight into all the departments of that institution. His first job after leaving school was indeed a humble one in the Provo Co-op where he was put to work in the cellar sorting potatoes, sacking fruit, and doing other menial jobs. Although a young man still in his teens, in less than eighteen months he became superintendent of the co-op and in four years resigned as superintendent to become manager of the woolen mills. His career as manager of these mills is interesting, if not spectacular, and gave early and convincing proof of his capacity as a business executive. As a young business man in Provo, everything he became connected with felt the vitalizing touch of a master hand. He was interested not only in merchandising and manufacturing, but in banking, real estate, stock raising, and mining. Very soon he was recognized as one of the foremost business men in Utah. Twenty- nine years ago, to be exact, on March 4, 1903, Reed Smoot first donned a senator's toga. Soon thereafter he fought one of the bitterest contests that ever was waged against an innocent man, and emerged without the smell of fire on his garments. His right to his seat in the Senate was challenged on the ground of his high position in the "Mormon" Church, his enemies assuming that the Church would subject him to its dictations. The opposition was largely political in motive and character. The New York Times, an independent Democratic paper, referring to it, said: "It is a mindless and bigoted crusade." It was clearly shown in the proceedings that he was under no oath or obligation, religious or otherwise, which could in any way conflict with his duty as a senator or as a citizen, and that he owed no allegiance to any organization which could in any manner abridge his fealty to his country. At the conclusion of this investigation, which was a long and bitter one and often marked by malignant and vindictive hate, some epoch making and historic speeches were delivered in the Senate on both sides of the case. Finally he was given his seat by a substantial majority. When the facts were made clear President Roosevelt did not hesitate to use his powerful influence in the Senator's behalf. None of the eighty-nine men who were there when he entered the Senate are there today—most of them have been gathered by the grim reaper. No man has brought to this high office a more enlightened and a more consecrated devotion to duty, and today no man stands higher in the councils of his party. DURING his time there have been some picturesque characters in the United States Senate and in public life in America. He has known most of them intimately and has enjoyed their unqualified confidence and esteem. It is interesting to recall that Arizona, New Mexico, and Oklahoma were still territories, that Theodore Roosevelt had been president only a year and a half when Reed Smoot became senator. He has served in the Senate during the Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, Woodrow Wilson, Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge, and Herbert Hoover, and in most cases he has been their confidential advisor. Among the notables who were in the Senate when he entered should be mentioned the powerful Aldrich, of Rhode Island, then chairman of the Finance Committee, the foremost committee in the Senate, which place is now held by Senator Smoot; Allison, of Iowa; Elkins, of West Virginia; Cullom, of Illinois; the venerable Senator Hoar, of Massachusetts; Hale, of Maine; the brilliant Spooner, of Wisconsin; the sagacious Penrose, of Pennsylvania; Fairbanks, of Indiana; Depew, of New York, the most captivating after-dinner speaker in America; Mark Hanna; Foraker; the scholarly Henry Cabot Lodge; the eloquent Beveridge, of Indiana; the wealthy senator from Montana, William A. Clark; "Pitchfork" Ben Tillman, from South Carolina; Morgan, of Alabama; Bailey, of Texas, and others— all brilliant and experienced legislators and statesmen of impressive stature—now figures of the past. REED SMOOT entered the Senate a comparative youngster without the ornaments of oratory or the advantages of classical training, a member of an unpopular church and a representative of a small western state. That body treated him with a little more than its usual indifference and assigned him an assortment of committees which seldom or never met — which in reality never functioned. No senator ever started more humbly and none has ever risen to positions of more influence or places of greater power. His rise has been steady and unspectacular. He is today the acknowledged business manager of the United States Government. The very qualities that took him out of the cellar and made him superintendent of the co-op, that took him from the dyeing vats and the carding machine and made him the outstanding manager of the woolen mills, took him from the most insignificant and unimportant committees of the United States Senate and made him chairman of the most influential and powerful committee in the political world. Intelligence, honesty, a strong mind, a sound body, unparalleled industry, an unquestioned fidelity to every trust committed to his hands, have been the common virtues which have made his career great. No young man of ability ever brought to life's problems these requisites and failed. We know of no man who preaches more constructively or practices more effectively the great gospel of work than he, and nowhere is there to be found a more shining example of the joy and conquests which come to those who are willing to pay the price in honest effort. It is the price of every worth while thing in the world. "While others orate he looks behind the pictures and under the rugs and back of the radiators in the federal government and he returns to the Senate floor with more knowledge of the federal government recesses and of their contents than any other senator has ever had in the Senate's whole history." FORTUNATELY "facts and figures are the wine of life to him. A table of statistics charms him like a romance. A graphic chart of business conditions holds all the beauty of a Rembrandt for him." With his mind committed to facts which need neither rhetoric nor eloquence for their presentation, he is not a man of many words and rarely speaks in the Senate; but when he does speak the senators listen to him. He has an understanding of governmental machinery, a directness of thinking, a rapidity and accuracy of movement which enables him to accomplish more with less effort than any other man in the Senate. He steps over the entangling webs of red tape and brings things to pass. His fidelity, his inexhaustible energy, his persistence, and his capacity for sifting facts, his breadth of view, his strength of purpose, coupled with his dynamic personality, make him a power among men. Reed Smoot is the calibre of man who must be reckoned with in any company. HE has not only fostered tenderly the Brigham Young University, which his pioneer father did so much to establish and maintain, but his position as senior senator and his long service in that august body have enabled him to assist more young men to secure technical and professional training than any other man in the state. We doubt if in all his splendid achievements there has been any other thing which has brought to him greater pride or more lasting satisfaction than this service. Hundreds of prosperous men owe their success to Reed Smoot. One's heart is touched with emotion on listening to the expressions of loyalty and gratitude which come from these strong men for the privileges which he made possible for them. He has a deep and settled faith in God, an unquestioned confidence in his Church and its people, a profound love for his Country and its institutions; an invincible and militant patriotism, a generous and sympathetic attitude toward war veterans and all who have sought their country's good. Back of a rather Puritanic exterior there is a warm heart and a tender soul, a helpful and solicitous attitude toward the unfortunate, a love for education and a real interest in the beautiful things of life. This state and this nation owes much to Reed Smoot. A GLIMPSE at the simplicity and purity of his home life reveals one of the fundamental secrets of his great success and one of the sources of his enduring influence. We are permitted to quote from a Washington newspaper of 1930: "Out of the hurly-burly at Washington comes a strain of old-fashioned music as strange and poignant as a bar of 'Home, Sweet Home' in a jazz concert. And from the last person you would expect to be articulate * * * the senior senator from Utah, Reed Smoot. "It renews your faith in American life and the American home, still sound and wholesome despite the divorce statistics and the booze overflow. 'I am drawing dividends on the life I have lived since boyhood,' says Senator Smoot at 68. 'I've never drunk liquor; I never was lazy. I've wronged nobody. “I was fortunate in marrying as perfect a young woman as ever lived. My children have had a marvelous mother, a superb homemaker.' * * * “That voices a naive pride in years well spent, a touching tribute to a wife now dead. It is the unstudied, rarely uttered thought of a plain American husband and father. There are millions like him. "Let no cynic scoff at this little glimpse into a typical American household, where honesty, decency, work and affection still are enshrined, purifying and transfiguring this poor mortal life into something that approaches the sublime." PERHAPS the major service of his life has been given to his country but mention should be made of his service to his Church. He has filled a foreign mission, served as a member of the Stake presidency of Utah Stake of Zion, and for thirty-two years has been a member of the Quorum of Twelve Apostles of the Church. The greatest vindication that Reed Smoot, or for that matter any other Latter-day Saint ever gave to this Church or this people, is the rectitude of his conduct—the moral grandeur of his life. He is a sagacious, hard-headed and eminently practical man; at the same time he is deeply religious. His religion moved him to invoke divine assistance for the speedy termination of the Great War in a prayer which he offered from his seat in the senate chamber. He said: "God bless and approve the action to be taken by the Senate this day. Oh, Father, preserve our government and hasten the day when liberty will be enjoyed by all the peoples of the earth. Amen." This instance is without parallel in the history of Congress. HE was married to Alpha M. Eldredge, daughter of Horace M. Eldredge, September 17, 1884, and has six children. She died November 7, 1928, and he was married to his present wife, Alice Taylor Sheets, July 2, 1930. He is tall, sinewy, and erect. Seventy years of the most taxing and strenuous work have left his health unimpaired and his vigor undiminished — a tribute to his manner of living. There is not an unsound spot in Reed Smoot's character; he is fearless, intrinsically honest, genuinely sincere, expressing his convictions with candor and without vindictiveness. |
Senator Reed Smoot and his first great grandchild.
Senate Office Building, Washington, D. C.
Senator Smoot and a group of friends on the golf links. Left to
right: Stephen Love, the late James H. Wattis, Pres. Heber J. Grant, the late Pres. C. W. Nibley and Senator Smoot. Senator and Mrs. Reed Smoot
|
"Apostle Reed Smoot." Improvement Era. April 1933. pg. 352.
