BANCROFT 
 LIBRARY 
 
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 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 

 Strength of the 
 Mormon Church 
 
 AN ADDRESS 
 
 Delivered by invitation at the 
 Banquet of the Knife and Fork 
 Club at Hotel Muhlebach, 
 Kansas City, Dec. 16th, 1920 
 By HEBER L GRANT 
 
 President of the Church of Jesus Christ 
 of Latter-dav Saints 
 
 Salt Lake City, Utah 
 BUREAU OF INFORMATION 
 
 1 9 2 I 
 

 of Fatifr 
 
 Of TH CHCHCH of JESUS CHSIST o LATTBB-PAT SAINTS. 
 
 1. Wx believe ia God, the Eternal Father, aud in His 
 Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost. 
 
 2. WB believe that men will be punished for their own 
 Bins, and not for Adam's transgression. 
 
 8. Wz believe that, through the atonement of Christ, 
 all mankind may be saved, by obedisnce to tha laws and 
 ordinances of the Gospel. 
 
 4. W believe that the first principles and ordinances 
 of the Gospel are: First, Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; 
 second, Repentance; third, Baptism by immersion for the 
 remission of nins; fourth, Laying on of Hands for the Gift 
 of the Holy Ghost. 
 
 5. WE believe that a man must be called of God, by 
 "prophecy, and by the laying on of hands," by those who 
 are la authority, to preach the gospel and administer in the 
 ordinances thereof. *; 
 
 8. WK believe in the same organisation that existed in 
 the primitive church, namely, apostles, prophets, pastors, 
 teachers, evangelists, etc. 
 
 7. -WK believe in the gift of tongues, prophecy, revela- 
 tion, visions, healing, interpretation of tongues, etc 
 
 8. WK believe tha Bible to be the word of God, as far 
 as it is translated correctly; we also believe the Book of 
 Mormon to be the word of God. 
 
 . WB fceMcve all that God has revealed, all that He 
 does now reveal, and we believe that He will yet rejeai 
 many great and important things pertaining to the Kingdom 
 
 10. ' WK believe In the literal gatb erin g o f Israel and in 
 the restoration of the Ten Tribes. That Zion will be boilt 
 upon this continent. That Christ will reign personally 
 npon tho earth, and that the earth will be renewed and 
 
 God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and 
 allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, 
 
 12* w'ii believe in'being subject to kings, presidents, 
 rulers and magistrates, in obeying, honoring and sustaining 
 
 tb( lS* W WK believe in being honest, troe.ohaate, benevolent, 
 virtuous, and in doing good to ALL MKW; indeed we may sav 
 that we follow the admonition of Paul, 'We believe all 
 vhings, we hope all things," va have eadured many things, 
 and hope to be able to endure all thiuga. If there is any- 
 thing virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy 
 wa seek after theae things. 
 
Strength of the "Mormon" Church \. 
 
 An Address Delivered by Invitation at the Banquet 
 
 of the Knife and Fork Club, Kansas City, 
 
 Missouri, December 16, 1920 
 
 By HEBER J.^GRANT 
 
 President of the Church of Jesus Christ 
 of Latter-day Saints 
 
 Salt Lake City, Utah 
 
 BUREAU OF INFORMATION 
 
 1921 
 
Strength of the "Mormon" Church 
 
 Glimpses From Its History, With Reference to Its 
 Trials, Travels, Beliefs, Achievements, and Plans for 
 the Future, as Shown in an Address Delivered by In- 
 vitation at the Banquet of the Knife and Fork Club at 
 Hotel Muhlebach, Kansas City, December 16, 1920, by 
 Heber J. Grant, President of the Church of Jesus 
 Christ of Latter-day Saints. 
 
 (This address was published in the March, 1921, issue of 
 the Coast Banker, San Francisco and Los Angeles and was 
 preceded by the following introduction : 
 
 One of the greatest forces, in temporal and religious 
 affairs of the United States is the Church of Jesus Christ 
 of Latter-day Saints, commonly known as the "Mormon" 
 Church. Its head is Heber J. Grant, who officiates under 
 the title of President. Mr. Grant possesses the character- 
 istics of a real leader strength of purpose, nobility and 
 humility of character, enthusiasm for all causes in which he 
 enters, and indefatigable industry. He is well known and 
 respected by the business men of the we&tern third of the 
 United States, regardless of their religious affiliations. 
 For years he has been a banker, and he holds the office 
 of president of the Utah State National Bank, and of the 
 Zion's Savings Bank and Trust Company, Salt Lake City 
 and for many years he has been strongly identified with 
 the insurance business as well; so that when, on the death 
 of President Smith, he succeeded to the headship of the 
 "Mormon" Church, he brought with him an equipment 
 that fully qualified him to take up the leadership in the 
 various corporations in which the "Mormon" Church 
 either holds a dominant position or is interested in a lesser 
 degree. 
 
 The important place the "Mormon" Church occupies 
 not only in Utal ' but in Idaho, Oregon, Washington, 
 Wyoming, Arizona, and other parts of the Western Hem- 
 isphere is told by President Grant in a most thorough 
 study and analysis; therefore we recommend to our read- 
 ers, the financial people of the western third of the United 
 
4 STRENGTH OF THE "MORMON" CHURCH 
 
 States, that they read this address by him, because it will 
 explain to them, not alone his plans, but those of the 
 organization which is so great a factor in their territory. 
 The Editor.) 
 
 I consider it a very distinct honor indeed, gentlemen, 
 to be invited to speak here tonight to this representative 
 body of business men in your wonderful city. It is re- 
 markable, to me, that your bank clearings should ex- 
 ceed the showing of St. Louis, although you have only 
 one-half the population. Utah is one of the most enter- 
 prising of all the enterprising states in the United 
 States, and one reason I consider it an honor to speak 
 here is the fact that the .early "Mormons" were driven 
 from this section of the country. (Laughter.) I am 
 grateful for this opportunity of addressing a body of 
 representative men in the very place from which our 
 people were expelled by an exterminating order of 
 Governor Boggs. This is a good illustration of the 
 wonderful change of sentiment in the United States re- 
 garding the people with whom I have the honor to be 
 associated. My mother was cast out as a thing of evil, 
 by some of the Ivins family of the East, when she be- 
 came a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Lat- 
 ter-day Saints. Forty-two years later, when I took her 
 back to Philadelphia to meet her relatives and friends, 
 her brothers and sisters having passed away, the 
 nephews and nieces fell in love with the "very fine old 
 lady." 
 
 Many people imagine that the "Mormons" have no 
 faith in what is known as the Bible. You will pardon 
 me for taking a little of your time to correct a few 
 erroneous impressions of this kind, and to refer briefly 
 to the travels of our people before the pioneers reached 
 Utah. The "Mormons" accept the Bible as the word 
 of God, but they also believe in the Book of Mormon. 
 Comparatively few people know what the Book of 
 Mormon purports to be. It is the sacred history of the 
 forefathers of the American Indian. 
 
