Chapter 1 - The Irrepressible Conflict

Chapter 1 - The Irrepressible Conflict

THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE was born into a frontier world of inflamed conflict — economic, political, ecclesiastical and social. Unlike most newspapers, it was not established primarily as a business enterprise to record the events of the period. It was, initially, a product of and very much a part of the conflict.

The founders, excommunicated converts to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, could not have been so unrealistic as to expect it to become a profitable enterprise in the foreseeable future. They had had previous journalistic experiences at considerable out-of-pocket expense. They knew their new daily newspaper would be a spokesman for a very small minority. What they probably did not realize at the time was that this minority carried within itself an irrepressible conflict.

It was, as they quickly discovered, made up of dissident Mormons who were opposed to the church's economic and political policies but who were unwilling to crusade for retroactive destruction of the institution of polygamy; of moderate gentiles who were in partial agreement with them; of embittered apostates and excommunicants; of vindictive anti-Mormons who were determined to wage total war upon the church.

While the avowed goal of The Tribune founders was to generate and support a New Movement of accommodation to replace the successive policies of, first, isolation and then insulation, their projected coalition was soon shattered by the diverse elements within it, especially those who were unwilling to settle for anything less than extermination of the Mormon Church as an economic and political power and those seeking abolition and retroactive punishment of polygamy.

That their newspaper survived in the face of the obstacles confronting it was a kind of miracle. Even now it is difficult to sort out reasons why The Tribune lived on to ultimately become a spokesman for accommodation (the role envisioned for it by the founders) while scores of other crusading publications that sprang up like desert flowers after a rain shrivelled and died in the searing sun of fiscal reality.

Historian Edward W. Tullidge suggested years after he had disassociated himself from The Tribune and some of its editorial policies that it survived because it was a great newspaper. Referring to the group which acquired the newspaper from the founders after they had decided the financial burden was too great for them to carry, Tullidge wrote:

It was Mr. Fred Lockley, however, that gave the marked and pungent anti-Mormon character to The Salt Lake Tribune, for which it has become famous in the gentile mind, infamous in the Mormon mind. But the Tribune is read at home and abroad — read by Mormon and gentile. To accomplish this object was the primal aim of Mr. Prescott and his compeers, and though they much offended the Mormon community, they won golden opinions from the anti-Mormons. Undoubtedly The Salt Lake Tribune represents the irrepressible conflict. In this conflict towards the Mormon Church its potency has resided; but The Salt Lake Tribune is also a great newspaper, apart from any anti-Mormon mission; and this is the salient point for notice in a review of Salt Lake journalism.

It appears from Tullidge's appraisal that church efforts to prevent Mormons from subscribing to or reading The Tribune were only partially effective. But the ban was not openly flouted. City councilmen, for example, felt constrained when they attacked The Tribune to explain that they did not take or read the newspaper but that the offending article had been called to their attention.

To understand and appreciate the conditions into which The Tribune was born it is desirable to review certain pertinent events of preceding years.

The violent expulsion of the Mormons from Ohio, Missouri and Illinois; the perils of the great exodus to the valley of the Great Salt Lake; the trials of establishing a viable community in a desert wasteland were matters of history; but it was such recent history that the persecutions and hardships endured during this period had not yet become mere memories in the minds of the participants.

The period of isolation was drawing to a close with the completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869 and with the stimulus this was giving to a fledgling mining industry.

The Mormons and moderate gentiles were intensifying efforts to attain statehood — the Mormons to get rid of a hated federal judiciary for one thing and the moderate gentiles to advance, they believed, the cause of accommodation.

Part of the grand design of the Mormon prophet Joseph Smith to colonize the Great Basin and Pacific slope and thereby create a galaxy of new states with political power to protect his people had been accomplished by his successor, the great colonizer Brigham Young; and part had been abandoned or placed beyond reach by events.

What amounted by reason of numbers to a one-party political system was in operation in the territory. The church, however, was not fully in control of government because of the imposition of gentile governors and a federal judiciary upon the territory.