Apostle Reed Smoot
FOR more than a quarter of a century Elder Reed Smoot, of the quorum of the Twelve Apostles, has been a member of the senate of the United States. During that period he has become known wherever civilized men meet and converse. In fact, his name has come to represent devotion to duty as he saw it, and to unceasing effort to change the world to harmonize with his ideas. For those characteristics he has been honored everywhere and his name has been a power in the world.
With this conference Elder Smoot returns to his people to give his life and his great powers to the welfare of the Church for which he has stood in season and out of season. Never, even when his connection with the Church seemed to mitigate against his success, has he attempted in any way to excuse himself publicly or privately for being a follower of the lowly Jesus and a believer in the mission of the unpopular Joseph Smith. His fearless stand has done much to allay prejudice against the Church and to bring it recognition as a power for good among men.
Now that his time will not be divided, between the Church and the Nation, both dear to his heart. Elder Smoot will undoubtedly be able to assist very materially in furthering the progress of his organization. His acquaintance with national and international affairs, his knowledge of the workings of political bodies, his understanding of the needs of humanity will all be of use in the Councils of the Church.
Though we have no way of knowing just how Elder Smoot's talents will be put to work, we feel certain that they will be used in a manner which will be pleasing to his people and to his brethren, the other authorities of the Church.
To Senator Smoot this conference will, indeed, be a home-coming. He will feel a welcome on every side; will be proud once more to take up his labors for the Church, knowing that he can give his undivided attention to them.
Thirty years ago he went away in honor to represent his state at the nation's capital when his people were unpopular; now he returns with honor after honor heaped upon his head and with the full knowledge that he has been true to his state and his people as well as to his nation, and with the added knowledge that he has been instrumental in giving his Church a hearing before the mighty.
Apostle Reed Smoot
FOR more than a quarter of a century Elder Reed Smoot, of the quorum of the Twelve Apostles, has been a member of the senate of the United States. During that period he has become known wherever civilized men meet and converse. In fact, his name has come to represent devotion to duty as he saw it, and to unceasing effort to change the world to harmonize with his ideas. For those characteristics he has been honored everywhere and his name has been a power in the world.
With this conference Elder Smoot returns to his people to give his life and his great powers to the welfare of the Church for which he has stood in season and out of season. Never, even when his connection with the Church seemed to mitigate against his success, has he attempted in any way to excuse himself publicly or privately for being a follower of the lowly Jesus and a believer in the mission of the unpopular Joseph Smith. His fearless stand has done much to allay prejudice against the Church and to bring it recognition as a power for good among men.
Now that his time will not be divided, between the Church and the Nation, both dear to his heart. Elder Smoot will undoubtedly be able to assist very materially in furthering the progress of his organization. His acquaintance with national and international affairs, his knowledge of the workings of political bodies, his understanding of the needs of humanity will all be of use in the Councils of the Church.
Though we have no way of knowing just how Elder Smoot's talents will be put to work, we feel certain that they will be used in a manner which will be pleasing to his people and to his brethren, the other authorities of the Church.
To Senator Smoot this conference will, indeed, be a home-coming. He will feel a welcome on every side; will be proud once more to take up his labors for the Church, knowing that he can give his undivided attention to them.
Thirty years ago he went away in honor to represent his state at the nation's capital when his people were unpopular; now he returns with honor after honor heaped upon his head and with the full knowledge that he has been true to his state and his people as well as to his nation, and with the added knowledge that he has been instrumental in giving his Church a hearing before the mighty.
"Elder Reed Smoot." Instructor. September 1934. pg. 388.
Elder Reed Smoot
Elder Reed Smoot, the subject of our cover picture, son of Abraham O. Smoot, second mayor of Salt Lake City, and Anna Krestine Morrison Smoot, was born in Salt Lake City, January 10, 1862. The first ten years of his life were spent in Salt Lake City. He attended day school the latter part of that time in the Twentieth Ward, Salt Lake City, under Dr. Karl G. Maeser. The Associate Editor of this magazine attended that school at the same time. Senator Smoot was one of the first twenty-nine students of the Brigham Young Academy (now University) of Provo.
After a successful business life, beginning with potato sorting and other humble occupations, he passed through successful periods as Superintendent of the Provo Co-operative Institution and the Provo Woolen Mills.
On March 4, 1903, Reed Smoot became a Senator of the United States, after the bitterest fight connected with Utah politics, and for thirty years served Utah in that capacity. From the most obscure assignments first given him he became Chairman of one of the most important committees of the United States Senate—that of Finance.
A staunch Republican, Senator Smoot went down in the great political tempest of 1932.
Elder Bryant S. Hinckley, in one paragraph of an article published in The Improvement Era of February, 1932, epitomizes the dominant characteristics of Senator Smoot as follows: "Intelligence, honesty, a strong mind, a strong body, unparalleled industry and unquestioned fidelity to every trust committed to his hands, have been the common virtues which have made his career great. No young man of ability ever brought to life's problems those three requisites and failed."
Apostle Smoot married Alpha M. Eldredge, daughter of Horace S. Eldredge, September 17, 1884, by whom he had six children. Mrs. Smoot died November 7, 1928, and on July 2, 1930, the Senator married Mrs. Alice Taylor Sheets.
The Instructor hopes that Brother and Sister Smoot may find more happiness and contentment in the spiritual activities of the Church than in the stormy surroundings of political life.
Elder Reed Smoot
Elder Reed Smoot, the subject of our cover picture, son of Abraham O. Smoot, second mayor of Salt Lake City, and Anna Krestine Morrison Smoot, was born in Salt Lake City, January 10, 1862. The first ten years of his life were spent in Salt Lake City. He attended day school the latter part of that time in the Twentieth Ward, Salt Lake City, under Dr. Karl G. Maeser. The Associate Editor of this magazine attended that school at the same time. Senator Smoot was one of the first twenty-nine students of the Brigham Young Academy (now University) of Provo.
After a successful business life, beginning with potato sorting and other humble occupations, he passed through successful periods as Superintendent of the Provo Co-operative Institution and the Provo Woolen Mills.
On March 4, 1903, Reed Smoot became a Senator of the United States, after the bitterest fight connected with Utah politics, and for thirty years served Utah in that capacity. From the most obscure assignments first given him he became Chairman of one of the most important committees of the United States Senate—that of Finance.
A staunch Republican, Senator Smoot went down in the great political tempest of 1932.
Elder Bryant S. Hinckley, in one paragraph of an article published in The Improvement Era of February, 1932, epitomizes the dominant characteristics of Senator Smoot as follows: "Intelligence, honesty, a strong mind, a strong body, unparalleled industry and unquestioned fidelity to every trust committed to his hands, have been the common virtues which have made his career great. No young man of ability ever brought to life's problems those three requisites and failed."
Apostle Smoot married Alpha M. Eldredge, daughter of Horace S. Eldredge, September 17, 1884, by whom he had six children. Mrs. Smoot died November 7, 1928, and on July 2, 1930, the Senator married Mrs. Alice Taylor Sheets.
The Instructor hopes that Brother and Sister Smoot may find more happiness and contentment in the spiritual activities of the Church than in the stormy surroundings of political life.
"Reed Smoot at Seventy-Five." Improvement Era. February 1937. pg. 69.
REED SMOOT AT SEVENTY-FIVE The Nation's Press pays tribute to his service and his life's philosophy. The Nation's press paid tribute to Reed Smoot, his record of service and his life's philosophy on the occasion of his seventy-fifth birthday anniversary, January 10, 1937. Concerning this distinguished statesman and churchman, the Associated Press commented as appears in column 3 in the reproduction from the Los Angeles Times of January 13, 1937. This story was carried by leading newspapers throughout the nation. Smoot Deplores Time Waste Former Utah Senator at 75 Says People Sleep Far Too Much SALT LAKE CITY, Jan. 12. (IP) Reed Smoot, thirty years a Senator and now exclusive church worker,' at the start of his seventy- fifth year today bemoaned a people who "sleep too much." "There are many who work but forty hours a week and sleep eight or nine hours a day," the former Senate dean charged. "That is deplorable waste of a most precious resource—time. SIX HOURS ENOUGH "A person in perfect health can work ten, twelve or even fourteen hours a day and thrive on not more than six hours of sleep." Smoot, who observed his seventy- fifth birthday Sunday, for most of his life has exercised the principles of "plenty of work and not too much sleep." During a long period as chairman of the Senate Finance Committee he often worked as many as twenty out of the twenty-four hours, he said. "But I'm getting old and I'm tapering off a little now," he smiled. Tall, white-haired and energetic, he could pass for a man of 60 years. ADVICE TO YOUNG For the nation's young men, Smoot suggested these principles: "Keep busy Keep bodily clean. Have high ideals. Remember that idleness is the devil's workshop. Eat plain foods. Avoid hot drinks. Never touch intoxicating liquors of any kind." |
Reed Smoot
|
Widtsoe, John A. "Reed Smoot and His Mother." Improvement Era. March 1941. pg. 138,186.