STRENGTH OF THE "MORMON" CHURCH 5 
 
 The Latter-day Saints started in New York, where 
 the Church was organized in 1830. They later located 
 at Kirtland, Ohio, where they built quite a large 
 temple, which is still standing. The opposition and ill 
 will which they encountered were so great that they 
 decided to move to Missouri, there locating in and 
 around Far West. Previously they had established a 
 colony at Independence, a few miles from this city, 
 where they met with much opposition and were forced 
 to leave. Afterwards, as I have stated, they were ex- 
 pelled from the state of Missouri under the extermi- 
 nating order of Governor Lilburn W.Boggs. Later they 
 were invited to locate at Commerce, Illinois, where 
 there were very few people. They built a city known as 
 "Nauvoo the Beautiful/' in which within a few years 
 there were 20,000 inhabitants. Here, too, they met much 
 opposition. The prejudice against them caused them to 
 be bitterly persecuted, and the prophet Joseph Smith 
 crossed the Mississippi River, intending with a chosen 
 body of men to explore the Rocky Mountains for a 
 place of settlement and gathering for the people. 
 About this time he uttered a prophecy "that the 
 Saints would continue to suffer much affliction, and 
 would be driven to the Rocky Mountains ; many would 
 apostatize, others would be put to death by our perse- 
 cutors, or lose their lives in consequence of exposure 
 of disease ; and some would live to go and assist in 
 making settlements, and build cities, and see the Saints 
 become a mighty people in the midst of the Rocky 
 Mountains." At the time this prophecy was delivered, 
 one of the foremost statesmen in the United States, 
 Daniel Webster, is quoted as having made a remarkable 
 statement with reference to the western part of our 
 country, in which Joseph Smith had predicted the 
 Saints would become a mighty people. Said Webster : 
 "What do we want with this vast, worthless area? 
 This region of savages and wild beasts, of deserts, of 
 .shifting sands and whirlwinds of dust, of cactus and 
 
6 STRENGTH OF THE "MORMON" CHURCH 
 
 prairie dogs? To what use could we ever hope to put 
 these great deserts or those endless mountain ranges, 
 impenetrable and covered to their very base with eter- 
 nal snow? What can we ever hope to do with the 
 western coast of three thousand miles, rockbound, 
 cheerless, uninviting, and not a harbor on it? Mr. 
 President, I will never vote one cent from the public 
 treasury to place the Pacific Coast one inch nearer 
 Boston than it now is." (Laughter.) 
 
 Even statesmen, it appears, sometimes make mis- 
 takes. There are some very fine harbors on the Pacific 
 Coast, and the whole section west of the Missouri 
 River certainly has developed into a very marvelous 
 country. 
 
 THE MARTYRDOM AND SUBSEQUENT EVENTS. 
 
 Joseph Smith had foreseen that his people would be 
 forced again to leave their homes, and, as I say, he had 
 started West with a picked body of men to find a place 
 of refuge. But some of the people in Nauvoo accused 
 him of running away and deserting his flock. He there- 
 upon returned to Nauvoo, remarking that if his life was 
 of no value to his people, it was of no value to him. He 
 surrendered to the Governor of the state of Illinois. 
 He, with his brother, Hyrum Smith, John Taylor, and 
 Willard Richards, was incarcerated in Carthage jail, 
 with a pledge of protection from the Governor. On his 
 way to Carthage he said: "I am going like a lamb to 
 the slaughter ; but I am calm as a summer's morning ; 
 T have a conscience void of offense towards God and 
 towards all men. I shall die innocent, and it shall yet 
 be said of me, 'he was murdered in cold blood.' 5: lie 
 and his brother were killed by a mob. John Taylor, 
 who afterwards became president of the Church, re- 
 ceived four gunshot wounds and carried in his body 
 some of the rifle-balls to his grave. Brigham Young, 
 as leader of the stricken people, then entered into an 
 agreement that the latter would move to the West, He, 
 
STRENGTH OF THE "MORMON" CHURCH 7 
 
 with others, began exploring the country, and the mi- 
 gration started. Quite a number of the people located 
 at Council Bluffs; but that winter, after many of the 
 able-bodied men had left, the mob drove the remnant 
 of the "Mormon" people from their beloved city of 
 Nauvoo, which was then the largest city in the state of 
 Illinois. It was a beautiful and populous town of 
 twenty thousand souls when Chicago was a mere trad- 
 ing post ; and they deserted that city willingly because 
 they had to. (Laughter.) The first detachments of 
 the people crossed the Mississippi River on the ice, in 
 the dead of winter, and during that terrible night nine 
 babies were born with no shelter save the rude tents 
 and wagon covers under which their mothers were 
 huddled. No tongue can tell, no pen can paint the 
 sufferings and the hardships of the "Mormon" people 
 in these drivings from Missouri and Illinois. 
 
 They next located at Council Bluffs, moved across 
 the river and built Winter Quarters, now known as 
 Florence. In the meantime, a state of war had grown 
 out of the difficulties between the United States and 
 Mexico, and a government recruiting officer was sent 
 to the "Mormon" camps at Council Bluffs soliciting 
 five hundred men for military service to march against 
 Mexico. The leaders of our people had previously 
 petitioned the President of the United States, Martin 
 Van Buren, for redress of wrongs, only to have the 
 President announce : "Your cause is just, but I can do 
 nothing for you," a pusillanimous remark, to say the 
 least. Yet now five hundred men were demanded from 
 whom? From a people who were being expatriated, a 
 people who had been driven from Missouri under cir- 
 cumstances of indescribable cruelty, a people who had 
 also just been expelled from Illinois in the dead of win- 
 ter. Yet Brigham Young said: "Captain Allen, you 
 shall have your battalion ; and if we haven't enough 
 young men, we will give you old men." An American 
 flag was hoisted, recruiting started, and in three days 
 
8 STRENGTH OF THE "MORMON" CHURCH 
 
 the five hundred men were furnished. I maintain that 
 you will search the history of the world in vain to find 
 elsewhere such evidence of patriotism ! In spite of their 
 expatriation, in spite of the fact that in order to save 
 their lives they had been compelled to abandon and flee 
 from their homes, they responded to the call of their 
 country. And as to the nature of the service rendered by 
 the heroic volunteers, the gallant commander, Lieuten- 
 ant Colonel St. George Cooke, said in his general order 
 announcing the completion of their march : 
 
 "History may be searched in vain for an equal march 
 of infantry. Half of it has been through a wilderness 
 where nothing but .savages and wild beasts are found ; 
 or deserts where, for the want of water, there is no liv- 
 ing creature. There,with almost hopeless labor, we have 
 dug deep wells which the future traveler will enjoy. 
 Without a guide who had traversed them, w,e have 
 ventured into trackless table lands where water was not 
 found for several marches. With crowbar and pick 
 and ax in hand, we have worked our way over moun- 
 tains which seemed to defy aught ,save the wild goat, 
 and hewed a passage through a chasm of living rock 
 more narrow than our wagons." 
 
 I might incidentally remark, as a further instance of 
 the service of the Mormon Battalion in making the 
 West, that some of its members were among the dis- 
 coverers of gold in California, which subsequently 
 enriched our nation many millions of dollars. 
 
 THE GREAT MIGRATION TO UTAH. 
 
