Book Reviews

Reed Smoot: Apostle in Politics.

By MILTON R MERRILL (Logan: Utah State University Press and Department of Political Science, 1990 xx + 426 pp $37.50.)

Thematically organized, Milton R Merrill's study of Reed Smoot"s senatorial career is an outstanding addition to the growing body of scholarly literature on Utah and Mormon history. It is not a biography Neither is it the narrowly conceived composition one would expect considering it was Merrill's 1950 Columbia University dissertation Confined to Smoot's years in the United States Senate, 1903-33, it is an inquiry into the work of one who was both a general authority of the Mormon church and a national political leader The book is prefaced by an appreciative reminiscence written by M Judd Harmon, a colleague and friend of Merrill's at Utah State University Political and historical perspectives are provided in an introduction by F Ross Peterson, director of the Mountain West Center for Regional Studies at USU.

The first of Merrill's seven long chapters on Smoot's political years focuses on the famous investigation conducted by the Senate into whether he should be expelled from Congress because of his apostleship in the Mormon church and that organization's alleged misdeeds. Smoot's motives for submitting to the ordeal—his vaunting ambition and belief that he was divinely called to the work—are emphasized by Merrill again and again. Considering the insults endured by the senator and his wife at the time, anything less would not have sustained him Of course, Smoot also received crucial support from LDS President Joseph F Smith and well-placed Republicans like President Theodore Roosevelt Most important, the hearing acted as a furnace in which Smoot's allegiances were given a steel-like temper. Loyalties forged by the experience never faltered and dominated the senator's thinking on every issue confronting him throughout his long career As Merrill put it, they became a trinity never to be questioned: Mormonism, Americanism, and the Republican party.

One of the book's most interesting features is its illumination of controversies within the LDS leadership over the church's backing of the senator Some were strongly opposed to Smoot's views and to the propriety of an apostle attempting to honor political and ecclesiastical commitments at the same time. The question never troubled Smoot who saw both roles as complementary sides of his special mission. The unwavering support given by Joseph F. Smith and Presiding Bishop Charles W Nibley (including financial contributions) was of central importance Even Heber J Grant, who sometimes criticized the senator (especially in connection with Smoot's scripture based arguments against the League of Nations) endorsed continuation of the apostle in Washington after Smith died and Grant replaced him as head of the church. Not only did Smoot, public statements to the contrary, consider the church and its First Presidency his primary loyalty, but the church's president, especially Joseph F. Smith, looked upon Smoot's senatorship as an instrument for furthering the work of the Lord.

Despite a reputation for principle, Smoot was quite capable of political calculation He opposed Prohibition during his first and second terms so as to neutralize claims by the American party that the church dominated Utah politics After 1916,when the American party had faded, he joined the juggernaut of liquor reform.

Smoot saw no irony in the fact that those supporting censorship provisions in his 1929 tariff bill were in many cases the same groups that stomped and shouted for his dismissal from the Senate because of Mormon polygamy. Neither was there any moral flinching when he opposed bonus payments for World War I soldiers while fiercely seeking benefits for the veterans of Utah's Indian wars, even when only a few days of service had been given And as a member of the World War Debt Funding Commission in the 1920s, Smoot adamantly pressed for repayment by foreign nations of their war debt while, more than anyone else, erecting a tariff program that made repayment nearly impossible.

It is doubtful the senator troubled over such contradictions. Merrill's study suggests it is doubtful he was even aware they existed The success that came his way, especially during the years of Republican ascendancy in the 1920s, seemed only to confirm Smoot in his belief that God was on his side. How else could one interpet the president of the United States (Harding) summoning the senator at night to administer to and pray for his ailing wife? Why else would Smoot have been made chairman of the powerful Senate Finance Committee in 1923? What other reasons accounted for the enormous prestige he acquired both at home and with international leaders and governments? As Merrill points out, he had no patience for those who searched for consistency or troubled with moral juxtapositions. For Smoot, all was answered in his allegiances to God, the flag, and protectionism.