REED SMOOT AND HIS MOTHER By DR. JOHN A. WIDTSOE THE mother of Reed Smoot was converted to Mormonism when in her teens in her native Norway. She was twenty-nine years old when her son Reed was born. Between mother and son a most affectionate relationship developed. The vigorous, strong-willed lad was encouraged to enter into action or held in safe paths by the wise and loving mother. Reed Smoot spoke throughout his life, privately and publicly, of the counsel of his mother as a determining influence upon his life. To her he gave a full meed of praise for the achievements of his life. He often mentioned sadly an unfulfilled promise to his mother. She frequently relived with her boy the scenes of her girlhood. She described the cottage on the side of the hill, the barn, the cherry tree at the corner of the house, the flower-covered meadow in June, the lookout on the hill, and the early experiences of her life. He promised her that some day he would take her back for a visit to her girlhood home. Before that promise could be fulfilled, the mother passed from this life into the next. In the summer of 1923, Reed Smoot, then, among other appointments, Chairman of the Finance Committee of the United States Senate, visited Great Britain and the countries of continental Europe to perform important missions for the Nation and the Church. I was assigned to travel with him. During the several months of close companionship we naturally discussed many things, personal and impersonal. Seldom did a day pass that he did not speak of his mother in loving remembrance, and express the delight it would be to him, when we reached Norway, to visit his mother's girlhood home. At last we were in Oslo. A car was secured, and early in the morning we set out to travel to the Mouritzen homestead. It was a damp and foggy day; the lanes, rather than roads, were narrow and winding; but there was a clean beauty in the rolling hills and well-cultivated land that made the trip most enjoyable. In the middle of the forenoon we drove up the small valley between two hills toward Sister Smoot's ancestral home. There it stood, on the hillside, as described to the boy. "See," he exclaimed, "there is the cherry tree." It was an ancient tree with wide, spreading branches. He looked upward. "There is the lookout where mother dreamed her girlhood dreams of life." He was greatly pleased to recognize the things his mother had so vividly described. His cousin came out to greet us; tall and lean like his distinguished relative, they were clearly of the same blood. It soon developed that they were alike in temperament also. The prohibition question was then a live issue in Norway. The Norwegian cousin did not believe in prohibition; the American cousin did. I had to use much diplomacy as interpreter in softening the opinions from one to the other. Oh, yes, there was no doubt that they were two of a kind. After a walk over the little estate (the owner said with distinct pride, "When your mother lived here, this farm ran only two cows; I run six"), we had a most delightful meal. In the little living room on the center table lay a fine copy of the Bible, upwards of two hundred years old. printed beautifully on paper made to last long. A book lover, I looked through the Book with delight. On the flyleaf the original owner of the Book had written his name and date of his birth, then the name of the girl he married, and the date of the wedding, then the names and birth-dates of the children; and other pertinent information. In another hand came the story of the next owner, and so on down to the family now living on the farm. It was a quite complete Mouritzen genealogy, which was copied for Brother Smoot. I was about to return the Book to the table when in closing the covers I thought I saw writing on the blank pages at the end of the volume. Sure enough! there were two pages of writing in the old script formerly used in Scandinavia. Fortunately, I had learned to understand the old script in my earlier life in Europe, and read with joy the message there written. It was a message which Anna Kirstine Mouritzen, the mother of Reed Smoot, had written to her parents the evening before leaving her parental home for the unknown world. Her parents had practically cast her adrift because she would not renounce the new-found Gospel. I told Brother Smoot of the find. His eyes glowed. "Copy it for me," he said, which I did. When on the way back to Oslo, I translated it roughly; his emotions were deeply stirred. His tears flowed. There was little else spoken that afternoon. When we boarded the steamer on our return home, I handed him a written translation of the message. It seemed that for two days he carried it with him, reading and rereading it. There was no conversation between us then. He lived with his own thoughts. At the next General Conference of the Church he read the translation to the people assembled. Here it is. As for me, it was another witness of the power of a mother to shape the life of a son. May all mothers use their power for the making of wholesome men! A few words from your daughter Kirstine, Dear, my parents: Pray God for courage to accept this great truth contained in this book and now restored, so that rejected knowledge may not be a testimony against you on God's great day to come. I pray God that on that great day we may be able to gather together in joy and happiness, and that we may then be crowned to God's glory, and that He may say to us all: "Come now, my faithful children, you shall be rewarded for your labors." This matter and my desire that you may know the truth and accept it, have made me shed in secret many burning tears, and they have been increased when I have thought of the ungodliness of mankind. The years are speeding on; the day is approaching when all must listen to the Shepherd and render obedience to His will, or receive punishment. The great King is coming to reign and to rule. Sin and evil will be banished. May God grant that you may be among the worthy ones. My heart grows tender when I think of these things. God give that all mankind may repent. I shall pray to my Heavenly Father that all who read these lines may comprehend the true purpose of His holy book, and may lay down the burden of sin. That which I have written is for all who may read these lines. I pray God to lead you into eternal life. Kirstine Mauritz-datter, Drammen, Sept. 1, 1854. (Conference Report, October, 1923, p. 77) |
ANNA K. M. SMOOT
WHILE THIS OLD TINTYPE HAD NO NAME ON IT, FAMILY TRADITION ACCEPTS IT TO BE REED SMOOT AS A BABY, AND HIS YOUNG MOTHER, WHOSE ELDEST SON HE WAS. THE TINTYPE IS IN THE POSSESSION OF MRS.
CHLOE SMOOT CARDON, ELDEST DAUGHTER OF REED SMOOT. |
Evans, Richard L. "Reed Smoot, the Passing of a Great American." Improvement Era. March 1941. pg. 139, 179-180.
REED SMOOT
The PASSING OF A GREAT AMERICAN
By RICHARD L EVANS
Of the First Council of the Seventy
Sunday afternoon, February 9, Reed Smoot passed on to that life, the certainty of which he knew so well.
Death came in St. Petersburg, Florida. Radio flashed the news of his passing and the Nation knew that it had lost a great American. The Church knew that a man of God had started out upon a new career.
Having suffered for some weeks from the effects of a fall, which painfully injured his arm and shoulder, he had gone with his wife, Sister Alice T. Smoot, to St. Petersburg only shortly before, to rest and recuperate. Death came at the home of his stepson, Dr. Walter T. Sheets. The journey by train brought the mortal remains of this great man to Salt Lake City, Thursday morning, February 13.
From throughout the nation came expressions of sympathy and superlative praise. From the floor of the United States Senate tributes were read into the Congressional Record. The Utah Legislature, in regular session, passed resolutions of high praise. The nation's press, and Church, government, civic, and business leaders voiced their regard for a life of unusual service and distinction, and the funeral service in the Salt Lake Tabernacle at noon on Friday, February 14, was the scene for the voicing of many such tributes, as expressions from President Heber J. Grant, President J. Reuben Clark, Jr., President David O. McKay, Elder George Albert Smith of the Council of the Twelve, and Mr. E. O. Howard, President of Walker Bank and Trust Company, told of the character and work of this man who rose to high places iii Church and Nation. There followed the journey to the family burial ground in Provo, Utah, where old neighbors and townsmen of "Brother Smoot" added their sincere messages of regard.
No mere chronology of events can portray the essential greatness of a man, nor can the ever-widening effects of his service be calculated by any human agency, but until a better record is written and a better appraisal is handed down, we here recall, as gleaned from the press, from the funeral, and from family and friends, some of the milestones in a life which had entered upon its eightieth year on January 10, 1941— a month before his death.
Elder Smoot was born in Salt Lake City, January 10, 1862, the son of Abraham Owen and Anna Kirstine Mouritsen Smoot. His father, a native of Kentucky, was a Utah pioneer and was mayor of Salt Lake City and of Provo successively for several years.
At the age of ten, young Reed accompanied his parents to Provo, which thereafter he looked upon as home, though affairs of Church and State took him afar.
He attended elementary schools in Salt Lake before going to Provo, and attended the Timpanogos branch of the University of Deseret, which later became the Brigham Young Academy. He graduated from the academic department of that institution in 1879.
Business Career
From his boyhood, Reed Smoot determined to become a businessman. He gained an insight into the woollen milling business by working in every department of the Provo Woollen Mills, an institution founded by his father.
His achievements in this activity have been the subject of special mention by President Grant. His first position after leaving school was in the "Provo Co-op," where he did odd jobs. Less than eighteen months elapsed, however, before he was appointed superintendent of the institution in September, 1880.
Elder Smoot was one of the principal promoters of the Provo Commercial and Savings Bank, was its first president and remained active in it for many years, and did much to build Provo physically and commercially.