 Crossing to the west bank of the Missouri River, 
 as I have said, the "Mormon" camps established Winter 
 Quarters, and here many log houses were built, and a 
 frontier settlement was made. In this place Brigham 
 Young planted a cottonwood tree, under which I had 
 the honor of standing two weeks ago last Sunday, with 
 some of my companions ; and a snapshot was taken of 
 us, which by the way did not turn out very well. (I 
 
STRENGTH OF THE "MORMON" CHURCH 9 
 
 hope we did not spoil the camera.) It is a large tree, 
 with its branches extending a hundred feet, and its 
 trunk about twenty feet in circumference. It is dis- 
 tinctive, historically and otherwise, among all the other 
 trees in the park where it .stands. A short distance 
 from that spot many hundreds of the early "Mormons" 
 are buried ; and from there, in 1847, Brigham Young 
 started with his pioneer company of 143 men, three 
 women, and two children to explore the unknown 
 West, and find an abiding place for the homeless 
 people. I shall not relate the many incidents of peril 
 and anxiety on that memorable trip, which required 
 many weary weeks in traveling from the Missouri 
 River to the Salt Lake Valley, which was then prac- 
 tically an unknown country. Nor was the prospect 
 pleasing when they reached the spot where our chief 
 city now stands. "Weary and worn as I am," said 
 one of the three women, "I would gladly go anolher 
 thousand miles rather than stay in such a desolate 
 place ;" and another, her sister, echoed the same senti- 
 ment. But Brigham Young had said, "This is the 
 place," asserting that he had seen the valley in vision 
 some time before, and that it was the spot where the 
 Latter-day Saints should locate. He had been taken 
 sick just before reaching the valley, and a small ad- 
 vance company was sent out two days ahead of the 
 main body of pioneers to look over the country and 
 if possible prepare a bit of land for planting. They 
 had brought some plows, but found the ground so 
 hard that .several plowshares were broken. They 
 finally turned the water of a small stream on the 
 parched and baked soil, and on the first day succeeded 
 in planting a few acres of crops. So far as I know, 
 this was the beginning of that system of irrigation 
 which has meant so much in the development of the 
 United States of America, a system which has re- 
 claimed millions upon millions of acres of land, and 
 has led to the expenditure of very many millions of 
 
10 STRENGTH OF THE "MORMON" CHURCH 
 
 dollars by the government in reclamation projects it* 
 Idaho, Arizona, Utah, and other sections of the 
 country. 
 
 Some of the pioneer company later returned to Win- 
 ter Quarters. In the meantime the work of out- 
 fitting and preparing for the general migration to 
 the West had gone on apace. Large trains of ox 
 teams were organized that took several months to 
 cross the plains. My own father had the privilege of 
 commanding one of those companies the third com- 
 pany of emigrants that went to Utah that first season ; 
 and by the fall of 1847, there were 1600 people in 
 the Salt Lake Valley. They had built a log fort with 
 extensions, and a number of log houses. Their in- 
 dustry was prospectively to be rewarded with fruit- 
 ful harvests in 1848, when myriads of crickets ap- 
 peared, devouring everything before them. Immi- 
 gration had continued meanwhile, and now the peo- 
 ple felt that ruin and starvation stared them in the 
 face, because they were a thousand miles from any- 
 where, so to speak, and it appeared that the crops 
 would be utterly lost in spite of all they could do. 
 Unless that harvest could be saved, there was nothing, 
 for them to look forward to but absolute starvation. 
 As a people they believe God came to their rescue ; 
 that it was His providence that from the islands in 
 the Great Salt Lake the flocks of gulls came which 
 devoured the crickets. In commemoration of this de- 
 liverance there has since been erected a very beauti- 
 ful monument, and I shall take occasion to get from 
 Secretary Tufts a list of the members of your club, 
 and when I return home will mail to each of you a 
 booklet entitled "Utah," on the front cover of which 
 is a picture of the monument, erected in remembrance 
 of the mercy of God in saving from starvation th^ 
 many hundreds of early pioneers in the Salt Lake 
 Valley. Our Legislature has enacted a law prohibit- 
 ing the killing of gulls ; and the birds are so tame tint 
 
STRENGTH OF THE "MORMON" CHURCH 11 
 
 they will come into our fields, and follow the plow- 
 man to feast on the worms that are uncovered by 
 his furrow. 
 
 PIONEERING THE INTERMOUNTAIN COUNTRY. 
 
 In the next few years the "Mormons" redeemed 
 the valleys for a hundred miles north and three hun- 
 dred and fifty miles to the south. Originally, Utah 
 included all of the present State of Utah, all of Ne- 
 vada, part of Colorado, and part of Wyoming and 
 Idaho ; but pieces have been sliced off from time to 
 time, until it is small in area compared with what it 
 was in the early days, perhaps no more than one- 
 half its original size. 
 
 The "Mormon" people have been not only the 
 pioneers in settlement and in irrigation and reclama- 
 tion in Utah, but they were the pioneers also in Idaho. 
 A little settlement that was once in Utah is now in 
 Idaho, and it is the city where the pioneers of th.e Gem 
 state meet once a year to celebrate "Idaho Day," be- 
 ing the starting point of civilization in that section. 
 In the other direction, the San Luis Valley in Colo- 
 rado was considered altogether too high in elevation 
 to be of any value for agriculture until a "Mormon" 
 colony went there and reclaimed the locality. They 
 proved that it was a good country for raising crops, 
 notwithstanding the fact that it was seven thousand 
 feet in elevation. The "Mormons" were also among 
 the very first pioneers to go into Arizona. There was 
 a great deal of prejudice against them, but it has 
 practically all disappeared. Today there is perhaps a 
 better feeling toward our people in Arizona than in 
 any other section in which they are located. As an 
 illustration of the good will existing there regarding 
 the "Mormon" people : when a novelist by the name 
 of Winifred Graham came over here from England, 
 telling a lot of unconscionable lies about the "Mor- 
 mons," a Senator from Arizona stood up in the Sen- 
 
12 STRENGTH OF THE "MORMON" CHURCH 
 
 ate of the United States and voluntarily and .em- 
 phatically branded her statements as the falsehoods 
 which they were. The ex-Governor of the state also 
 said that no better class of people could be found 
 anywhere than the "Mormons" of Arizona, adding 
 that in one respect they were being robbed of between 
 2500 and 3000 per cent of a certain class of taxes in 
 Arizona because, according to population, they were 
 entitled to have twenty-five or thirty inmates in the 
 state penitentiary, and they had only one (laughter) ; 
 also that we were entitled to 700 or 800 percent more 
 of the taxes set aside for the support of the insane, 
 being entitled, according to population, to seven or 
 eight inmates in the insane asylum, whereas w.e had 
 none. 
 
 We ask people to judge us by the standard laid 
 down by our Savior: "By their fruits ye shall know 
 them." I was reading last Saturday, in Chicago, 
 from Phil Robinson's book, Sinners and Saints, in 
 which he states that he is at the defiance of any 
 man to find a single book, with one exception, written 
 on the "Mormon" question, that is not absolutely un- 
 true, because practically all the books on that subject 
 were written by the enemies of our people, and are 
 unfair. In the book I refer to, Mr. Robinson gives 
 the "Mormons" a fine certificate of character, and 
 among other things says that he nearly choked to 
 death for "a drink" among the "Mormons" while 
 traveling 350 miles to the south and a hundred-odd 
 miles to the north, until after inquiring for a "back- 
 slider" he was successful in finding a demijohn. After 
 that he got along very well. He said he had always 
 supposed water was for the cleansing of the body un- 
 til he arrived in Utah, and there he found it was used 
 for drinking purposes. Mr. Robinson also refers to 
 the fact that although we had 80-odd per cent of the 
 population in Utah, the remaining 17 per cent (as I 
 
STRENGTH OF THE "MORMON" CHURCH 13 
 
 recall) furnished 80 per cent of the inmates of the 
 territorial penitentiary. 
 
 The first great commandment is to "multiply and 
 replenish the earth ;" and Utah's best crop is babies. 
 (Laughter.) We feel very proud of the record of 
 our people in that particular. We can not begin to 
 compare with other people in furnishing divorces. 
 
