Reader comments
Smoot case fascinating

Senator Smoot may have been "wet behind the ears" regarding religious dogma, but he was a valient statesman when he voted against the League of Nations. Didn't The Deseret News.....not to mention the first presidency of the church..... chastise him for his stance on the subject?

Smoot's business savvy sure was no help when he and Senator Hawley passed the act that raised import tariffs on more than 20,000 items. There's general consensus among economists that the act deepened the Depression.

Worse, the tight money policies of another Utahn... Marriner S. Eccles, who was chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank throughout the Depression... also did the economy considerable damage.

I'm sure Michael Paulos wrote a very good book, but there's also another book out there on this subject; "The Politics of American Religious Identity: The Seating of Senator Reed Smoot, Mormon Apostle" by Kathleen Flake, and it's only 256 pages!

I'm sure this new book from Signature Books is interesting, but when I read professor Flake's book it really helped me to understand the events of Reed Smoot, and how they have affected Utah and the LDS church up to today. I'd recommend going to Amazon.com and getting it.

of interest, that discusses Mormons in public office and the public trust. "When Salt Lake City Calls' by Rocky Hulse.
This new book is interesting, and only 389 pages. It really helped me to understand why there is so much difficulty for members to maintain loyal to both church,government and their civil positions.

"When Smith seemed to indicate that the process of revelation was rare to him personally, it surprised many people."

Uhh...Smith said point blank that he did not receive revelations.

The reason I find the Smoot hearings so fascinating, is that church leaders told straight-faced lies the whole way through. Read the transcripts!