In addition to his activity in business in Utah County, he had served at various times as a director of the Z. C. M. I., Deseret Savings Bank & Trust Company, Deseret National Bank, Hotel Utah, Utah-Idaho Sugar Company, Utah Fuel Company, Beneficial Life, and other business enterprises.
Church Career
In 1890 Reed Smoot accepted a missionary call to the British Isles, where he labored for more than a year as bookkeeper and emigration clerk in the mission headquarters in Liverpool.
In April, 1895, he was appointed second counselor in the Utah Stake presidency, and served in that capacity for five years when he was called to be a member of the Council of the Twelve Apostles of the Church, and at the general conference held in Salt Lake, April 8, 1900, was sustained in that office by the membership of the Church.
Later, his candidacy for the United States Senate precipitated a national incident at Washington. Opponents of his election charged that when he became an Apostle of the Church he took an oath incompatible with the swearing of allegiance as a Senator to the national government. Cleared of these charges he was seated by a majority vote of the Senate after a veritable "baptism of fire," during what was known as the "Smoot Investigation."
On both sides of the Atlantic he was regarded as a leader of outstanding ability. Entertained by high governmental officials abroad as he went to Europe on special missions for the United States government, and hailed in the highest places of honor in American governmental circles, he exhibited rare ability in shaping the affairs of men and nations. Wherever he went he upheld with enthusiasm the standards and teachings of his people. He met with those of low and high estate, and consistently lived and taught the ideals of his religion.
Although away from the main body of the Church for most of the time during thirty years he always kept in close contact with the Church. He participated regularly in the affairs of the L. D. S. branch at Washington, and in all his travels at home or abroad mingled with the Saints as he met them. Much credit for the erection of the L. D. S. Washington chapel is due him.
At the graveside services in Provo, Bishop Walter Whitehead of Provo First Ward told how Senator Smoot, as a representative of the American government in London on a financial mission, nevertheless sought out the Saints and the missionaries in their humble quarters, and met with them in worship.
Since his return to Utah, following the conclusion of his final term in Washington, he has visited many of the stakes of the Church, holding conferences, and carrying on his duties as a member of the Council of the Twelve.
The Public Servant
The arduous and dramatic thirty years in the United States Senate constituted Reed Smoot's political career, that being the only public office to which he ever sought election. He was named United States Senator from Utah in January, 1903, and on March 4 of that year was sworn into office at Washington, to gain, during the next thirty years, national prominence as one of the senate's shrewdest financiers and statesmen.
When the U. S. Debt Funding Commission was created in 1922, he was chosen for membership in it, and rendered valuable service in protecting the interests of the citizens of this nation in the funding of foreign debts.
Senator Smoot was appointed chairman of the finance committee in 1924, and in this position rendered the nation some of the most valuable service given by any legislator. He guided the financial destinies of the nation therein during two presidential administrations, and received the plaudits of high officials in the government for his judicious decisions and intelligent deductions.
In addition to holding that chairmanship, he was the ranking member on the appropriations committee, the ranking member on the committee on public lands and surveys, a member of the public buildings and grounds committee, and the committee on rules, and committees on weights and measures, on claims, civil service, retrenchment, national conservation and many others. He also served on several commissions.
In his thirty years of service he made a reputation as a hard worker. He permitted himself little relaxation, and, while in the last few years he became interested in golf, he would go to the course between 4 and 5 a. m., play as many holes as possible until about 6:45 a. m., return to his home for breakfast, and be at his office usually about 7:45 a. m. He rarely let up even at the end of a lengthy day. Almost every night he took work home with him.
The climax of personal effort came with enactment of the Smoot-Hawley bill. In all the history of tariff legislation, no other man had ever undertaken to steer such a measure single-handed. Previously it had been the custom to apportion the task among several members of the finance committee, each being responsible for one schedule or section of a schedule.
The Smoot-Hawley tariff contained some 21,000 items. It had fifteen schedules, the free list, the special and administrative provisions. The committee listened to testimony from 1,232 witnesses.
While the bill was being prepared, Senator Smoot never missed a day at work. It was up to him to try to answer all the questions in the Senate. He stood at his desk almost all the time the bill was being considered.
He had to be constantly on guard, for opponents skilled in their knowledge of the tariff were ever trying to trap the Utahn. Rarely flustered, almost invariably ready with a concise answer, he amazed his colleagues.
When President Hoover affixed his signature to the tariff bill on June 17, 1930, marking conclusion of a job begun by the Senator on June 12, 1929, Senator Smoot was asked how he could explain the almost superhuman endurance he had shown.
"I have a right to demand such endurance," he replied simply. "I have lived in accordance with the principles of right living as taught by my religion. What endurance, be it physical or mental, that I have is due to a strict adherence to those principles."
Senator Smoot's effectiveness on the Senate floor, no less than in committee rooms, rested largely upon his ability to marshal facts, this in turn being the result of a determination to know all details of a subject. He went to original sources for these, refused to be satisfied with facts adduced in debate, and frequently confounded opponents with his summaries of information for or against a bill.
In 1932, when Senator Smoot ran unsuccessfully for a sixth term in the Senate, President Hoover told the people of Utah that Senator Smoot "knew more about the government than any other man."
Although he was only 41 when first elected, Senator Smoot found early favor with President Theodore Roosevelt. During the Taft administration Senator Smoot was one of the frequent counselors of the President, as was also true during the administration of Presidents Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover.
As the highest ranking senator at the beginning of the seventy-second congress, he was acknowledged "dean" and was the recipient of many other honors bestowed by members of all parties.
Few senators had served as long as Reed Smoot when he retired. Records show only one man exceeded him in point of service at that time. He was Senator Cabot Lodge of Massachusetts, who served thirty-one years.
His Family
The passing of Senator Smoot leaves his widow, Mrs. Alice T. Smoot; two daughters, Mrs. Chloe Cardon, Cincinnati, Ohio, and Mrs. Zella Hardy of Washington, D. C; three sons, Harold Smoot and Ernest Smoot of Washington and Harlowe E. Smoot, Provo, Utah; a stepdaughter, Mrs. J. W. Marriott of Washington, D. C, and a stepson, Dr. Sheets, a physician at the Bay Pines Veterans' Hospital in St. Petersburg; three brothers, Brigham Smoot of Pasadena, Cal., and H. A. and William Smoot of Provo, and five sisters, Mrs. Alice Smoot Newell and Mrs. Ida Smoot Dusenberry of Provo, Mrs. May Smoot Glazier of Los Angeles, Cal.; Mrs. Olive Smoot Bean of Teton, Idaho, and Mrs. Dorothy Smoot Pierpont of Berkeley, Cal.
Reed Smoot married Miss Alpha M. Eldredge of Salt Lake City, a daughter of General Horace S. Eldredge, in 1884, and she died in 1928. He married Mrs. Alice Taylor Sheets, the present Mrs. Smoot, in 1930.
At the graveside in Provo, Dr. John A. Widtsoe offered the dedication, and the Brigham Young University chorus and band sounded the last music.
And so the nation has lost a patriot and one of its most able statesmen; Utah has lost one of its most distinguished native sons, and the Church has lost one of its greatest missionaries— a missionary through his personal life and prestige and world influence. His memory and his good works will continue to live, as will also Reed Smoot in that abode which the Father of us all has prepared for those upon whose life and labors He can pronounce His approval.
REED SMOOT
The PASSING OF A GREAT AMERICAN
By RICHARD L EVANS
Of the First Council of the Seventy
Sunday afternoon, February 9, Reed Smoot passed on to that life, the certainty of which he knew so well.
Death came in St. Petersburg, Florida. Radio flashed the news of his passing and the Nation knew that it had lost a great American. The Church knew that a man of God had started out upon a new career.
Having suffered for some weeks from the effects of a fall, which painfully injured his arm and shoulder, he had gone with his wife, Sister Alice T. Smoot, to St. Petersburg only shortly before, to rest and recuperate. Death came at the home of his stepson, Dr. Walter T. Sheets. The journey by train brought the mortal remains of this great man to Salt Lake City, Thursday morning, February 13.
From throughout the nation came expressions of sympathy and superlative praise. From the floor of the United States Senate tributes were read into the Congressional Record. The Utah Legislature, in regular session, passed resolutions of high praise. The nation's press, and Church, government, civic, and business leaders voiced their regard for a life of unusual service and distinction, and the funeral service in the Salt Lake Tabernacle at noon on Friday, February 14, was the scene for the voicing of many such tributes, as expressions from President Heber J. Grant, President J. Reuben Clark, Jr., President David O. McKay, Elder George Albert Smith of the Council of the Twelve, and Mr. E. O. Howard, President of Walker Bank and Trust Company, told of the character and work of this man who rose to high places iii Church and Nation. There followed the journey to the family burial ground in Provo, Utah, where old neighbors and townsmen of "Brother Smoot" added their sincere messages of regard.
No mere chronology of events can portray the essential greatness of a man, nor can the ever-widening effects of his service be calculated by any human agency, but until a better record is written and a better appraisal is handed down, we here recall, as gleaned from the press, from the funeral, and from family and friends, some of the milestones in a life which had entered upon its eightieth year on January 10, 1941— a month before his death.