 Before we divided on party lines in Utah as 
 Democrats and Republicans, I heard a Congressman 
 say, while making a campaign speech in Salt Lake 
 City, that hanging on the wall in one of the houses 
 of Congress in Washington there was a map show- 
 ing the states and territories of the Union. The ma^ 
 was black originally, but as education grew, it was 
 painted white ; and he stated that there were only 
 four whiter spots upon that map than Utah. At that 
 time Utah was a territory and we had no public 
 lands to sell to help us in education; we had forged 
 to the front without receiving one single, solitary 
 dollar from the sale of public lands from the United 
 States. We have been branded as an ignorant lot, 
 and yet for ninety-odd years we have been sending 
 our young men to Harvard and other universities to 
 get an education, and they have made a record of 
 which we are proud. While I was presiding over 
 the European mission of our Church, I read in the 
 newspapers that we have overtaken and equalled one 
 of the states in the Union for second place in respect 
 to literacy. Doctor Winship, one of the great educa- 
 tors of our country, has given us credit, in recent 
 lectures, for having the finest laws on education of 
 any state or territory in the Union. 
 
 TEMPLE BUILDING AND HOME INDUSTRY. 
 
 As I have already told you, the early "Mormons" 
 erected a temple soon after they reached Ohio, and 
 considering the small number of people that were 
 there, it was a wonderful accomplishment. They 
 
14 STRENGTH OF THE "MORMON" CHURCH 
 
 erected a large temple at Nauvoo, which was de- 
 stroyed by the mob, after the expulsion of the people. 
 The second day, after the arrival of the pioneers in 
 the Salt Lake Valley, Brigham Young walked to the 
 spot where the great temple was later erected, drove 
 his cane into the ground, and said, "Here we will 
 build the Temple of our God." The corners were 
 laid forty years, to a day, before the temple was 
 completed. For forty long years the people contrib- 
 uted of their means toward the erection of that tem- 
 ple. As a child I contributed fifty cents a month ; 
 later as a boy I gave a dollar a month, then five dol- 
 lars, and finally made a contribution of several thou- 
 sand dollars ,to aid in its completion. In the mean- 
 time the pioneers were redeeming a country which was 
 considered absolutely worthless before they under- 
 took its reclamation. The noted trapper, Jim Bridger, 
 had told Brigham Young and his pioneer company 
 that he would give one thousand dollars for the first 
 ear of corn ripened in the Salt Lake Valley; it was 
 quite generally considered a worthless wilderness. Yet, 
 when years later the United States government of- 
 fered a handsome prize for the best five acres of 
 wheat raised in any part of the United States, Salt 
 Lake Valley carried off the prize. The temple which, 
 as I have said, was forty years in building was 
 erected at a cost of over four millions of dollars. I 
 imagine it could be built today, even at the high 
 prices of labor and material, for a million and a half. 
 But in those days it took an ox team several days to 
 go to the mountains and bring one solitary stone for 
 the structure. It took several weeks of work by hand 
 to cut that stone. The footings of the building are 
 sixteen feet ; the walls are eight feet thick ; and it was 
 built, as Brigham Young advised everybody to build, 
 "to last a thousand years." He erected, at that early 
 day, a theatre in Salt Lake which still stands, in 
 which all of the leading companies that visit Utah 
 
STRENGTH OF THE "MORMON* 1 CHURCH 15 
 
 put on their plays. It was built when I was a child. 
 Every nail in it was carried a thousand miles from 
 the frontiers at the Missouri River, when nails were 
 a dollar a pound. Those were the days when sugar 
 was selling at one hundred one dollars a bag one 
 hundred for the sugar and one dollar for the sack. 
 When people went to the theatre they took their mo- 
 lasses in a can, or brought a squash or something 
 else to pay the price of admission. Fortunately there 
 was no war tax ; for they could not have paid it ; they 
 had no money. Within twenty years after the arrival 
 of the pioneers, the "Mormon" Tabernacle was built, 
 with a seating capacity of eight thousand. On special 
 occasions, when the building has been crowded, more 
 than ten thousand people have been counted. The 
 Tabernacle was erected without the use of nails, the 
 roof being pinned together with wooden pins and tied 
 with rawhide thongs. At the time of its completion, 
 although a thousand miles from civilization, it was 
 the largest auditorium in the United States of Amer- 
 ica without a center support to the roof; and it is 
 today the largest except where steel girders have been 
 used to support the roof. 
 
 A concert was given in the building, by our Taber- 
 nacle Choir of five hundred voices, for the relief of the 
 sufferers from the Johnstown flood. The net re- 
 ceipts, at a $1 a seat, amounted to $7,500, which was 
 remitted to the sufferers. Yet under those conditions 
 our people built some splendid* irrigation projects. 
 Some of them would cost today millions! upon mil- 
 lions of dollars, and they were built by the co-opera- 
 tive labor of the people; and the exchange of their 
 products. Brigham Young taught the people to sus- 
 tain home manufacture, to be economical, to avoid ex- 
 travagant habits, and not think of getting this, that, 
 and the other which would not add to any actual com- 
 fort. In those days we were clothed in what was 
 known as "homespun,." In nearly every home the 
 
16 STRENGTH OF THE "MORMON" CHURCH 
 
 wife would take the wool and prepare it for spinning, 
 she would have in her home a loom on which she 
 would weave the rag carpets. When we 'built a 
 canal, the only money we needed was for the pur- 
 chase of plows and scrapers and for powder to blast 
 the rocks. Most of our .early great enterprises were 
 made possible by co-operative labor. I know of one 
 little canal on which the settlers worked each winter 
 for twelve long years, and reclaimed the ground where 
 now stands a little settlement of eight hundred or a 
 thousand people. The accomplishments of Utah have 
 been brought aibout by pulling together, ;by "team- 
 work," by absolute unity, and co-operation, which I 
 believe existed there to a greater extent than in any 
 other community. { 
 
 Brigham Young has the honor of having estab- 
 lished in Utah the first department store in our coun- 
 try Zion's Co-operative Mercantile Institution, pf 
 which I am now president. This list of companies 
 (pointing to program) of which I am credited with 
 being president fails to mention those which come my 
 way accidentally, one may say, because I became 
 president of the Church, all of which are of more 
 importance than the ones on the list here published.One 
 of the institutions over which I have the honor to 
 preside, and over which my predecessors from Brig- 
 ham Young to Joseph F. Smith have presided, is 
 Zion's Co-operative Mercantile Institution, estab- 
 lished in early days to prevent ejxessive profits and 
 to protect the people by giving* them fair goods at a 
 fair profit. That institution now does a business of 
 some twelve million dollars a year. 
 
 ESTABLISHED BEET-SUGAR INDUSTRY. 
 
