Senate spent day in discussing
Peace treaties. President Taft asked me to lunch tomorrow at 1:30 and bring
Jude Ailshie of Idaho. I suggested to the President to ask the Judge to lunch
with him at the suggestion of Judge Budge. Bp Spaulding of Salt Lake took
dinner with us and we discussed the Mormon belief most of the time. At 7.45 P M
I took him in company with Harold to the epiphany Episcopal church as he was to
lecture that the church this evening. Harold and I decided to attend the church
meeting and hear him. He spoke of the West and people. He stated the chief
characteristics of the people of the West were Optimistic Enthusiasm. 2nd Misdirected
Loyalty. 3rd Unconscious Hypocracy. 4thj Lack of Education. This applied to the
eastern man sent there to manage eastern capital invested there as well to the
Mormon people. Nothing but religion can change it. The Mormon religion
beginning with the personality of God is wrong and never has produced one
scholar. He did not mention polygamy. (Reed Smoot, Journal, March 5, 1912, in In
the world: The Diaries of Reed Smoot, ed. Harvard S. Hatch [Salt Lake City:
Signature Books, 1997], 138, emphasis in bold added)