Smoot spoke before his colleagues in the Senate chamber in frequently, preferring to direct his energies through committee channels. When he did speak Merrill tells, us, his remarks were notable for want of eloquence and were delivered in such whispered tones that he was unlikely to have been heard beyond the next desk At the same time, none was more regular in attendance, none more ably armed with data and statistics to support his point of view, and none more abstemious in personal lifestyle.

It is no surprise that the senator's reputation as both apolitical power and an exemplar of his church acquired formidable proportions The machine he built, "the federal bunch," atrophied after successful reelection to a third term when his national image rendered political grubbing at the local level unnecessary. And his role as the representative of Mormonism in the nation's capital led him to ask that no Mormon missionaries be sent to the Washington, D.C., area.

When the apostle-senator was defeated by Elbert Thomas in 1932 he was stunned. No one had worked harder for Utah than he And Joseph F Smith, the Mormon prophet, had once predicted Smoot would never be "driven" from office.

In addition to its splendid scholarship, Merrill's book is rich with quotable observation and careful insight It deserves a place on the shelf of every student of Mormon culture and Utah's political past.

B CARMON HARDY California State University Futterton

Frontier Fiddler: The Life of a Northern Arizona Pioneer, Kenner C. Kartchner

Edited by LARRY V. SHUMWAY (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1990. xxv-b 280 pp. $27.50.)

This is the autobiography of a Mormon country fiddler during the first four decades of the twentieth century. Given its diminishing emphasis on Kartchner's later years and conditions in turn-of-the-century northern Arizona it is appropriately named Its prose is strong and colorful, highlighting Kartchner's self confidence, the verve of his ways, and his love of who and what he was His story is touching, enlightening, and broad gauged. Among other things it deals with Mormon pioneering, railroad subcultures, cattle ranching, shearing circuits, logging camps, Mexican towns, haberdasheries in Salt Lake City, and a distinguished career in forestry and resource management in Arizona and New Mexico as well as with violins, dancing entertainment, and an indigenous folk arc.

The book's focus on folk music will give it regional and national significance among folklorists and local historians Born to the fiddle, Kartchner began playing on a patched-up instrument early in childhood in the Mormon town of Snowflake and fiddled his way through his youth, his early maturity, and his advanced years From the time he was sixteen his was an adventure carried by musical gifts, melody, rhythm, and hearty good fellowship The scenes of his development were Mormon socials, ranch house renditions, saloon hoedowns, weddings, pioneer celebrations, and most of all small town dances.

Early on he was fortunate in his association with Claude Youngblood, another self-trained Snowflake fiddler. Youngblood inspired the younger man and became his partner in a duet performance that was enthusiastically received by northern Arizona dancers Together they toured by horseback buckboard, and occasionally the Santa Fe Railroad to one- and two-night stands throughout a vast but sparsely populated region. More footloose than his older companion, Kartchner also played at railroad towns along two hundred miles of the Santa Fe, in Mogollon Rim lumber camps, at central Arizona mining towns, and in shearing camps from Phoenix to Montana He also studied formally at Salt Lake City for three years. Altogether, it broadened his preception, tuned his ear, enhanced his skills, and enlarged his repertoire During his middle years his playing lapsed somewhat, except for joyous reunions with Youngblood and family get-togethers with his musically gifted brothers and sisters Late in life he got into fiddle competitions and was discovered by folklorists. Southern influences were strong in the background of his family and in northern Arizona's range and timber lands The southern connection touched Kartchner's fiddling and the dancing habit of a region until changing times and radio altered tastes in the years around 1930.

If many will read Frontier Fiddler for its contributions to fiddling, some will read it as Mormon and western history. As an account of frontier life it compares favorably with classic accounts such as Teddy Blue Abbott's. We Pointed Them North: Recollections of a Cowpuncher (1939); Charlie Siringo's A Texas Cowboy; or, Fifteen Years on the Hurricane Deck of a Spanish Cow Pony (1885); and in Kartchner's home regions, Apaches & Longhorns: The Reminiscences of Will C. Barnes (1936); and Joseph Schmedding's Cowboy and Indian Trader (1951); or in forestry, Paul H. Bailey's Hoof Prints on Forest Ranges (1963). In terms of Mormons in Arizona, Kartchner also keeps good company, taking a place with such excellent memoirs as Joseph Fish, The Life and Time of Joseph Fish, Mormon Pioneer (1970); James Jennings, The Freight Rotted (1969); and Leora Schuck Leora's Quest- Lakeside and Beyond (1970).