Elder Smoot was born in Salt Lake City, January 10, 1862, the son of Abraham Owen and Anna Kirstine Mouritsen Smoot. His father, a native of Kentucky, was a Utah pioneer and was mayor of Salt Lake City and of Provo successively for several years.
At the age of ten, young Reed accompanied his parents to Provo, which thereafter he looked upon as home, though affairs of Church and State took him afar.
He attended elementary schools in Salt Lake before going to Provo, and attended the Timpanogos branch of the University of Deseret, which later became the Brigham Young Academy. He graduated from the academic department of that institution in 1879.
Business Career
From his boyhood, Reed Smoot determined to become a businessman. He gained an insight into the woollen milling business by working in every department of the Provo Woollen Mills, an institution founded by his father.
His achievements in this activity have been the subject of special mention by President Grant. His first position after leaving school was in the "Provo Co-op," where he did odd jobs. Less than eighteen months elapsed, however, before he was appointed superintendent of the institution in September, 1880.
Elder Smoot was one of the principal promoters of the Provo Commercial and Savings Bank, was its first president and remained active in it for many years, and did much to build Provo physically and commercially.
In addition to his activity in business in Utah County, he had served at various times as a director of the Z. C. M. I., Deseret Savings Bank & Trust Company, Deseret National Bank, Hotel Utah, Utah-Idaho Sugar Company, Utah Fuel Company, Beneficial Life, and other business enterprises.
Church Career
In 1890 Reed Smoot accepted a missionary call to the British Isles, where he labored for more than a year as bookkeeper and emigration clerk in the mission headquarters in Liverpool.
In April, 1895, he was appointed second counselor in the Utah Stake presidency, and served in that capacity for five years when he was called to be a member of the Council of the Twelve Apostles of the Church, and at the general conference held in Salt Lake, April 8, 1900, was sustained in that office by the membership of the Church.
Later, his candidacy for the United States Senate precipitated a national incident at Washington. Opponents of his election charged that when he became an Apostle of the Church he took an oath incompatible with the swearing of allegiance as a Senator to the national government. Cleared of these charges he was seated by a majority vote of the Senate after a veritable "baptism of fire," during what was known as the "Smoot Investigation."
On both sides of the Atlantic he was regarded as a leader of outstanding ability. Entertained by high governmental officials abroad as he went to Europe on special missions for the United States government, and hailed in the highest places of honor in American governmental circles, he exhibited rare ability in shaping the affairs of men and nations. Wherever he went he upheld with enthusiasm the standards and teachings of his people. He met with those of low and high estate, and consistently lived and taught the ideals of his religion.
Although away from the main body of the Church for most of the time during thirty years he always kept in close contact with the Church. He participated regularly in the affairs of the L. D. S. branch at Washington, and in all his travels at home or abroad mingled with the Saints as he met them. Much credit for the erection of the L. D. S. Washington chapel is due him.
At the graveside services in Provo, Bishop Walter Whitehead of Provo First Ward told how Senator Smoot, as a representative of the American government in London on a financial mission, nevertheless sought out the Saints and the missionaries in their humble quarters, and met with them in worship.
Since his return to Utah, following the conclusion of his final term in Washington, he has visited many of the stakes of the Church, holding conferences, and carrying on his duties as a member of the Council of the Twelve.
The Public Servant
The arduous and dramatic thirty years in the United States Senate constituted Reed Smoot's political career, that being the only public office to which he ever sought election. He was named United States Senator from Utah in January, 1903, and on March 4 of that year was sworn into office at Washington, to gain, during the next thirty years, national prominence as one of the senate's shrewdest financiers and statesmen.
When the U. S. Debt Funding Commission was created in 1922, he was chosen for membership in it, and rendered valuable service in protecting the interests of the citizens of this nation in the funding of foreign debts.
Senator Smoot was appointed chairman of the finance committee in 1924, and in this position rendered the nation some of the most valuable service given by any legislator. He guided the financial destinies of the nation therein during two presidential administrations, and received the plaudits of high officials in the government for his judicious decisions and intelligent deductions.
In addition to holding that chairmanship, he was the ranking member on the appropriations committee, the ranking member on the committee on public lands and surveys, a member of the public buildings and grounds committee, and the committee on rules, and committees on weights and measures, on claims, civil service, retrenchment, national conservation and many others. He also served on several commissions.
In his thirty years of service he made a reputation as a hard worker. He permitted himself little relaxation, and, while in the last few years he became interested in golf, he would go to the course between 4 and 5 a. m., play as many holes as possible until about 6:45 a. m., return to his home for breakfast, and be at his office usually about 7:45 a. m. He rarely let up even at the end of a lengthy day. Almost every night he took work home with him.
The climax of personal effort came with enactment of the Smoot-Hawley bill. In all the history of tariff legislation, no other man had ever undertaken to steer such a measure single-handed. Previously it had been the custom to apportion the task among several members of the finance committee, each being responsible for one schedule or section of a schedule.
The Smoot-Hawley tariff contained some 21,000 items. It had fifteen schedules, the free list, the special and administrative provisions. The committee listened to testimony from 1,232 witnesses.
While the bill was being prepared, Senator Smoot never missed a day at work. It was up to him to try to answer all the questions in the Senate. He stood at his desk almost all the time the bill was being considered.
He had to be constantly on guard, for opponents skilled in their knowledge of the tariff were ever trying to trap the Utahn. Rarely flustered, almost invariably ready with a concise answer, he amazed his colleagues.
When President Hoover affixed his signature to the tariff bill on June 17, 1930, marking conclusion of a job begun by the Senator on June 12, 1929, Senator Smoot was asked how he could explain the almost superhuman endurance he had shown.
"I have a right to demand such endurance," he replied simply. "I have lived in accordance with the principles of right living as taught by my religion. What endurance, be it physical or mental, that I have is due to a strict adherence to those principles."
Senator Smoot's effectiveness on the Senate floor, no less than in committee rooms, rested largely upon his ability to marshal facts, this in turn being the result of a determination to know all details of a subject. He went to original sources for these, refused to be satisfied with facts adduced in debate, and frequently confounded opponents with his summaries of information for or against a bill.
In 1932, when Senator Smoot ran unsuccessfully for a sixth term in the Senate, President Hoover told the people of Utah that Senator Smoot "knew more about the government than any other man."
Although he was only 41 when first elected, Senator Smoot found early favor with President Theodore Roosevelt. During the Taft administration Senator Smoot was one of the frequent counselors of the President, as was also true during the administration of Presidents Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover.
As the highest ranking senator at the beginning of the seventy-second congress, he was acknowledged "dean" and was the recipient of many other honors bestowed by members of all parties.
Few senators had served as long as Reed Smoot when he retired. Records show only one man exceeded him in point of service at that time. He was Senator Cabot Lodge of Massachusetts, who served thirty-one years.
His Family
The passing of Senator Smoot leaves his widow, Mrs. Alice T. Smoot; two daughters, Mrs. Chloe Cardon, Cincinnati, Ohio, and Mrs. Zella Hardy of Washington, D. C; three sons, Harold Smoot and Ernest Smoot of Washington and Harlowe E. Smoot, Provo, Utah; a stepdaughter, Mrs. J. W. Marriott of Washington, D. C, and a stepson, Dr. Sheets, a physician at the Bay Pines Veterans' Hospital in St. Petersburg; three brothers, Brigham Smoot of Pasadena, Cal., and H. A. and William Smoot of Provo, and five sisters, Mrs. Alice Smoot Newell and Mrs. Ida Smoot Dusenberry of Provo, Mrs. May Smoot Glazier of Los Angeles, Cal.; Mrs. Olive Smoot Bean of Teton, Idaho, and Mrs. Dorothy Smoot Pierpont of Berkeley, Cal.
Reed Smoot married Miss Alpha M. Eldredge of Salt Lake City, a daughter of General Horace S. Eldredge, in 1884, and she died in 1928. He married Mrs. Alice Taylor Sheets, the present Mrs. Smoot, in 1930.
At the graveside in Provo, Dr. John A. Widtsoe offered the dedication, and the Brigham Young University chorus and band sounded the last music.
And so the nation has lost a patriot and one of its most able statesmen; Utah has lost one of its most distinguished native sons, and the Church has lost one of its greatest missionaries— a missionary through his personal life and prestige and world influence. His memory and his good works will continue to live, as will also Reed Smoot in that abode which the Father of us all has prepared for those upon whose life and labors He can pronounce His approval.
"Reed Smoot." Improvement Era. March 1941. pg. 160.
Reed Smoot
Reed Smoot was the duly elected senator from Utah. His right to take his seat was challenged by a shameless hate of the Church to which he belonged. The investigation of his fitness was under the limelight of a nation's scrutiny. He emerged, a man clean in all phases of life. He won the battle, and was seated by a majority, but not a unanimous vote. He was now a senator of the great republic, but he was looked upon with some distrust by many, even among his colleagues. He was alone.
