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