In his moments of rebellion, in his joy in music and roughneck fun, and in his movement from Snowflake's backwaters into resource administration, Kartchner reflects the Americanization of Mormon society at perhaps a more fundamental level than do the abolition of polygamy and the withdrawal of the Mormon church from politics. In his affinity for fun, in his individualistic response to the social forces around him, and in his tendency to move beyond the mores of Mormon country yet maintain close ties with it, Kartchner was among the earliest of the Mormons who would scatter across the United States in the twentieth century If, as Wallace Stegner has written, home is the place from which you take the most, Snowflake and its surroundings were home Drawing from the influences he observed as surely as he did the fiddle music he heard, Kartchner reflected the period into which his people moved.

Frontier Fiddler is a good book worthy for its central figure, for its description of cultural change as well as folk music's regional growth Finally, it is worthy, too, for the able editing of Kartchner's grandson Larry V Shumway and the University of Arizona Press.

CHARLES S PETERSON St. George

The Bozeman Trail

By GRACE RAYMOND HEBARD and E A BRINLNSTOOL 2 vols (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1990 xx + 650 pp Paper $22.90.)

The Bozeman Trail was published in 1922, nearly seventy years ago In the intervening years research has added considerably to our knowledge of the subjects covered. However, much of the later research and writing used as its foundation the information contained in this work.

This edition has an excellent introduction by John D. McDermott and contains the introduction written by Gen. Charles King for the first edition. McDermott places these books in their proper perspective He makes the point that the chapters were written as separate essays and were combined to form the books. This explains the somewhat disjointed manner in which the material is presented.

The authors' main theme concerns the events that occurred in the area east of the Big Horn Mountains and north of the North Platte River during the years 1865-68.

This area, principally in the Powder River drainage, became the main arena of conflict for the Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapaho Indians who fought the white man The land abounded in game, especially buffalo The Sioux considered it their prime hunting ground In addition, it was far from the hated emigrant trail along the North Platte where game had become difficult to obtain.

These Indians by both treaty and conquest occupied this last great hunting ground They had been pushed this far and decided to be pushed no farther.

The discovery of gold in what is now Montana and eastern Idaho and the fact that the shortest and topographically easiest route to the gold fields ran right through this pristine area set the stage for conflict.

Three forts were built on the Bozeman Trail Fort Reno, Fort Phil Kearney, and Fort C. F. Smith.

Many fights occurred The authors give special attention to the Wagon Box Fight, the Hay Field Fight, and the Fetterman Massacre (Fight).

The Fetterman Fight is better handled in later works that use interviews with the Indian pardcipants. Like the Battle of the Little Big Horn a decade later, controversy continues as to the events that transpired.

These fights, and others, led to withdrawal of the army, the abandonment of the three forts, and their immediate burning by the Indians.

The authors havewritten extensively about the routes of the Oregon, the Overland, and the Bozeman trails with maps ofeach Gen Patrick E Connor's Powder River Expedition is discussed as well as the Platte Bridge Fight

They have chapters devoted to Jim Bridger, John (Portugee) Phillips, and Red Cloud, as well as descriptions of Fort Laramie and the three forts on the Bozeman Trail.

The authors' handling of the Indian side of the conflict is almost nonexistent; at best, it is very unsympathetic Only in the discussion of Red Cloud do the authors allow a favorable impression ofthe army's Indian opponents.

The great value of this work is that the authors wrote at a time when participants in many of the events were still alive Many first-hand accounts are included; some of these eyewitness accounts were written at the request of the authors and were published for the first time in this work. Particularly exciting is the story of the Wagon Box Fight by Sgt Samuel Gibson Jim Bridger also comes alive in the many descriptions of those who knew him.