Sunday came. He asked all of his faith to join him in worship in his living-room. He did not forget his obligations as a member and Apostle of the Church of Jesus Christ. The congregation consisted chiefly of himself, Congressman Joseph Howell, and their families. Sunday after Sunday the little group met in faith and prayer. The week was made happier by their approach to God.
Then he set to work. By natural endowment he was a business man, orderly, precise, accurate, and thrifty. The Sisterhood of States would profit if its many transactions were subjected to business methods, so he thought. To that end he toiled for thirty years. But always on the Sabbath he met with the flock in worship.
Then a miracle gradually developed. The almost discredited senator from Utah became recognized as a statesman of acknowledged power. Presidents, colleagues, and men everywhere turned to him for help. His honor was known to be as granite. His knowledge of governmental affairs was encyclopedic. He rendered stupendous service to his country. His influence was second to none. His fame crossed the ocean. In all civilized lands his name was known—the great American senator. But always he sought the Lord for help; and on Sundays he sat with the growing congregation in worship.
Thus, with the years, hate of his Church was changed into respect. Those who had maligned him, and offended truth in their opposition, became the discredited ones. When countries closed their doors against "Mormon" missionaries, he called on the kings and leaders, and the doors were opened. When enemies poisoned the British mind with anti-Mormon drivel in the newspapers, it was Reed Smoot who secured a gentleman's agreement under which anti-Mormon articles have seldom appeared in the British press during the last seventeen years. He became in this sense, and in fact, the foremost missionary of the Church. He still continued his humble prayers every day, and his formal worship on Sunday. The assemblage no longer met in his home; a larger hall was required.
How his heart must have warmed as honors came to him, and the worshipping group ran into hundreds, and, in the vicinity, into thousands! He knew that the Lord had heard his prayers. He did much to beautify Washington, and he dreamed of a Church building there, befitting the Capitol of the Nation. In time it arose, and stands in beautiful stone, a monument to the integrity of the Church and to the service of Reed Smoot.
His life and labors in Washington are but the story of his every activity, before and after his senatorship.
He was one of a generation, in capacity, opportunity, and service. His figure will loom larger with the passing years. The history of America and of the Latter-day Saints must of necessity include the story of the achievements of Reed Smoot.
He was true to his convictions, loyal to his friends, a lover of all mankind, an acceptable servant of God—blessed be his memory!—J. A. W.
Reed Smoot
Reed Smoot was the duly elected senator from Utah. His right to take his seat was challenged by a shameless hate of the Church to which he belonged. The investigation of his fitness was under the limelight of a nation's scrutiny. He emerged, a man clean in all phases of life. He won the battle, and was seated by a majority, but not a unanimous vote. He was now a senator of the great republic, but he was looked upon with some distrust by many, even among his colleagues. He was alone.
Sunday came. He asked all of his faith to join him in worship in his living-room. He did not forget his obligations as a member and Apostle of the Church of Jesus Christ. The congregation consisted chiefly of himself, Congressman Joseph Howell, and their families. Sunday after Sunday the little group met in faith and prayer. The week was made happier by their approach to God.
Then he set to work. By natural endowment he was a business man, orderly, precise, accurate, and thrifty. The Sisterhood of States would profit if its many transactions were subjected to business methods, so he thought. To that end he toiled for thirty years. But always on the Sabbath he met with the flock in worship.
Then a miracle gradually developed. The almost discredited senator from Utah became recognized as a statesman of acknowledged power. Presidents, colleagues, and men everywhere turned to him for help. His honor was known to be as granite. His knowledge of governmental affairs was encyclopedic. He rendered stupendous service to his country. His influence was second to none. His fame crossed the ocean. In all civilized lands his name was known—the great American senator. But always he sought the Lord for help; and on Sundays he sat with the growing congregation in worship.
Thus, with the years, hate of his Church was changed into respect. Those who had maligned him, and offended truth in their opposition, became the discredited ones. When countries closed their doors against "Mormon" missionaries, he called on the kings and leaders, and the doors were opened. When enemies poisoned the British mind with anti-Mormon drivel in the newspapers, it was Reed Smoot who secured a gentleman's agreement under which anti-Mormon articles have seldom appeared in the British press during the last seventeen years. He became in this sense, and in fact, the foremost missionary of the Church. He still continued his humble prayers every day, and his formal worship on Sunday. The assemblage no longer met in his home; a larger hall was required.
How his heart must have warmed as honors came to him, and the worshipping group ran into hundreds, and, in the vicinity, into thousands! He knew that the Lord had heard his prayers. He did much to beautify Washington, and he dreamed of a Church building there, befitting the Capitol of the Nation. In time it arose, and stands in beautiful stone, a monument to the integrity of the Church and to the service of Reed Smoot.
His life and labors in Washington are but the story of his every activity, before and after his senatorship.
He was one of a generation, in capacity, opportunity, and service. His figure will loom larger with the passing years. The history of America and of the Latter-day Saints must of necessity include the story of the achievements of Reed Smoot.
He was true to his convictions, loyal to his friends, a lover of all mankind, an acceptable servant of God—blessed be his memory!—J. A. W.
"On the Passing of Elder Reed Smoot." Instructor. March 1941. pg. 118.
ON THE PASSING OF ELDER REED SMOOT Reed Smoot was a unique character in American contemporary life. He was a statesman and an apostle at the same time. Under certain conditions this is an advantage. A politician, surrounded by men who want things from the government, needs something to keep him in the line of his duty. He may not need to be a high ecclesiast, but certainly he needs, more than most people, to be deeply religious. The apostle Smoot was that. One of the things he believed in profoundly was the power of prayer. It was a favorite theme with him during the last few years of his life. A reference to his recent Conference addresses will reveal the fact that his mind was much occupied with the need for a prayerful heart, the power there is in prayer, and the happiness that can come through prayer. In the United States Senate, at the time this body of legislators was discussing whether the government should enter the World War (No. 1), he surprised the members of the Senate and the public generally by uttering a prayer when the discussion was at its most exciting point. It was a prayer that our entrance into the conflict might tend to increase the spirit of human freedom among men and that more nations might be granted their liberty. Senator Smoot, when he entered upon his duties in Congress, was a lonely man. Petitions with millions of protesting names on it, had reached the Senate. Feelings against him ran high in every part of the country. Then came that prolonged trial, the outcome of which none could guess, so angrily did his opponents dig into the history, teachings, and present conditions of the Church. In those days, as he himself sometimes said in certain groups, he used to go to the zoos in Washington and commune with the caged animals. They, at least, if not his friends, were not his enemies. Gradually, however, his Christian life and conduct made itself felt in an ever-widening circle, till, in the end, after thirty years, he was one of the most respected members of the Senate. He was a deeply religious man engaged in the conduct of governmental business. In his early life Elder Smoot was a Sunday School worker; and later he fostered the cause in Washington, the early meetings being held in his home there; and so our deep sympathy goes out to his family, on his passing. |
Apostle Reed Smoot
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Hinckley, Bryant S. "Elder Reed Smoot." Relief Society Magazine. March 1941. pg. 153-154.
Elder Reed Smoot Elder Bryant S. Hinckley ON Friday, February 14, 1941, the leaders of the Church and the high officials of the State of Utah and the City of Salt Lake joined the public in paying tribute to Apostle Reed Smoot, who died in St. Petersburg, Florida, Sunday, February 9. Services were held in the great Tabernacle in Salt Lake City and at the graveside in Provo, his native city. Senator Smoot was no ordinary man. He was great in intellect, in character, and in his capacity to work. At the age of forty-one, he had accumulated a fortune, had been chosen an Apostle—one of the most exalted callings in the Church —and had been elected to the United States Senate—one of the highest and most dignified legislative bodies in the world. These are all major accomplishments. Thus he distinguished himself in three important fields of human endeavor—religion, politics and business. He had neither a classical training nor the ornaments of oratory, both of which, in that day, were regarded as prerequisites for distinction in the Senate of the United States and as a high public official of the Church. Only two of the fifteen men, including himself, who were Apostles at the time he was chosen, survive him—President Heber J. Grant and President Rudger Clawson. All of the eighty-nine men who were in the Senate of the United States when he became a member of that august body are now figures of the past. It is interesting to recall that at the time he was elected to the Senate, Arizona, New Mexico, and Oklahoma were still territories. He served in the Senate during the presidencies of Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, Woodrow Wilson, Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge, and Herbert Hoover, and he was the confidential adviser of most of these Presidents. He descended from a strong ancestry. His mother, Anna Kirstine Mouritzen Smoot, came from Norway. At the age of 18, she joined the Church, left her kindred and her native land and came to Utah, walking from the Missouri River to Salt Lake City, a distance of more than one thousand miles, and pushed a handcart all the way. That required both strength of will and great physical endurance. She was a woman of deep spirituality, of rare strength and sweetness of character. The Senator on many occasions has paid public tribute to his mother, to whom he felt greatly indebted for his achievements. His father, Abram O. Smoot, second Mayor of Salt Lake City, came from Kentucky. He belonged to the aristocracy of the South. Abram O. Smoot was a stalwart among the great pioneers and colonizers of his day. Senator Smoot had much to be proud of. At thirty years of age, he was the outstanding personality in Provo and was recognized as one of the leading business men of the State of Utah. Every enterprise he engaged in, and every institution with which he was associated, felt the vitalizing touch of a master hand. He had the rare ability to bring things to pass, to cut red tape, to move with a directness and precision toward his end, and to accomplish it. Reed Smoot became recognized as the Dean of the Senate and was acknowledged as the best informed man in the United States on the affairs of this Government. All who knew him knew that he was a Mormon and respected him and his religion. There were no reservations about his loyalty to his country, his allegiance to his Church, and his fidelity to his God. He was sound to the very center; there was no semblance of sham, pretense or insincerity about him. His rise to eminence was neither spectacular nor miraculous. He won his way in the world by the sheer force of his character, his dynamic personality, his tireless industry, and his integrity. Senator Smoot's phenomenal capacity to gather facts, marshall them, weigh them, and act upon them, challenged the admiration of all who knew him, and won for him a proud place among the workers of the world. He was keenly aggressive, but affable and obliging; easily accessible, but always attentive to business. He has written his name indelibly into the history of his country and has honored his exalted calling in the Church. Peace to his memory; the world seems lonesome without him. |
ELDER REED SMOOT
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Albright, Horace M. "A Tribute to Senator Reed Smoot." Improvement Era. February 1942. pg. 89, 122.