 Another institution that I have the honor of pre- 
 siding over is the Utah-Idaho Sugar Company. I 
 wish to say to you gentlemen here that we have the 
 honor of having erected the first beet-sugar factory 
 
STRENGTH OF THE "MORMON" CHURCH 17 
 
 ever built in the United States of America with Amer- 
 ican mahinery. There had been several factories 
 built with imported machinery; in fact, away back 
 in 1862, the- "Mormons" sent John Taylor (who after- 
 wards became president of the Church) to France to 
 bring machinery from there to try to establish the 
 beet-sugar industry in the Great Basin. To my mind, 
 perhaps one of the most substantial illustrations of the 
 loyalty and of the co-operative work of the "Mor- 
 mon" people is seen in the following: In 1891 when 
 Baring Brothers failed in London, with their invest- 
 ments largely in the Argentine Republic, that fail- 
 ure reached clear out to Salt Lake City; and as there 
 was very little money in the country it made it very 
 hard indeed for our people. Many of those who had 
 subscribed for stock in the sugar company were un- 
 able to pay their subscription; but tne president of 
 the Church said : "We will build that factory if it 
 breaks the credit of the Church itself ; we must build 
 it, because it will make an increased product from the 
 soil and therefore be beneficial to the people." The 
 president sent me East, West, North and South, all 
 through the country, as his agent, to borrow money 
 with which to build that factory. After we had failed 
 in New York and other Eastern centers to get money 
 to' finish it, I went to San Francisco and appealed 
 to Henry Wadsworth, then manager of the Wells 
 Fargo Bank, to loan the last hundred thousand dollars 
 that we needed. In my appeal I said to him: "Mr. 
 Wadsworth, when you w.ere in Salt Lake you believed 
 in me as a boy when I worked for you; you gave me 
 $100 as a New Year's present, and stated that no one 
 else in the bank should have a dollar because all the 
 others watched the clock to see how soon they could 
 get out of the front door after 3 o'clock, whereas I 
 came back occasionally and worked at night. Now 
 that I am one of the leading officials of the 'Mor- 
 mon' Church I ask you to believe in me, and to fur- 
 
18 STRENGTH OF THE "MORMON" CHURCH 
 
 nish the hundred thousand dollars necessary to com- 
 plete this factory. I have just succeeded in getting 
 fifty thousand dollars from the Fireman's Fund In- 
 surance Company of San Francisco; they know me 
 well. But I must have a hundred thousand dollars 
 more, and I must have it from you." I pleaded with 
 him to deposit the money in Zion's Savings Bank and 
 Trust Company, in Salt Lake City, and told him we 
 could convince that bank that our securities were good. 
 His reply was that "banks were failing everywhere 
 and he could not let me have the money." Finally I 
 said: "Mr. Wadsworth, the beet-sugar industry must 
 and shall be established. I have no authority to offer 
 you the note of the Church, but I pledge you four 
 notes of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day 
 Saints twenty-five thousand due in six months, 
 twenty-five thousand in a year, twenty-five thousand 
 in eighteen months, and twenty-five thousand in two 
 years, with twenty indorsers, individually and several- 
 ly liable for the obligation ; you to write out twenty- 
 five names of the strongest financial 'Mormon' men 
 in Salt Lake City, and I will guarantee to get twenty 
 indorsers out of the twenty- five." He said : "My boy, 
 that is an impossibility ; no twenty men on earth would 
 guarantee, individually and collectively, one hundred 
 thousand dollars for any church." "Well," I replied, 
 "we are a little different from any other church ; I 
 will get you the notes and indorsers all right." He 
 insisted that it could not be done. "Then you don't 
 need to give me the money," I said at last ; "all I ask 
 is that you give me the opportunity." Then he said : 
 "I will go you one better; I will write thirty names, 
 and if you can get any twenty out of the thirty, it 
 will be satisfactory, and you can have your money." 
 He wrote five or six names, tore up the paper, and 
 said : "Heber, you were my office boy fifteen years 
 ago. Many a man has gone broke in fifteen years. T 
 just write up to my successor in Salt Lake and 
 
STRENGTH OF THE "MORMON" CHURCH 19 
 
 tell him to write the names." When I got back home, 
 his successor wrote a list of names, and as he looked 
 at them he said: "Those names remind me of an in- 
 cident in early days in a California mining camp. 
 There was a saloon-keeper who had on his front door 
 a list of names of the people who owed him for 
 whiskey. One day his wife in a streak of cleanliness 
 scrubbed the floor and even washed the door, and 
 when the man discovered it he exclaimed: 'Good 
 heavens! you have ruined me; give me a pencil 
 quick, and maybe I can still make them out/ Then 
 he studied out the names as best he could, and re- 
 wrote them, and stood and looked at the list. Yon 
 know some people say that 'damn' is only emphasis ; 
 and with emphasis he said: 'That is the best lot of 
 .... names that was ever on that door.' ' : So this 
 banker said : "This is the best lot of names I ever 
 saw." 
 
 A FINANCIER'S FAITH AND AID 
 
 I got twenty-four indorsers out of the thirty men 
 on his list ; three of the thirty were out of town, and 
 one man volunteered to sign whose name was not on 
 the list, but who happened to hear two of the gentle- 
 men that were on the list refusing to sign the note, 
 these taking the ground that it was not good morals 
 for a church to borrow money to loan to a private cor- 
 poration. I said to them: "I will agree, when you air 1 
 I meet the Lord, if we ever do, to absolve you frcr* 
 all trouble if you will put your name on the back of 
 these notes. (Laughter.) It will be time enough for 
 you, or me, to decide the morals of the question when 
 we become members of the presidency of the Church. 
 The presidency have signed the notes, and they will 
 have to answer to the Lord for the moral part of it. 
 Will you sign the notes, or will you not?" They de- 
 clined. Then I had this conversation with the vol- 
 untary signer to whom I have referred. He lived in 
 
20 STRENGTH OF THE "MORMON" CHURCH 
 
 Ogclen and was worth more than any ten men who 
 had signed the note when he died his estate was 
 worth fifteen to twenty millions of dollars. He had 
 been writing a letter and after the two men declined, 
 he said : "Heber, I have heard your story. Is my name 
 on the list?" "No," I replied, "there are only Salt Lake 
 men on the list." He said he would like to look at the 
 notes. I handed them to him, and he wrote his name on 
 the back of each one without .even reading the notes. 
 He handed them back, with the remark: "I don't think 
 my name will hurt them." Then he said to me: 
 "Heber, tell the president of the Church that any time 
 he wishes those notes paid, if he will notify David 
 Eccles thirty days ahead I always keep from one 
 to three hundred thousand dollars in bank, on certifi- 
 cates of deposit, so that on thirty days' notice I can 
 draw it out -I will be glad to pay these notes, and 
 the Church can pay me in one year, or five years, or 
 ten years, or when convenient." Maybe you think I 
 did not want to hug this man about that time. 
 (Laughter.) 
 
 Then Mr. Eccles added : "Tell the president of the 
 Church that if he wants my name on another hun- 
 dred thousand dollars of notes, just to send you up 
 to Ogden. You have never been In my house. I will 
 give you supper, bed and breakfast ; and we have pen 
 and ink." By the way, I went up there some time 
 later, and got his signature for another $100,000. 
 (Laughter.) When he told me the street on which 
 he lived, I said: "Don't tell me what street you live 
 on. Step across the road to my office and I will show 
 you a plat of your house. I have it insured." 
 (Laughter.) 
 
 I have referred to some of the buildings erected bv 
 the Latter-day Saints, among them the great Salt 
 Lake Temple. When I was a boy they erected a temple 
 also at St. George, three hundred fifty miles south of 
 Salt Lake City, at a cost of several hundred thousand 
 
STRENGTH OF THE "MORMON" CHURCH 21 
 
 dollars. Later, when I was a young man of twenty- 
 six, they completed a temple in Logan, costing sev- 
 eral hundred thousand dollars. Some three or four 
 years later they erected another temple, just as large, 
 at Manti, Utah. Last November, on my birthday, I 
 was in the Hawaiian Islands and dedicated a temple 
 there which cost over two hundred thousand dollar:-. 
 This coming summer we expect to dedicate in Canada, 
 a temple costing over six hundred thousand dollars. We 
 have spent millions of dollars in the erection of ward 
 chapels and district meeting houses, also millions of 
 dollars in erecting Churth-school Ibuildings, from 
 Canada to Mexico. During the present year we will 
 supply, for maintenance of Church schools alone to 
 say nothing of erection of buildings three-quarters 
 of a million dollars. 
 
