I have a few things to say to the Latter-day Saints with regard to
ourselves. From the first of our coming into these valleys we have
instructed the people concerning the facts that are now so visible and
manifest in the nation to which we are attached. It was then
understood by us and was as plainly before our minds as are the facts
that are now in their progress.
We also have a warfare to engage in, and, as the Apostle says, "The
weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the
pulling down of strongholds; Casting down imaginations, and every high
thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing
into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; And having in
a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is
fulfilled."
The warfare that I wish particularly to speak of today is that which
wars against all opposition to economy and to the obtaining of the
knowledge of God and that wisdom which comes from him pertaining to
self-preservation. My warfare is, and has been for years, to get the
people to understand that if they do not take care of themselves they
will not be taken care of; that if we do not lay the foundation to
feed and clothe and shelter ourselves we shall perish with hunger and
with cold; we might also suffer in the summer season from the direct
rays of the sun upon our naked and unprotected bodies. We have striven
for years to convince the Latter-day Saints that rags and ruffles will
cease being brought to us from a foreign market, though a struggle is
still made to bring them here. We have warred against the principle of
promoting and making wealthy those who wish us no good, and we have
found it hard to convince our brethren and sisters that the saying of
the Savior is really as true when applied to us as it was when applied
to his followers in his day, "He that is not with me is against me;
and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad." Thousands of this people this day will not believe that saying. We
have this to war against, and the warfare should be engaged in by
every Latter-day Saint. The same responsibility, the same influence,
the same power and the same objects to be attained should rest upon
every person who is a member of the Church, as much as upon me and my
brethren who are contending with me constantly for the permanent good
of Israel. We have contended long to convince this people that they
must become self-sustaining.
I can, notwithstanding this, endorse all that brother George A. Smith
said this morning concerning the great improvement of this people and
the good feeling they manifested to us on our southern trip. The
people who have settled in that country are certainly contented. Many
of them said to me, "We love to live in Great Salt Lake City, love to
go to meeting there, but we should very much dislike now to be
counseled to return there again to make our permanent abode. We like
the country and climate here, we like our calling and situation, and
we are happy and contented." I am ready to endorse all the goodness
and good-feeling that were manifested, and I can truly say that love,
union, faith, fervency of spirit, and faithfulness to our religion are
greatly on the increase among the Latter-day Saints, or I am much
mistaken; still the warfare is not ended in regard to our being
self-sustaining.
We have evidence now before us which sufficiently proves that the
ruffles and the rags will not continue to come here for a great length
of time, and we shall have to do without them or make them ourselves.
Sixteen years ago, when we were camped upon this temple block, I told
the people that there existed, in the ele ments around us in these
mountain regions, wheat, corn, rye, oats, barley, flax, hemp, silk, and
every element for producing the necessary articles used by man for
food, raiment and shelter. We breathe it in the atmosphere, drink it
in the water, dig it when we dig in the earth, and walk over it when
we walk. Here are the elements for every cereal, vegetable, and fruit,
and for every textile material that grows in the same latitude and
altitude in any part of the world. No country in the world will yield
more and a greater variety of the products of life than will portions
of this mountain country. We have proven all this to be true. There is
not a better wheat country than this, and we can raise as good rye and
corn as can be produced in any part of the earth; we can also raise as
good vegetables as I ever saw, and in as great a variety as need be
asked for. We have raised hemp, flax, cotton, and silk, all of the best
quality. We can make ropes and sacking, and cotton, silk and woolen
goods in abundance; we have the elements and skill to combine them.
There is no better sheep country than this. Some farmers suppose that
their failure to raise wool is owing to ill luck; this is a mistake. I
have expended more, in the early settlement of this country, to
produce wool than any one man. I have bought sheep by hundreds, but I
never saw the time that I could go out and herd them myself,
consequently had to depend upon others. The treatment that sheep
receive from most of those having them in care is by no means
conducive to their thrift. The lambs are too often left for the wolves
and dogs to herd or to the care of an inexperienced boy or girl. Large
numbers of sheep are often huddled into little, filthy pens and kept
sixteen hours out of the twenty-four in their own filth and stench. For this you will be called to judgment, and if there is no
one else to charge you with the wrongs I will. There is not a better
country in the world to produce wool than this mountain country, if
the sheep are properly taken care of.