A Tribute to SENATOR REED SMOOT By HORACE M. ALBRIGHT President of the American Planning and Civic Association From the Magazine, Planning and Civic Comment. In the twenty-fifth year of the life of the National Park Service, one of the men who framed the legislation establishing this great bureau of the Department of the Interior, died. He was former United States Senator Reed Smoot of Utah, a man of tremendous activity in Congress who was responsible for progress in several important fields of legislation including conservation. His work as chairman of the Senate committee on finance brought him into prominence as the author of tariff and other revenue measures. Earlier he had been chairman of the committee on public lands and surveys and had actively supported important programs relating to the classification, disposition, and use of public lands. No man in Congress during his time was more intimately familiar with the problems of the western states than Senator Smoot, and no other senator worked more unselfishly, more earnestly or more efficiently than he did in the thirty years he represented his native state in Congress. When Senator Smoot died in St. Petersburg, Florida, on February 9, 1941, his public services were reviewed, the country over, in newspapers and magazines but only in general terms because of the wide variety of his interests and the broad scope of his legislative achievements. There was not enough space for the details even of a few of his outstanding accomplishments. His work for conservation was scarcely mentioned. It was in the administration of President Taft that Dr. J. Horace McFarland, president of the American Civic Association, made the establishment of a bureau to administer the national parks and monuments the prime objective of that organization, and among the men who at once pledged their whole-hearted support to the association's program were Senator Reed Smoot and Congressman John E. Raker of California. These two men introduced the first bills to establish the National Park Service and while their original measures were not enacted into law, they continued to promote their bills year after year until Franklin K. Lane, secretary of the interior, his assistant, Stephen T. Mather, and other associates, collaborated with them in building nationwide support powerful enough to secure favorable action of the Congress. While the final bill that received the approval of the Congress was introduced by Congressman William Kent of California to meet a peculiar type of opposition unrelated to the objective of the legislation, his bill was but a revision of the Smoot-Raker draft and both Senator Smoot and Mr. Raker worked closely with Mr. Kent in the passage of the final measure which President Woodrow Wilson signed on the night of August 25, 1916. Senator Smoot piloted the bill through the upper house and with the chairman of the Senate public lands committee, Senator Henry L. Meyers of Montana, negotiated a favorable settlement of differences between the two Houses bringing in a conference report that won prompt approval of both. So it must always be remembered that Senator Smoot was a joint author of the National Park Service organic act. While the National Park Service bill was pending in Congress, Senator Smoot called attention to the features of the Zion Canyon area of southern Utah, then embraced in the Mukuntuweap National Monument, set apart from the public domain by President Taft on July 31, 1909. He urged that something be done about the road through the canyon and asked that an estimate be sent to the Congress requesting funds for its improvement. This was done and through the Senator's support, $15,000 was appropriated. With this fund the road was rebuilt and made available for tourists in 1917. A study made later in 1917 by the acting director of the National Park Service thoroughly corroborated Senator Smoot's estimate of the scenic values of Zion Canyon and the tributary gorges and surrounding mountains and forests. Plans were developed for a change in status of the Mukuntuweap Monument to that of a national park. With the aid of the Senator and high Utah state officials the boundaries of the proposed park were carefully drawn to include an area very much larger than the existing monument, and to simplify the legislative procedure it was recommended to the president by the Secretary of the Interior that he issue a new proclamation enlarging the monument to the new boundaries and changing the name to Zion National Monument, after which the senator would endeavor to secure legislation changing the monument to the status of a national park. This project in all its phases was carried out and the Smoot bill creating Zion National Park was approved by President Wilson on November 19, 1919, as the nineteenth member of the system. While the Zion Park legislation was under discussion, Bryce Canyon was visited by several prominent writers and by men and women interested in the national parks. It was soon bracketed with Zion in nearly all articles about the superb scenery and exquisite color of the mountains and gorges of southern Utah. Senator Smoot agreed with National Park Service officials that Bryce Canyon was of national-park caliber and should be taken out of the national forest and placed in the national park system. The Senator was successful in obtaining the approval of his bill to establish the Utah National Park which was to include the Bryce region. This was approved by President Coolidge on June 7, 1924, but it was provided in the act that the park status could not be made effective until all private holdings in the area were acquired and tendered to the federal government. Within the next four years, the Union Pacific railroad acquired the private lands and tendered them to the United States, whereupon Senator Smoot sponsored additional legislation enlarging the original park area and changing the name to Bryce Canyon National Park. This measure President Coolidge signed on February 25, 1928. Almost the last official act of Stephen T. Mather as director of the National Park Service was the dedication of Bryce Canyon National Park on September 15, 1928. Senator Smoot had long been an advocate of improved roads in all parts of the nation and had assisted in the enactment of the federal aid road legislation of 1916. The especial provisions of this act were designed to assist the western states which contained so much public land not subject to taxation. This act also contained a provision for im- proving roads in national forests but there was no mention of national park highways. Eight years passed and there was no step taken to provide funds for park road improvement. Finally, late in 1923, Director Mather arranged a conference in the office of General Charles G. Dawes, director of the budget, at which it was agreed that estimates could be submitted for national park road appropriations, provided an enabling act was first passed by the Congress. Legislation was drawn and approved by General Dawes and the Secretary of the Interior, Dr. Hubert Work, and it was sponsored at once by Senator Smoot in the Senate and by Congressman Nicholas J. Sinnott of Oregon in the House of Representatives. Senator Smoot's bill was introduced on December 11, 1923, and Mr. Sinnott's on December 14. However, the Sinnott Bill passed the House first and that measure was promptly accepted by Senator Smoot and urged by him so effectively that the legislation was soon ready for the White House. On April 9, 1924, it was signed by the president. It authorized federal appropriations for roads in the national parks and monuments in total amount of $7,500,000 over a period of three years. Next to the National Park Service Act itself, this general highway authorization law was the most important legislative measure of the early years of the bureau. And it, too, was a Smoot sponsored law. The writer recalls many conferences with Senator Smoot about national park affairs. These conferences had to be arranged for the early hours of the work day, usually 8 o'clock in the morning and sometimes earlier. They related to new parks, and measures to enlarge existing parks pending before the Senate committee on public lands and surveys of which the Senator was chairman; again, they related to appropriations for the national parks and monuments, and the Senator, as a member and chairman of the sub-committee in charge of the Interior Department Appropriation Bill, was generally sympathetic to reasonable requests for funds made in full compliance with the budget law with respect to official estimates regularly transmitted by the president. Senator Smoot was appointed a member of the Public Buildings commission in 1917 and in this capacity participated in the first survey and investigation to "ascertain what public buildings are needed in the District of Columbia to provide suitable and adequate accommodations, with allowances for further expansion for all of the offices, establishments, and public services of the government in the District of Columbia." He was a member of the permanent Public Buildings commission created under an act of Congress approved March 1, 1919, from its establishment to his retirement from the United States Senate on March 4, 1933. For many years he served as chairman of the Public Buildings commission. Under his wise guidance and considerate presidency the Public Buildings commission achieved marked economy in the allocation of space in both government- owned and rented buildings in the District of Columbia and greatly helped to secure legislation for an adequate and logical building program of public buildings throughout the nation. A great monument to Senator Smoot's memory can be viewed within what is known as the "Triangle" group of buildings in the District of Columbia. This was a plan, as Senator Smoot once said, that "will merit the thanks and approbation of future generations who will come here to view the work which we have done." It seems certain that no member of the United States Senate ever handled personally so much important national park legislation as the distinguished senator from Utah, He was one of the leaders who aided projects relating to the national capital; he supported national forest and mining measures; advanced reclamation of arid lands of the west; and promoted scores of measures for the protection and orderly development of western resources. Senator Smoot left a memorable record in the annals of Congress which marks him as an eminent leader and pioneer in the field of conservation. |
SENATOR REED SMOOT
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Johnson, Harriet P. "Reed Smoot and the Big Horn." Improvement Era. January 1943. pg. 26, 36.