 Time will not permit me to speak in detail of the 
 part the Church has played in establishing and foster- 
 ing institutions for the good of the people. I have re- 
 ferred to Zion's Co-operative Mercantile Institution 
 and to the beet-sugar industry. The latter, the first 
 year produced only one million one hundred thousand 
 pounds of sugar. The Dyers, of Cleveland, Ohio, who, 
 built this factory, left Utah after two or three years, 
 believing that the sugar industry in Utah would be a 
 failure : but among the "Mormon" people there is a 
 considerable percent of Scotch, Dutch and Scandi- 
 navian blood, and they are somewhat stubborn. You 
 know it is said there is nobody on earth quite as stub- 
 born as a Scotchman, except a Dutchman. I happen 
 to be Scotch on my father's side and Dutch on my 
 mother's. Our people have been brought together 
 from all sections of the country ; in fact, we have con- 
 verts from all parts of the world. They did not al- 
 low difficulties to discourage them ; they did not give 
 up ; and in 1920, the Utah-Idaho Sugar Company will 
 produce over two million one hundred thousand bags 
 of one hundred pounds each of sugar, instead of one 
 
22 STRENGTH OF THE "MORMON" CHURCH 
 
 million one hundred thousand pounds as in the first 
 year. There are other sugar companies in Utah and 
 Idaho and their combined product will be equally ?s 
 much as ours. So that the beet-sugar industry in the 
 intermountain section will produce this year over four 
 million bags of sugar. It is true that Colorado has 
 outstripped us in the beet-sugar production ; but the 
 original people who went over into Colorado and built 
 the first factory, received their education in the first 
 factory built in Utah. 
 
 "MORMON" PIONEER HYMN. 
 
 Some day a story will be written about the suffer- 
 ings and hardships of the "Mormon" pioneers while 
 crossing the plains. I feel disposed to tell at least one 
 little incident in connection with the pioneer journey. 
 When the "Mormons" were at Winter Quarters, pre- 
 paring to outfit their companies to travel by ox team 
 to Utah, Brigham Young turned to a man named Wil- 
 liam Clayton and said : "Before the first company 
 starts for Salt Lake Valley, I want you to write a 
 hymn that will inspire and comfort and cheer and bless 
 the people on their long journey." William Clayton 
 went away, and is reputed to have returned the same 
 day with what is known as the great "Mormon" 
 pioneer hymn. 
 
 When I arrived in Liverpool to preside over the 
 European mission, as successor to the father of Doc- 
 tor Richard R. Lyman, who is here with us tonight 
 (a professor of engineering in the University of Utah 
 and graduate from Michigan University), President 
 Lymnn said: "We will sing your favorite hymn to- 
 night." I replied that I hadn't any favorite. "All the 
 leaders of the Church ought to have a favorite song," 
 said President Lyman; "my favorite is, 'School thy 
 feelings, O my brother; train thy warm impulsive 
 soul.' The favorite of my bosom friend John Henry . 
 Smith, is 'Up, awake, ye defenders of Zion.' " And 
 
STRENGTH OF THE "MORMON" CHURCH 23 
 
 he named the favorite hymns of about a dozen of our 
 Church leaders. Finally I said: "Hold on; I can 
 choose my favorite in a quarter of a minute 'Come, 
 come, ye Saints/ ' 
 
 Come, come, ye Saints, no toil nor labor fear, 
 
 But with joy wend your way; 
 Though hard to you this journey may appear, 
 
 Grace shall be as your day. 
 'Tis better far for us to strive 
 Our useless cares from us to drive, 
 Do this, and joy your hearts will swell 
 All is well! All is well! 
 
 Why should we mourn, or think our lot is hard? 
 
 'Tis not so; all is right! 
 Why should we think to earn a great reward, 
 
 If we now shun the fight? 
 Gird up your loins, fresh courage take, 
 Our God will never us forsake; 
 And soon we'll have this tale to tell 
 All is well! All is well! 
 
 We'll find the place which God for us prepared, 
 
 Far away in the West; 
 Where none shall come to hurt or make afraid; 
 
 There the Saints will be blest. 
 We'll make the air with music ring, 
 Shout praises to our God and King; 
 Above the rest these words we'll tell 
 All is well! All is well! 
 
 And should we die before our journey's through, 
 
 Happy day! all is well! 
 We then are free from toil and sorrow too; 
 
 With the just we shall dw,ell. 
 But if our lives are spared again 
 To see the Saints their rest obtain, 
 O, how we'll make this chorus swell-- 
 All is well! All is well! 
 
 PATHETIC INCIDENT OF THE PLAINS. 
 
 One day my father-in-law said to me : "Heber, for 
 twenty long years I have listened in vain for our choirs 
 to sing the fourth verse of 'Come, come,ye Saints/ I 
 
24 STRENGTH OF THE "MORMON" CHURCH 
 
 believe the rising generation know nothing whatever 
 of the comfort and cheer which we received, while 
 crossing the plains, from singing that pioneer hymn 
 or they never would be guilty of leaving off the fourth 
 verse, which we looked upon as a prayer." In one of 
 the revelations to our Church we are told by the Lord : 
 "For my soul delighteth in the song of the heart, yea, 
 the song of the righteous is a prayer unto me, and it 
 shall be answered with a blessing upon their heads." 
 My father-in-law said that hymn was a blessing to 
 everyone who sang it, and particularly the last verse 
 which they sang and meant every word of it : 
 
 And should we die before our journey's through, 
 
 Happy day! all is well! 
 We then are free from toil and sorrow too; 
 
 With the just we shall dwell. 
 
 Then he related the following incident: "One 
 of the men in our company crossing the plains was 
 late coming into camp one night. (In those early 
 companies they traveled a day and a half or two days 
 apart, and had three companies going practically to- 
 gether, so that in case oi Indian trouble, having a few 
 horses with -each company, men with guns could go 
 back or forward.) As this man had not reached 
 camp, and it was getting late, we organized a volun- 
 teer company to go back to see if he had been waylaid 
 by Indians. Just as we were ready to start, we saw 
 him coming in the distance. He explained that he had 
 been sick, and as he happened to have the last wagon 
 in the company, he was alone, and had to lie down by 
 the road for a few hours' rest. He was very feeble 
 when he came into camp, so we unyoked his oxen, and 
 got his supper ready. After supper he sat on a large 
 rock by the campfire and sang 'Come, come, ye Saints.' 
 It was the rule of the camp that whenever any one 
 started to sing this pioneer hymn, all the others should 
 join in; but in this case it happened that none of us 
 
STRENGTH OF THE "MORMON" CHURCH 25 
 
 joined in the song. When he had finished, I looked 
 around and I did not see a dry eye. The next morning? 
 noticing that he had not yoked up his oxen, we went 
 to his wagon and found that he had died during the 
 night. We dug a shallow grave, buried his body, and 
 to the head of his grave we rolled the stone on which 
 he sat the night before, while singing, 'And should we 
 die before our journey's through, happy day! all is 
 well! We then are free from toil and sorrow too; 
 with the just we shall dwell/ ' : My father-in-law 
 started to tell me something else, but stopped and 
 said : "Never mind." Years later the Burlington rail- 
 road, while surveying its line through Nebraska and 
 Wyoming, found a broken wagon tire sticking out of 
 the ground, on which there had been chiseled the 
 words: "Rebecca Winters; age SO years." The sur- 
 veyers with delicate kindness and consideration went 
 back three or four miles, and changed the line of the 
 road in order to miss that lonely grave. The railroad 
 company fenced the spot and wrote to Utah to find 
 out if any one knew Rebecca Winters. She was my 
 wife's grandmother. No doubt my father-in-law had 
 intended to tell me during the conversation above 
 quoted, that when he came to Salt Lake City from his 
 home in another part of the territory, to meet an im- 
 migrant train on which he expected to find his be- 
 loved mother, he learned that she, too, had died be- 
 fore her journey "was through." We have erected 
 a little monument at the grave, inscribing on one side 
 the history of Grandma Winters, and on the other 
 side the fourth verse of "Come, come, ye Saints, no 
 toil nor labor fear." 
 