Church President Brigham Young was implementing a church-controlled, cooperative economic system which non- Mormons regarded as a plan to force them out of the city and the territory.

There is abundant evidence to show that it was the economic issue more than anything else which led to the establishment of The Tribune. And if there were one facet of church economic policy which triggered the launching of the newspaper it was the organization of Zion's Cooperative Mercantile Institution.

Polygamy soon became the most strident battle cry in the controversy, but it was economics and politics which really made the conflict irrepressible.

The revolt of The Tribune founders and other like-minded Mormons surfaced some two years before The Tribune started publication.

In January, 1868, a new periodical — The Utah Magazine — made its debut with E. L. T. Harrison, general editor; Edward W. Tullidge, dramatic editor; Prof. John Tullidge, musical editor; and William S. Godbe and Harrison, publishers. The same group, with the exception of Godbe, had previously been associated in the publication of Peep O'Day, a literary magazine that died from lack of financial support.

The Utah Magazine was apparently launched with the good will and moral support of the church, as it was greeted by the Deseret News, the church organ, as an "enterprise worthy of commendation and support."

The News was unaware of what was stirring in the minds of Godbe, Harrison and Tullidge. Within a few months there began appearing in the magazine articles which collided head-on with the economic policies of Brigham Young.

Typical of the church-offending articles was an editorial entitled "The True Development of the Territory" which argued that the territory's prosperity depended upon development of mineral resources (mining) rather than manufacturing and agriculture. Editor Harrison asserted that Utah's high cost irrigation agriculture could not possibly compete with California, Missouri and Iowa; nor could Utah hope to compete in manufactured products except in a limited market. He continued:

Common sense would seem to say, develop that first which will bring money from other Territories and States, and then these factories and home industries which supply ourselves will have something to lean upon. . . . Summed up in a few words we live in a country destitute of the rich advantages of other lands — a country with few natural facilities beyond the great mass of minerals in its bowels. These are its main financial hopes. To this our future factories must look for their life, our farmers, our stock, wool, and cotton raisers for their sale, and our mechanics for suitable wages. Let these resources be developed, and we have a future before us as bright as any country beneath the sun, because we shall be working in harmony with the indications of Nature around us.

The magazine editors quickly found out that they were not speaking in harmony with Brigham Young's economic plan for the territory. And shortly thereafter they found that disagreement with church leaders on economics was apostasy.

The Deseret News of October 26, 1869, retracted its endorsement of the magazine by publishing this announcement with the signatures of Brigham Young, George A. Smith, Daniel H. Wells, Orson Pratt, Wilford Woodruff, George Q. Cannon and Joseph F. Smith:

Our attention has been called of late to several articles which have appeared in The Utah Magazine. . . . An examination of them has convinced us that they are erroneous, opposed to the spirit of the Gospel, and calculated to do injury. According to the practice of the Church, teachers were sent to labor with the editor and publishers, to point out to them the evil results which would follow a persistence in the course they are pursuing. This did not have the desired effect, and they have since been tried before the High Council, and after a thorough and patient investigation of the case, it was found they had imbibed the spirit of apostasy to a degree that they could not any longer be fellowshiped (sic) and they were cut off from the Church. The Utah Magazine is a periodical that in its spirit and teachings is directly opposed to the work of God. Instead of building up Zion and uniting the people, its teachings, if carried out, would destroy Zion, divide the people asunder, and drive the Holy Priesthood from the earth. Therefore, we say to our Brethren and Sisters in every place, The Utah Magazine is not a periodical suitable for circulation among or perusal by them and should not be sustained by Latter-day Saints. We hope this will be sufficient, without ever having to refer to it again.

Publication of this ban on their magazine presumably did not come as a surprise to the editors and publishers. For in the October 2, 1869, issue they had published a "Notice to Patrons" asserting their intention of continuing publication despite "certain Church requirements lately made upon us."