Reed Smoot AND THE BIG HORN By HARRIET P. JOHNSON IN the year 1903, an early morning sun shone down on the square five-acre plots of the newly built town of Byron, Wyoming. As yet but a single pair of deep wagon ruts cut through the center of the wide expanse of street. The sidewalks were but single footpaths separated from the street by narrow irrigation ditches. Clear, sparkling mountain water rippled between the grass laden banks fragrant with spearmint and brilliant with the waxen buttercup. Beyond the footpaths vegetable gardens were fenced with barbed wire, taut as violin strings, dew-laden and silvery in the early sunbeams, and stapled to cedar posts still shaggy and brown and pungent with their peculiarly clean odor. At each corner of the block, cabins made of native logs, the mortar still gleaming cleanly white, squatted possessively on their acre-and-a-quarter lots. Slender willow saplings set in trim rows were as yet but the brave promise of the stately poplar driveways of the future. Ignoring the invitation of the "sidewalks," three men walked abreast down through the center of the street—down the wagon road. It was plain that two were strangers, and their curious searching glances were somewhat astonished and impressed. "And all this has been accomplished in two years, Mr. Sessions?" Senator William A. Clark of Montana was speaking. "Yes, it's little more than two years since our caravan of wagons reached here from Utah. We came at the counsel of Abraham O. Woodruff, one of the authorities of our Church." "Your work here is an excellent example of engineering. I've heard much of your planned cities—their provision for future growth and order. Your canals and knowledge of engineering are of great interest to the members of my profession." So stated the tallest member of the trio. As they approached each cabin, the strangers became more curious; they strained to catch the sound of singing. Sometimes there was an organ accompaniment, but invariably there was singing. Finally the Senator asked, "Tell me, Mr. Sessions, why this singing? It seems to be hymns, yet this is not Sunday. Is it a family service?" "Yes, it may be called a family service," President Sessions replied. "Our religion is of all importance to us, and we older ones are anxious that our children will also partake of the blessings that accompany the living of our religion. Brother Woodruff promised us that if every morning we would as a family sing one of the songs of Zion and kneel together in family prayer, no matter how our children should stray from the Church they would in the end die in faith. We are trying to follow his advice," and smiling, he waved his arm to include the village. Byron Sessions' distinguished guests were prepared later to participate in this family custom with the Sessions family. They were given a hymn book and tried to follow the mellow voices of the daughters of the house. They knelt before their chairs that surrounded the breakfast table and listened respectfully to Brother Sessions lead in family prayer. Senator Clark was particularly impressed with the words spoken, for it revealed to him the Mormon attitude toward the government of the nation. Seeds were sown that morning that bore fruit effectively a year or so later in the capital of the nation. Reed Smoot had been elected Senator by the people of Utah. From 1 904 until 1 906 there was bitter controversy as to whether he should be denied a right to a seat in the senate. Among the many arguments against him by misinformed men was the one that the Mormons were not loyal, patriotic Americans. Senator William A. Clark was a member of a committee of investigation; to his co-workers he stated he knew that this could not be true, for the most fervent prayer he had ever heard in behalf of the government of the United States and the welfare of this nation he had heard in a little Mormon home in the little town of Byron, Wyoming. Thus the life of Elder Reed Smoot and the reputation of the Church were unwittingly influenced by the lives of the righteous Saints of the Big Horn, and in return, blessings were to be theirs down to the third generation. . . . By the summer of 1936, the Mormon colony had prospered and grown in numbers to about 3,600 Saints who' were organized into Big Horn Stake, with six wards and nine branches, scattered for two hundred miles north and south through the Big Horn river basin. Following the admonition of their Church leaders had always worked to their good, spiritually and temporally, so that a visit from one of the general authorities was heralded by great excitement and keenly anticipated. It was announced that Elder Reed Smoot would be in attendance at quarterly conference. Because of his busy life in Church and national affairs, it was his first visit to that country which had so casually touched his own career. So large a crowd was expected that it was held in what has been called "the largest log cabin in the world," the Cowley recreation hall. The attendance justified this arrangement, for over thirteen hundred people came over mountain and desert to attend the Sunday service. Among those who looked most eagerly for the coming of Elder Reed Smoot was the family of Brother McKenzie Robertson, son of a Big Horn pioneer. The great blessing wrought in their home through the ministrations of a humble servant of God is best told by the following letter to the author: Lovell, Wyoming May 16, 1942 Dear Sister Johnson: In answer to your letter, we are very grateful for the opportunity of giving you this testimony. Leona Bea was born April 8, 1934. She was a strong, well baby until she was nine months old. Then she had some very serious ear trouble. After she recovered from this illness, she seemed quite well until she contracted a terrible cough. We took her to the doctor here. He said she had whooping cough. She coughed continually for about five months, which left her very frail. We have seen her cough when it seemed that it would tear her little body apart. In August, 1936, Mrs. Robertson sat down to get her baby to sleep and at the time the baby had a high temperature. The mother had read many articles on tuberculosis. In one of these articles she had read that they had a high temperature most of the time. I was working at the Robertson Implement Co. My wife came immediately to the store and said she thought we should take her to Billings [Montana] this Monday afternoon. Dr. Nelson gave her the serum, but didn't think it was tuberculosis. He said he would prescribe for her cough. It took three days for the test to show that it was in full bloom. On Thursday we took her back. Dr. Nelson phoned the X-ray room (Dr. Bridenball was the X-ray doctor). They took three pictures, one from the front, one from the back, and one from the side. We waited almost all day. When the pictures were finished we saw a very sad-faced doctor bring them in. I told him we wanted to know the truth. He held the pictures to the light. Active tuberculosis in the lungs looks like blowing snow in the pictures. Her lungs seemed to be full. He told us tuberculosis was fatal to a child under two years of age. He told us to take her home and see if we could get her in the sanatorium at Basin. If not we would have to care for her in cur home. We might be able to prolong her life for approximately six months. We arrived home about 8:30 p.m. Bishop Frank H. Brown administered to her that evening. The next day we told the bishop we were also going to take her to Elder Smoot. He then told us it was the thing to do. On Sunday we went to Cowley, Wyoming. I met President Archie R. Boyack at the door and told him my trouble. He said their day was so full they would hardly have time for lunch, but if they had a minute he would keep me in mind. We couldn't stay in conference, so we went to the car and shed a few anxious tears. Then I went back to the meeting. I felt the opposing spirit and left the meeting twice [intending] to take my baby home. I felt that they wouldn't find time to take care of my troubles. The spirit spoke to me and told me I had brought her up here to see Elder Smoot, to take her to him. I took her in my arms and went back to the building and waited until meeting was over. We made our way through the crowd to the stand to Elder Smoot. President Boyack gave us an introduction. I started to tell him what was the matter with the baby. He said, "You don't need to tell me what is wrong. I can see." He said he didn't have any oil with him so we used mine. I gave him the oil, and he asked President Boyack to anoint her. Elder Smoot blessed her and asked the Lord to heal her according to His will. After he was through, I told him I was willing that the Lord's will be done. He asked my wife if she were willing that the Lord's will be done. She told him she was. He said that was all he asked the Lord to do. That Sunday night the baby was so ill all night I thought she was going to die. I sat up all night with her. Monday morning I told my wife we would take her to Basin that day. She was much better and we could hardly keep her in bed. We were going to go to Basin on Tuesday but I felt impressed to go that day. We went to the state sanatorium. When we got there and met Dr. Kanable, he told us if we had waited until Tuesday he would have been gone foe two weeks. We gave him our permit from the Billings doctor. He took the baby to the X-ray room. We told him the pictures were available from Billings. He said he took his own pictures. There weren't many words spoken until the picture was finished. He came in with it in his hand, a big smile on his face, put the picture over a light and showed us where the tuberculosis had been in the glands around her heart, but were all sealed in calcium and lime. That is nature's way of healing the first infection. There were no traces of the second infection. Dr. Kanable compared the two sets of pictures, was astonished at the recent date of the X-rays taken at Billings and said, "To be healed so quickly is contrary to all scientific knowledge—it is a miracle " She had been healed of that infection through the will of the Lord and the power of His Priesthood. This is my testimony of the healing of my baby girl. I bear it in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. McKenzie Robertson |
LEONA BEA, A HEALTHY FIVE YEARS
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