ALBERT M. COOK Salt Lake City

George L Beam and the Denver & Rio Grande. Volumes 1 and 2

By JACKSON C THODE (Denver Sundance Publication, Ltd., 1986, 1989 280 pp $27.00.)

The Union Pacific Railroad utilized a number of photographers during its corporate life, especially in its early years, such as Andrew J. Russell and his associates and Charles R Savage of Salt Lake City, to mention two. This railroad is well chronicled and its "official" and "semi-official" photographers have become quite well known for their work regarding the UP.

The Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad also employed a full-time official photographer from 1898 until 1935, one George L. Beam; yet, outside of his own railroad and some professional photographic circles, his name is virtually unknown Jackson C Thode, a long-time Rio Grande employee and well-recognized historian of the railroad, has done an outstanding service in rescuing Beam from obscurity.

Volume 1, published in 1986, contains 280 pages with 275 photos, and deals exclusively with the Colorado end of the line, standard and narrow gauge.

Volume 2, published in 1989, displays 250 Beam photos on 280 pages, and begins by describing the narrow gauge lines southwest from Pueblo to the mining districts around Durango and Silverton Inasmuch as most of the operations and track mileage of the Rio Grande Railroad are located in Colorado, most books written about this railroad place much more emphasis on the Colorado end of this originally two state regional rail line This work is no exception in that the photographer did spend the great bulk of his time in the area between Denver and Grand Junction, between Denver and Pueblo, and on the narrow-gauge portions of the line in the central and southwestern areas of that state. Chapters 8 through 12 are of particular interest to Utah residents, however, as they show the photos taken of the Rio Grande as well as the Western Pacific Railroad in Utah. Chapter 7 also discusses the narrow gauge Uintah Railway, a part of which operated in the Uinta Basin of Utah Early construction projects and city scenes including pictures of streetcars in Salt Lake City and Ogden are well documented Beam has recorded many superb views of trains at Castle Gate, Soldier Summit, Park City, Bingham Canyon, and the Bonneville Salt Flats H e even ventured out to Saltair and photographed the Salt Lake & Los Angeles Railroad, the Saltair line Only Springville photographer George Edward Anderson photographed more Rio Grande Railroad action in Utah.

Because these two volumes are essentially photograph albums exhibiting the considerable photographic talents and eye of a master photographer, the historical narrative is in the form of captions to the pictures. Most of the photos fill half or two-thirds of a page, and the extensively researched and well-written captions describe not only each particular photo but also discuss the history surrounding the event depicted and its relationship with the state or the railroad, etc.

Despite the fact that slightly less than half of volume 2 deals with the state of Utah, the distinctive text in the form of photo captions makes this volume a worthwhile investment for those who enjoy good photography and an unusual treatment of a segment of Utah railroading And the price of $27.00 for a hardbound book of 280 pages with some 250 photos is certainly not out of order In addition, one also acquires the railroad photography of the scenic beauty of southwestern Colorado Procuring volume 1 would complete the photographic history of the Rio Grande.

STEPHEN L CARR Hotladay, Utah

Resort City in the Sunbelt: Las Vegas, 1930-1970.

By EUGENE P MOEHRING (Reno and Las Vegas: University of Nevada Press, 1989 xxi + 329 pp $26.95.)

Most of the "new urban history" focuses on people and demographic patterns, with quantification frequently being a key factor in the story. UNLV Department of History chair Eugene Moehring's study is a more traditional approach to urban history, tracing the historical development of Las Vegas and its suburbs in a largely institutional sense, with emphasis on economics, politics, and urban infrastructure.

Moehring explains that he has no desire to add to the large number of works for a popular audience that either portray Las Vegas as a "'fun in the sun' tourist mecca" or serve up "searing exposes" of Mafia influence in the community His thesis is that Las Vegas is not so exceptional a place, being economically and politically similar to sunbelt cities such as Phoenix and San Antonio and to resort cities like Miami Beach and Honolulu.

