An important step in the missionary work of the Church was the opening of the “Bureau of Information and Church Literature,” August 4, 1902, on the temple block. A small building for the entertainment of strangers and as a storehouse for literature was erected in 1902, and the work was placed under the direction of Benjamin Goddard, Thomas Hull, Arnold H. Schulthess and Josiah Burrows. About seventy-five members of the Church were called to act as guides and entertain visitors. Literature was freely distributed and much prejudice was removed. The first year more than one hundred and fifty thousand persons visited the block, and eighteen or twenty years later over four hundred thousand people, on the average, passed through the grounds annually. In 1904 a more commodious building was erected which has been added to from time to time until now an excellent building stands upon the ground for the benefit and comfort of strangers.

The Reed Smoot Case

January 20, 1903, the legislature of Utah elected Reed Smoot United States senator. He had been a candidate before, but stepped aside in favor of another. April 8, 1900, he was called to the apostleship, and the anti-“Mormon” element in Utah made this a pretext for entering a protest against his being seated. As early as November 24, 1903, when it became known that he would be a candidate, the Ministerial Alliance, an organization of Protestant ministers of Salt Lake City, adopted resolutions in protest of his candidacy. Their grounds were that he was an apostle of the “Mormon” Church, and believed in polygamy. They had been successful in eliminating B. H. Roberts from political office in 1900, and this gave them encouragement to press the matter further in their campaign to disfranchise all the elders of the Church, and if successful, eventually all members of the Church. B. H. Roberts was denied his seat on the grounds that he was a polygamist; Reed Smoot was to be eliminated because he “believed in polygamy” and was an apostle of the Church. It was commonly reported that if Reed Smoot could be denied a seat in the senate, then any member of the Church who had been through the temple could also be deprived of his franchise, and this was the aim of these reverend gentlemen and their associates.

Protest of Citizens

January 25, 1903, nineteen citizens[1] of Salt Lake City signed and forwarded to the senate of the United States a formal protest asking for the expulsion of Reed Smoot from the senate.[2]

In substantiation of these charges the protestants quoted from various sources, including many newspaper reports utterly unreliable and false upon their very face. The Rev. John L. Leilich also made separate affidavit stating among other falsehoods that Reed Smoot was a polygamist. As this charge was untrue the reverend gentleman was unable to prove his statements.

Senator Smoot Makes Reply

To all these charges Senator Smoot made full and complete denial in an answer in the District of Columbia, January 4, 1904. March 5, 1903, he had been sworn in as a senator and his case was referred to the committee on privileges and elections of which Julius C. Burrows of Michigan was chairman. Mr. Robert W. Tayler, of Ohio, who gained some prominence and notoriety in the case of B. H. Roberts, was the attorney for the protestants. Senator Smoot was represented by A. S. Worthington, of Washington, and Waldemar Van Cott, of Salt Lake City.

The Case Before the Senate

The case was first considered by the committee on privileges and elections, January 16, 1904, and continued before that committee until June 1906. The chairman, Julius C. Burrows, and other members of the committee manifested a spirit of extreme hatred in the case. It was apparent from the beginning that it was the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that was on trial before the nation, not Senator Reed Smoot. Many witnesses were called, including President Joseph F. Smith and other leaders of the Church, who were treated with very little consideration by the majority of the committee members. Thousands of petitions asking for Reed Smoot’s expulsion poured into the senate from all over the United States, and the spirit of prejudice ran high. During the two years of the investigation the Church was thoroughly advertised before the world. The press of the country, seeking for the sensational, grasped at every item of evidence detrimental to the interest of the Church and magnified much of the testimony, coloring it with additional falsehood. Nevertheless there appeared from time to time friendly comments and articles in various quarters where men were big and broad enough to face the prejudice of the world. It can be said in perfect truth that the investigation, while carried on in the spirit of extreme hatred, resulted beneficially for the Church.