However, on second thought, the aroused journalistic triumvirateof Godbe-Harrison-Tullidge decided to abandon the magazine and launch, with the beginning of 1870, a weekly newspaper - The Mormon Tribune. So they announced:

The present volume of this magazine [The Utah Magazine) was commenced by the publishers with the express purpose of presenting before the people of Utah some of the broad and grand conceptions of God and humanity which they felt themselves called upon to present. ... In the face of special prohibition by the absolute ecclesiastical authority which has prevailed in this territory, it has run its course, a silent preacher of advanced thoughts . . . and a steady opponent of absolutism in Church and State. It is now withdrawn to make way for a more prominent advocate of the same great principle.

Thus, the hope expressed by church leaders that they would not need to refer to The Utah Magazine again was achieved; but in banning the magazine they possibly contributed to the birth of successor publications to which they would be referring for many years to come and which would make the offenses of the magazine seem like pinpricks.

The New Movement for which The Mormon Tribune and The Salt Lake Tribune successively served as spokesman had been incubating for some time. It began taking on tangible form in the fall of 1868 when Godbe and Harrison made a trip to New York City. An incident of the trip was later related to Tullidge by Utah historian T. B. H. Stenhouse:

Away from Utah, and traveling over the Plains, the old rumbling stagecoach afforded the two friends, as every traveler in those days experienced, an excellent opportunity for reflection. On their way, they compared notes respecting their situation of things at home, and they spoke frankly together of their doubts and difficulties with the faith. They discovered, clearly enough that they were — in the words of the orthodox — 'on the road to apostasy,' yet in their feelings they did not want to leave Mormonism or Utah. A struggle began in their minds. One proposition followed another, and scheme after scheme was the subject of discussion, but not one of those schemes or propositions, when examined, seemed desirable; they were in terrible mental anguish. Arrived in New York and comfortable in their hotel, in the evening they concluded to pray for guidance. They wanted light, either to have their doubts removed and their faith in Mormonism confirmed, or yet again to have the light of their own intellects increased that they might be able to follow unwaveringly their convictions. In this state of mind the two elders assert that they had an extraordinary spiritualistic experience. They returned to Utah, and to a very small circle of friends confided what has here been only briefly related, and their story was listened to. Elder Eli B. Kelsey, a Mormon of 27 years standing, and who was also a president of Seventies, was the intimate friend of Mr. Godbe, and Edward W. Tullidge, another Seventy was a bosom friend of Mr. Harrison. Elder Henry W. Lawrence, a wealthy merchant, a bishop's counsellor, and a gentleman of the highest integrity, was early informed in confidence of this New Movement and gave to his friend, Mr. Godbe, valuable material support.

This was presumably the experience which gave birth to the so-called Godbeite or New Movement. The two elders did not have to make a decision as to their formal relationship with the church. That was taken care of by their excommunication. This, no doubt, spurred them on to accelerate their crusade for reform, both for vindication and because they too believed in their cause.

This must, in fairness, be assumed in view of the money and effort they poured into it.

During the incubation period of the New Movement, Brigham Young and his top associates had organized Zion's Cooperative Mercantile Institution. While the cooperative approach to temporal matters was nothing new in the Mormon Church, the establishment of this enterprise served to bring the economic controversy to a head. To the New Movement Mormons it was a pronouncement that the closed economic system to which they objected was going to become completely closed. To the gentile businessmen it was a threat to their very existence. To the non-cooperating Mormons it was an ultimatum to join or get out of the territory.

The message came through loud and clear when Brigham Young, in response to a question as to what would happen to the Mormon merchants who did not choose to join the cooperative, replied: ". . . we shall leave them out in the cold, the same as the gentiles, and their goods shall rot upon their shelves."