 AS COLONIZERS AND NATION-BUILDERS. 
 
 It is this spirit among the "Mormon" people, of co- 
 operation, this willingness to stand one by the other, 
 and to build up the communities, that has helped to 
 redeem the desert, that has enabled them to make a 
 
26 STRENGTH OF THE "MORMON" CHURCH 
 
 j*ecord in Canada, in Mexico, as well as in our own 
 country that has given them the splendid standing 
 and reputation they enjoy. They were regarded as 
 the foremost colonists of all Mexico, fn the estimation 
 of that great leader of the republic, the late General 
 Diaz. No one would suspect that that iron character 
 would be guilty of shedding a tear, and yet on the 
 last trip he took to Chihuahua to visit the state fair, 
 when he saw the exhibit of industry and frugality, the 
 saddles and the harness, the canned fruit, the bottled 
 fruit, the exhibits from the "Mormon" academy and 
 the pictures of the "Mormon" Church schools in 
 Juarez, the old warrior wiped his eyes and said : "What 
 could I not do with my beloved Mexico if I only had 
 more citizens and settlers like the 'Mormons/ " 
 
 Wherever we have gone, we have made a success. 
 The "Mormon" people believe in education ; they be- 
 lieve in art, in literature, in science, in advancement. 
 They sent their tabernacle choir of two hundred fifty 
 voices to the Chicago Fair in 1893, and won the sec- 
 ond prize in competition with all the world, for the 
 best choir of that number of voices. The choir that 
 won first prize, I understand, had hired the best fifty 
 voices from Wales to help them out. (Laughter.) We 
 put in a little protest, but the protest did not work. 
 One of the producers of operas, concerts, and lectures, 
 a great theatrical man of New York, told me that 
 he was at the fair and heard the choirs sing; and his 
 verdict was that those fifty voices did not help the 
 other choir, their strength and power destroyed per- 
 fect harmony; "but, of course," he said, "it would 
 never have done to give you miserable 'Mormons' 
 the five-thousand-dollar prize, although if I had been 
 the judge you would have received it." 
 
 It was my intention to speak from notes on this 
 occasion, because this is my first attempt at talking to 
 an Pii-dience like this. The first thing I had intended 
 to do was to read a poem, but I forgot all about it 
 
STRENGTH OF THE "MORMON" CHURCH 27 
 
 until I looked at these notes. Now that I see my time 
 is about up, I am going to close with what should 
 have been the beginning and use the remaining few 
 minutes in reading this poem and a statement regard- 
 ing Joseph Smith. Some four years ago I happened 
 to buy this book, and since then I have given away 
 over five hundred copies. I have just ordered some- 
 thing over a thousand to send out, at the expense of 
 the Church, to our missionaries in the United States. 
 I am very grateful to be here, as I said in the open- 
 ing of my remarks, and I hope you will get acquainted 
 with me. This poem is from the pen of Edgar A. 
 Guest, and is entitled : 
 
 WHEN YOU GET TO KNOW A FELLOW. 
 
 When you get to know a fellow, know his joys and know 
 
 his cares, 
 When you've come to understand him and the burdens 
 
 that he bears, 
 When youVe learned the fight he's making and the 
 
 troubles in his way, 
 Then you find that he is different than you thought him 
 
 yesterday. 
 You find his faults are trivial and there's not so much to 
 
 blame 
 In the brother that you jeered at when you only knew 
 
 his name. 
 
 You are quick to see the blemish in the distant neighbor's 
 
 style, 
 You can point to all his errors and may sneer at him the 
 
 while, 
 And your prejudices fatten and your hates more violent 
 
 grow 
 
 As you talk about the failures of the man you do not know, 
 But when drawn a little closer, and your hands and 
 
 shoulders touch, 
 You find the traits you hated really don't amount to 
 
 much. 
 
 When you get to know a fellow, know his every mood 
 
 and whim, 
 
 You begin to find the texture of the splendid side of him; 
 You begin to understand him, and you cease to scoff and 
 
 sneer. 
 
28 STRENGTH OF THE "MORMON" CHURCH 
 
 For with understanding always prejudices disappear. 
 You begin to find his virtues and his faults you cease to 
 
 tell, 
 For you seldom hate a fellow when you know him very 
 
 well. 
 
 When next you start in sneering and your phrases turn to 
 blame, 
 
 Know rnore of him you censure than his business and his 
 name; 
 
 For it's likely that acquaintance would your prejudice dis- 
 pel 
 
 And you'd really come to like him if you knew him very 
 well. 
 
 When you get to know a fellow and you understand his 
 ways. 
 
 Then his faults won't really matter, for you'll find a lot 
 to praise. , 
 
 (Applause.) 
 
 TRIBUTE TO THE FOUNDER. 
 
 Brigham Young, some day, will be acknowledged as 
 one of the greatest leaders and pioneers that the world 
 has ever known, and yet I want you to know that all 
 that has been accomplished, by so-called "Mormonism" 
 and by our people, was built upon the broad founda- 
 tion laid by the man who was martyred in Carthage 
 jail. He gave the Church a book of revelations of 
 hundreds of pages. Brigham Young gave but one 
 revelation pertaining to the organizing of the pioneer 
 companies. John Taylor gave but one revelation dur- 
 ing his presidency; and his successors promulgated 
 110 new revelations. The foundation was laid by the 
 Prophet Joseph Smith for all that has been accom- 
 plished. He gave his life, in Carthage jail, sealing 
 with his blood the divinity of his testimony, .and credit 
 is due to this wonderful leader for what has been ac- 
 complished. I desire to read a testimony given by 
 Josiah Quincy, a man who knew Washington and 
 others of the country's great founders, a man who was 
 once Mayor of Boston, and a man who was on the 
 reception committee to welcome Lafayette when he 
 
STRENGTH OF THE "MORMON" CHURCH 29 
 
 came over here from France. In his book, Figures of 
 the Past 9 he says : 
 