Resort City in the Sunbelt focuses on the four decades from the building of Hoover Dam and the legalization of casino gambling in Nevada to the completion of the MGM Grand Hotel, with a prologue that tells of Las Vegas's earlier history as a Mormon colony and later as a railroad town, as well as an epilogue that follows some of Moehring's themes into the late 1980s. Professor Moehring offers eight chapters that chronicle the impact of federal spending as a "trigger" for the growth of modern Las Vegas, the history of the casino industry, the establishment of an urban infrastructure in an area that became home to several competing municipalities, the trials and accomplishments of local government (including the stubborn refusal of several large tracts to be annexed), the civil rights era of the 1960s, and the effort to attract alternative industries to the Las Vegas area.

Of particular interest is the impact of the gambling industry on efforts to build a solid urban infrastructure and to diversify the local economy. Moehring describes the casino owners as eager for the blessings of municipal development but reluctant to pay any more than absolutely necessary for the construction of such amenities. While that hardly sets them apart from major property owners in other American cities, Moehring also notes that at least until the establishment of casino gambling in Atlantic City, the presence of the gambling industry in Las Vegas led light industry and high-tech businesses to locate in Phoenix and other sunbelt cities instead of Nevada.

Also of interest are how water has been provided for a rapidly growing city in the desert; the efforts to establish a branch of the University of Nevada in Las Vegas, both as a service to the local residents and as a lure to attract hightech industry; and the development of transportation facilities, particularly the interstate highway system and a modern airport Likewise, the "boomtown" mentality common to Las Vegas developers as well as its residents in general, reminiscent of western patterns of the previous century, is a significant thread in Moehring's tale.

Though Moehring notes that the work is not a comprehensive history of Las Vegas, the average reader may well wish that he had discussed in greater detail the role of organized crime in the ownership and operation of the Las Vegas casinos, as well as the general challenges facing law-enforcement officers in a gambling town. Moehring often refers to the "alleged" mob ties of certain developers and then lapses into a discreet silence. He may prefer to give his attention to topics previously ignored by other writers, but the result is like writing a history of California in the late nineteenth century without considering the influence of the railroad barons.

As noted earlier, Eugene Moehring's purpose is to place the history of modern Las Vegas in a comparative context. Whether he succeeds in persuading readers that Las Vegas is more like other major southwestern metropolitan areas than not is something each must decide, but certainly Moehring has endeavored to present a balanced, if generally upbeat, picture of the city where he lives and works Las Vegas residents and students of western American urban life will find his book rewarding; the casual reader will enjoy the sections about casino history but will likely find the discussion of other urban developments a bit heavy going.

GORDON IRVING Bountiful, Utah

Promises Made to the Fathers: Mormon Covenant Organization

By REX EUGENE COOPER (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1990. x + 235 pp. $30.00.)

This is the fifth title in the University of Utah's Mormon Studies Series It is a solid and unique contribution that serious scholars of the Mormon experience will want to read. A reworking of Cooper's University of Chicago doctoral dissertation in anthropology, it is not a narrative history but rather a discussion of the theological and mythological glue that has held the Mormon community so tightly together. His approach is not one of what happened, but rather how it worked. His premise is that the unusual degree of LDS group cohesion can be explained by its system of religious covenants, now primarily found in temple ordinances. This book examines the nineteenth-century conceptual development and applicadon of that covenant system.

Cooper begins with a discussion of the covenant systems of New England Puritans in the seventeenth-century Massachusetts Bay Colony. His purpose is not to establish any direct historical influences on Mormonism In his own words, he uses analogy rather than genealogy. He then moves to a discussion of the emergence of Mormonism during the Second Great Awakening in rural New York and the forces that created it He compares these with the English experience which shaped the Puritans In this chapter he traces the Joseph Smith family history and suggests that they may have been acquainted with the New England Puritan covenant system.

