WOMEN UNDER POLYGAMY
for everyone, and adequate food and shelter for all. Many of the flagrant inequalities of city life are entirely absent. These benefits have been won in spite of persecution and repeated efforts at legislative suppression.
The Mormon society is a curious survival of patriarchal rule. The system has its manifest disadvantages for women, though some of the ills that accompany monogamous marriage are unknown. There is no doubt, however, that the bulk of women converted to Mormonism heartily approved of polygamy and subordination to men. Had it been otherwise, the State of Utah could not have prospered as it has since the founding of the colony. Mr. Linn says that the Mormon women of to-day are "the most earnest advocates of polygamous marriage."
"Said one competent observer in Salt Lake City to me, 'As the women of the South, during the war, were the rankest rebels, so the women of Mormondom are to-day the most zealous advocates of polygamy.'"[1]
Undoubtedly, cases of jealousy on the part of older wives, neglected for young and new brides, have frequently arisen. On the other hand, the great majority of the female adherents of the Mormon religion assert that they have eliminated all trace of jealousy.
A friend, Mr. E. Rouse, who knows Utah, tells me
- ↑ A. W. Linn. Op. cit.
307