Reacting to this, Tullidge wrote:

This surely was implacable; but, as already observed, Brigham Young and the Mormons as a peculiar community had in 1868 come face to face with implacable necessities. They had, in fact, to cease to be a communistic power in the world and from that moment exist as a mere religious sect, or preserve their temporal cohesiveness. The Mormons from the first have existed as a society, not as a sect. They have combined the two elements of organization — the social and the religious. They are now a new society-power in the world and an entirety in themselves. They are indeed the only religious community in Christendom of modern birth. They intend forever to preserve themselves as a community; that was the plain and simple meaning of Brigham Young's answer concerning the merchants in 1868. It was not an exodus which was then needed to preserve them, but a Zion's Cooperative Mercantile Institution.

Brigham Young made it abundantly clear that his cooperative merchandising plan was not a mere church-backed competitive force. It was designed, through the headquarters store in Salt Lake City plus local branches, to become the sole merchandising facility for members of the Mormon Church wherever their number was large enough to justify a branch.

Inventories placed in the cooperative pool to start the enterprise amounted to $450,000. The contributors were William Jennings, $200,000; Eldredge and Clawson, $75,000; N. S. Ransohoff & Co., $75,000; Henry W. Lawrence, $30,000; Bowman and Co., $15,000; David Day and Co., $10,000; Woodmansee Bros., $5,000; others, $40,000.

The 1870 incorporation papers show paid-up stock of $199,000 distributed as follows: Brigham Young, representing the church, with 772 shares (par value $100 each for a total of $77,200); William Jennings with 790 shares ($79,000); other cooperating merchants with 260 shares ($26,000); and 16 other shareholders with a total of 168 shares ($16,800).

Notable absentees from the list of cooperators were Godbe and the Walker brothers who qualified as members of the city's wealthy merchant princes. Godbe's absence has already been explained. The Walker brothers had left the church some time earlier. The incident marking their final break, as related by T. B. H. Stenhouse in his book The Rocky Mountain Saints, involved the payment of tithing. In response to a call from a church emissary, the firm sent a check for $500 as a "contribution to the poor." The bishop of the ward later informed them that Brigham Young would not accept the check; that he "would make them pay their 10 per cent tithing or he would cut them off the

Accordingly, they announced in a prospectus plans to begin the publication of a daily newspaper under the name of Salt Lake Daily Tribune and Utah Mining Gazette. (The name was soon changed to The Salt Lake Tribune.) The prospectus announced:

The Daily Tribune will be a purely secular journal devoted entirely to the presentation of news and to the development of the mineral and commercial interest of the Territory. It will have no sectarian bias, and will be the organ of no religious body whatever. The aim of the publishers will be to make it a newspaper in every sense of the word. . . . On political and social questions the policy of the paper will be to sustain the Governmental institutions of the country. It will oppose all ecclesiastical interference in civil or legislative matters, and advocate the exercise of a free ballot by the abolition of 'numbered tickets.' . . . As a journal the Tribune will know no such distinctions as Mormon or gentile and where sectional feelings exist it will aim for their abolishment by the encouragement of charitable feelings and the promotion of better acquaintance. Correspondence is invited on all public questions of general interest from all those who have anything to say and know how to say it with due regard for the opinion of others. We shall lay our columns open to the public for the freest criticism on public questions, provided disparaging personalities are avoided, and principles are handled rather than men."

It was a high road that the founders laid out for themselves.They soon discovered that it was an incredibly rocky road as well; that the base of support for a journal avoiding disparagement of personalities and ignoring religious distinctions was small indeed. They learned the hard way that the irrepressible pressures of the times were in the direction of a gloves-off fight on ecclesiastical as well as economic, political and social issues; that while there were moderate gentiles and Mormons of the same mind as themselves, they were not numerous enough to make such a newspaper as they had pledged to publish economically viable.

The first issue of the new daily newspaper which was destined to beat the formidable odds against survival, observe a centennial, and move into its second century as a great newspaper, appeared April 15, 1871. The publishers were Godbe and Harrison. The managing editor was a newcomer to the territory — Oscar G. Sawyer. Associate editors were Tullidge and George W. Crouch. Business manager was William H. Shearman.

The journalistic gunboat of the New Movement was afloat and there were menacing shoals just ahead.