 "It is by no means improbable that some future 
 textbook for the use of generations yet unborn will 
 contain a question something like this : What his- 
 torical American of the nineteenth century has ex- 
 erted the most powerful influence upon the destinies 
 of his countrymen ? And it is by no means impossible 
 that the answer to that interrogatory may be thus 
 written : 'Joseph Smith, the 'Mormon' Prophet/ And 
 the reply, absurd as it doubtless seems to most men 
 now living, may be an obvious commonplace to their 
 descendants. History deals in surprises and paradoxes 
 quite as startling as this. The man who established 
 a religion in this age of free debate, who was and is 
 today accepted by hundreds of thousands as a direct 
 emissary from the Most High such a rare human 
 being is not to be disposed of by pelting his memory 
 with unsavory epithets. Fanatic, imposter, charlatan, 
 he may have been; but these hard names furnish no 
 solution to the problem he presents to us. Fanatics 
 and impostors are living and dying every day, and 
 their memory is buried with them ; but the wonderful 
 influence which this founder of a religion exerted 
 and still exerts throws him into relief before us, not 
 as a rogue to be criminated, but as a phenomenon to 
 be explained. The most vital questions Americans 
 are asking each other today have to do with this man 
 and what he has left us. * * * A generation other 
 than mine must deal with these questions. Burning 
 questions they are, which must give a prominent place 
 in the history of the country to that sturdy self-as- 
 serter whom I visited at Nauvoo. Joseph Smith, 
 claiming to be an inspired teacher, faced adversity 
 such as few men have been called to meet, enjoyed 
 a brief season of prosperity such as few men have 
 ever attained, and, finally, forty-three days after I 
 saw him, went cheerfully to a martyr's death. When 
 
30 STRENGTH OF THE "MORMON" CHURCH 
 
 he surrendered his person to Governor Ford, in order 
 to prevent the shedding of blood, the prophet had a 
 presentiment of what was before him. 'I am going like 
 a lamb to the slaughter,' he is reported to have said, 
 'but I am as calm as a summer's morning. I have a 
 conscience void of offense and shall die innocent.' I 
 have no theory to advance respecting this extraordi- 
 nary man. I shall simply give the facts of my inter- 
 course with him. 
 
 "A fine-looking man 
 
 [Incidentally, my mother tells me he was the 
 finest looking man she ever saw ; he stood over six 
 feet high.] 
 
 "A fine-looking man is what the passer-by would 
 instinctively have murmured upon meeting the remark- 
 able individual who had fashioned the mold which was 
 to shape the feelings of so many thousands of his fel- 
 low mortals. But Smith was more than this, and one 
 could not resist the impression that capacity and re- 
 source were natural to his stalwart person. I have al- 
 ready mentioned the resemblance he bore to Elisha R. 
 Potter, of Rhode Island, whom I met in Washing- 
 ton in 1826. The likeness was not such as would be 
 recognized in a picture, but rather one that would be 
 felt in a grave emergency. Of all men I have 
 
 met " 
 
 [Remember the writer had met Washington, he 
 had been private secretary to John Adams, and he had 
 met Lafayette and the great men of his day] 
 
 NATURAL LEADER AND STATESMAN. 
 
 "Of all men I have met, these two seemed best en- 
 dowed with that kingly faculty which directs, as by 
 instrinsic right, the feeble or confused souls who are 
 looking for guidance." 
 
 [In passing, I may remark that you can rea3 in one 
 book written against the "Mormons" that Joseph 
 Smith got all his inspiration and revelations while he 
 was having fits. ( Laughter. ) ] 
 
STRENGTH OF THE "MORMON" CHURCH 31 
 
 "We then went on to talk of politics. Smith recog- 
 nized the curse and iniquity of slavery, though he op- 
 posed the methods of the abolitionists. His plan was 
 for the nation to pay for the slaves from the sale of the 
 public lands. 'Congress/ he said, 'should be compelled 
 to take this course, by petitions from all parts of the 
 country; but the petitioners must disclaim all alliance 
 with those who would disturb the rights of property 
 recognized by the Constitution and which foment in- 
 surrection. It may be worth while to remark that 
 Smith's plan was publicly advocated eleven years later 
 by one who has mixed so much practical shrewdness 
 with his lofty philosophy. In 1855, when men's minds 
 had been moved to their depths on the question of 
 slavery, Ralph Waldo Emerson declared that it should 
 be met in accordance 'with the interest ot the South 
 and with the settled conscience of the North. It is 
 not really a great task, a great fight for this country to 
 accomplish, to buy that property of the planter, as the 
 British nation bought the West Indian slaves.' He 
 further says that the 'United States will be brought 
 to give every inch of their public lands for a purpose 
 like this/ We, who can look back upon the terrible 
 cost of the fratricidal war which put an end to slav- 
 ery, now say that such a solution of the difficulty 
 would have been worthy a Christian statesman. But 
 if the retired scholar was in advance of his time when 
 he advocated this disposition of the public property in 
 1855, what shall I say of the political and religious' 
 leader who had committed himself, in print, as well as 
 in conversation, to the same course in 1844? If the at- 
 mosphere of men's opinions was stirred by such a 
 proposition when war-clouds were discernible in the 
 sky, was it not a statesmanlike word eleven years 
 earlier, when the heavens looked tranquil and benef- 
 icent ? 
 
 "General Smith proceeded to unfold still further 
 his views upon politics. He denounced the Missouri 
 
32 STRENGTH OF THE "MORMON" CHURCH 
 
 Compromise as an unjustifiable concession for the 
 benefit of slavery. It was Henry Clay's bid for the 
 presidency. Doctor Goforth might have spared him- 
 self the trouble of coming to Nauvoo to electioneer for 
 a duellist who would fire at John Randolph, but was 
 not brave enough to protect the Saints in their rights as 
 American citizens. Clay told his (Smith's) people 
 to go to the wilds of Oregon and set up a government 
 o their own. Oh, yes, the Saints might go into the wil- 
 derness and obtain the justice of the Indians, which im- 
 becile, time serving politicians would not give them 
 in the land of freedom and equality. The prophet then 
 talked of the details of government. He thought that 
 the number of members admitted to the lower house of 
 the National Legislature should be reduced. A crowd 
 only darkened counsel and impeded business. A mem- 
 ber for every half-million of population would be 
 ample. The powers of the President, should be in- 
 creased. He should have authority to put down re- 
 bellion in a state, without waiting for the request of 
 any Governor ; for it might happen that the Governor 
 himself would be the leader of the rebels. It is need- 
 less to remark how later events showed the executive 
 weakness that Smith pointed out a weakness which 
 cost thousands of valuable lives and millions of 
 treasure. . . . 
 
 "Born in the lowest ranks of poverty, without book- 
 learning and with the homeliest of all human names, 
 " he had made himself at the age of thirty-nine a power 
 upon the earth. Of the multitudinous family of Smith, 
 none had so won human hearts and shaped human 
 lives as this Joseph. His influence, whether for good 
 or evil, is potent today, and the end is not yet. 
 
 "I have endeavored to give the details of my visit 
 to the ' Mormon' prophet with absolute accuracy. If 
 the reader does not know just what to make of Joseph 
 Smith, I can not help him out of the difficulty. I 
 myself stand helpless before the puzzle." 
 
 I thank you, gentlemen, for your attention. 
 
CHURCH WORKS 
 
 Rays of Living Light, Penrbse... lOc 
 
 Moi mon Doctrine, Peiirose..., . lOc 
 
 Brief History of tl e Church, Anderson 25c 
 
 Strength of Mora? >n Position, Whitney....,., lOc 
 
 Voice of Warning, Pratt lOc 
 
 Apostasy, Talmage . .. lOc 
 
 Story and Philosophy of Mormonism, Talmage 35c 
 
 Durant of Salt Lake City, Rich................. 15c 
 
 The Great Temple, McAllister.,... 25c 
 
 Salt Lake Tabernacle and Organ, Young ..25c 
 
 Book of Mormon, cloth ,_... 75c 
 
 Doctrine and Covenants, cloth 75c 
 
 Articles of Faith, Talmage..-.'......-.. $1.00- 
 
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