Now, then, I ask, how many of my brethren and sisters will enlist with
me in this warfare, not to contend with and against carnal weapons,
but against the foolish traditions, pride, and vain imaginations of the
people called Latter-day Saints? Will my wives and children enlist
with me in this work? I have striven with all my might to set a good
example before this people; I have striven with all the power I
possessed to introduce every good into their midst. I do not know of
an evil practice that I am not willing to part with this hour to do
good to this people. If there is a wrong in my practice, religiously,
morally, politically or financially, I wish some of you would let me
know it. If I strive to do right and to take a course to save myself
and this people, should not the people do the same? Myself and my
brethren who are with me heart and hand are always ready and willing
to do everything in our power to promote the kingdom of God upon the
earth and to save the people who profess to be Saints, and all the
inhabitants of the earth that can be saved, then why should not all
the Saints do and feel the same? Are we not all under obligation to be
Saints, to build up the kingdom of God, to bring forth righteousness
and deliverance to the honest-in-heart, to gather up the lost sheep of
the house of Israel, to send the Gospel to the uttermost parts of the
earth, giving all a privilege to hear and believe it and to build up
the Zion of our God upon the earth? Is not this obligatory upon every
member of this Church and kingdom, upon one as well as upon another in
their calling and capacity? You all answer in the affirmative. Then
why not begin from this day to sustain ourselves and cease feeding and
clothing those who wish us no good and giving them our money for that
which is comparatively worthless?
Is brother Heber C. Kimball willing to enlist with me in this work? I
can say yes for him. Are his wives and children willing to enlist with
him and then with me? Is brother Daniel H. Wells willing to enlist
with us? I can answer favorably for him and for a great many others.
Why not every man and woman go to with their mights and try to do
something towards sustaining themselves?
The feelings of many are, "How are we going to get gold to buy what we
want—to procure what we consider the necessaries of life?"
You have read that piece of excellent advice called the "Word of
Wisdom." I shall not say you must obey it; you can read it over again
and refresh your memories, and I give the privilege to the Elders of
Israel to cease using tobacco, and if they will not cease using it,
then raise it; and then, also, to cease using spirituous liquors to
excess. At the time Mr. Holladay kept store opposite the south gate of
this block, he annually received not less than $29,000 for the
article, tobacco. His books will now show this. Into Livingston's
store I presume this people annually paid for the article, tobacco,
not less than $35,000, and that, too, when we were but few; what must
our bills be at the present time? I think I am safe in saying that we
have paid, for tobacco alone, at least $100,000 a year during the last
thirteen years. Now, especially you Elders and leading men of Israel,
will you do yourselves a favor by letting it alone from this time?
Brother George A. Smith says that the two-penny institution of
Jackson and Stewart, in Provo, took over $15,000 a year for tobacco
alone. If you will let this article alone you will benefit both
yourselves and the community. If you will cease drinking spirituous
liquors you will thereby be benefited individually and benefit the
community. A man who indulges in any habit that is pernicious to the
general good in its example and influence, is not only an enemy to
himself but to the community so far as the influence of that habit
goes. A man who would not sacrifice a pernicious habit for the good it
would do the community is, to say the least of it, lukewarm in his
desires and wishes for public and general improvement. Tobacco is not
good for man; spirituous liquor is not good for a beverage, but in
many cases it is good for washing the body.