The discussion of the LDS covenant system is viewed in three separate chronological experiences First there was the Christian communalism of the law of consecration, with a millennial gathering justification, mostly in Missouri during 1830-38 With the failure of that economic covenantal system and expulsion from Missouri came the development of a priesthood-based patriarchal order in the Nauvoo period. The Old Testament story of Abraham becomes increasingly important as a model Plural marriage becomes a part of the LDS belief system The construction of a second temple brought the development of special ordinances that emphasize family systems and work for the dead. Finally, there is a discussion of the patriarchal order and Mormon group cohesion in the post-Nauvoo period—initial evolution in the highly organized western migration staging camps and full development in the Great Basin primarily under Brigham Young and John Taylor This chapter is especially interesting in its discussion of how ecclesiastical authority eclipsed civil authority in the Mormon religious kingdom, the now all-but-extinct second anointings ordinance and the common practice of adoption through ordinance sealings to prominent churchmen where no biological relationship existed. (Wilford Woodruff brought an end to the latter practice in the early 1890s.) He also contrasts Great Basin United Order efforts, a purely economic joining, with the earlier law of consecration where the religious implications were much more complete. In the last brief chapter Cooper explains the substantial scaling down of this system to allow the Mormon community to survive the increasing hostility of the secular world He argues that these were substantial modifications but not a wholesale dismantiling. His position is that the Mormon covenant system is very much alive and is sdll the glue that holds the community together.

This is a very interesting and provocative book Much of what Cooper uses is available from other readings, but he has integrated that with numerous primary sources in a complete and understandable way A great many things I did not previously understand were made clear by this volume. It is not a work for the beginning student of Mormon history and experience, but serious scholars will find it very good reading He has done an excellent job of putting things in context.

KEN DRIGGS Tallahassee, Florida

Astoria and Empire.

By JAMES P. RONDA (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1990. xiv + 400 pp. $25.00.)

Since Washington Irving romanticized John Jacob Astor's Pacific Fur Company in Astoria, western historians have been fascinated by the epic journeys and efforts of those fur traders Most professors of western history teach the fur trade's political ramifications in the quest for the Pacific Northwest In Astoria and Empire, James Ronda details. Astors dreams of creating for the United States an empire in that region that would start with fur trade.

Ronda does an outstanding job of bringing to life the efforts of the politically astute Astor who desired much more than to upstage the Northwest Company by establishing a fur trade post on the Columbia He notes that in meeting with President Jefferson, Albert Gallatin, James Madison, and other key figures, Astor advanced the idea that an empire was there for the taking. By using fur trade as a foundation, he hoped national power and frontier peace could be achieved and money be made in the lucrative trade for northwestern furs and subsequent trade in Canton and Russia Undaunted by the enormity of his task Astor doggedly pursued his goal with political intrigue, playing the Canadian "Northwesterns" against their British government and British against Russian interests, and still keeping his financial interests in line with a desire to assist the United States in acquiring a continent.

Ronda then outlines the formation of the Pacific Fur Company and the setting in motion of Astor's dreams with the sailing of the Tonquin for the mouth of the Columbia. Soon to follow were the overland Astorians and their ill-fated trek across the continent headed by Wilson Price Hunt Life at Astoria is detailed with attention paid to significant Indian relations, outreach posts, and fears of conquest with the outbreak of the War of 1812 Ronda concludes with Astor's several attempts to keep his venture, his vain struggle to recover Astoria once lost to the British, and finally a legacy of the Astorians.

Astoria and Empire was written for those familiar with western history. In several ways the style will alienate and possibly confuse those who do not know the Astorians' story There is a breakdown in chronology when Hunt and the overland Astorians arrive at the Columbia and Ronda digresses to detail the building of the fort Likewise the destruction of the Tonquin is mentioned three times prior to telling the story, and, finally, in discussing the legacy of Astoria, Ronda mentions the geographical and natural history contributions of Robert Stuart during his journey eastward from Astoria to St Louis but never chronicles the trip.

Ronda's thesis focuses on the potential for empire. He does a superb job of unraveling the intriguing shadow world in which Astoria was conceived but then fails to connect Astoria with events that could have further strengthened that argument, such as the British government's forced merger of the Hudson's Bay and Northwest companies, the Beaver Desert policies of the 1820s and 1830s, and finally, the division of the Pacific Northwest at the 49th Parallel in 1846.

JOHN D BARTON Uintah Basin Education Center Utah State University