Dare I venture to invite the sisters to favor themselves by letting
alone the article called tea? Some of that which is imported to this
country from California, and for which you pay from three to four
dollars a pound, is not much better than hay. I merely wish to say
that you now have the privilege and invitation tendered to you to
cease drinking the filthy stuff. Again, I kindly tender you the
privilege of making your own bonnets from straw or grass. There are no
handsomer bonnets nor trimmings for them than are and can be made from
straw. I have raised rye year after year for the express purpose of
having the straw manufactured into hats and bonnets, and have invited
my sisters to gather and use it and welcome. Some thirty years ago, at
a State fair held in the State of Ohio, a young lady took the premium
on Leghorn bonnets, and her sample of Leghorn was made of the common
red-top grass of which we grow an abundance in this valley. You can
have the privilege of gather ing the red-top grass and preparing it to
make Leghorn bonnets and hats for yourselves and your children. I will
invite my brethren to procure and plant the multicaulus or mulberry
tree; let your wives and daughters feed silkworms with the leaves,
and thus produce silk for ribbons, for dresses, for bonnets, for
scarfs, shawls, neckties, gentlemen's vests, &c. We have skillful
artisans among us who can dye and weave the silk into every possible
design for beauty and utility. Let us be active in procuring machinery
that will manufacture our cotton and flax into fine yarns for thread
of every number and fabric of every quality; then our sisters can knit
and manufacture in different ways their frills, ruffles, and laces to
suit their tastes.
I am perfectly able to send to the east and buy what I and my family
need, but there is a mighty influence in a good example, and what
would my precept be worth without my example, besides the conscious
gratification of having performed my duty to my God, to myself, to my
family and to this people?
I have engaged in this warfare and I have tried to teach my family, my
neighbors and their families the necessity of our leading out in these
matters, and thus set the example for the whole Church to follow. This
hat was made of straw which grew on my farm near this city. It has
been my handsome hat for twelve years, and does it not look well yet?
It is all homemade excepting the ribbon. Trimmings made of straw are
the nearest and richest for straw bonnets and straw hats.
Shall we make our light clothing of the cotton which we can raise here
in abundance? They will raise more cotton in our southern settlements
than we can possibly use before another crop comes off. Shall we buy
their cotton from them and manu facture it into clothing, or
pay the stores seventy-five cents a yard for cotton cloth? We have
power to perform this useful labor, or to neglect it and tease
husbands and fathers to buy at the stores the articles which we think
we need.
Who will enter with me and my brethren into this warfare with their
whole souls? I call it warfare, because it has been so with me for
years; it has continually been a heavy weight upon my shoulders. I
have for years been pleading with the people to take a course to
sustain themselves. Some few are trying to do so but it would be a
great relief to me if I could in truth say that we, as a people, are
trying to do so. I could sound the feelings of the whole community
upon this subject by organizing clubs and societies for this, that, and
the other, all pointing to and having in view the great
self-sustaining principle, but such clubs, societies, or firms are apt
to clash more or less and run into sectional differences and sectional
feelings. This I do not want. When we say we will do a good thing, I
want the whole community to be of one heart and of one mind in that
matter. If we say we will sustain ourselves and be independent of
foreign productions and a foreign market, let the whole community at
once become a unit on this point by forthwith beginning to supply
themselves with the necessaries of life produced in their mountain
home.
Some will argue that they could not wear in warm weather a garment
made of the cotton yarn spun in our little factory in Parowan; I do
not think the argument a good one. It has been strenuously argued by
our ladies that hoops are a cool and comfortable fashion, but I cannot
understand how they derive the benefit that is claimed for crinoline
when the accustomed quantity of clothing is still worn. This argument
is something like the one often used in favor of drinking spirituous
liquors, "We drink liquor in summer to cool us and in winter to warm
us." "We put on crinoline and the accustomed number of garments in
summer to keep us comfortably cool and in winter to keep us
comfortably warm." I argue that a dress made of Utah yarn, worn over a
reasonable quantity of underclothing, would be more light, comfortable
and healthy than the style of dress now used by our ladies.
What do you say? Shall we make ourselves clothing from Utah cotton,
from Utah flax, from Utah silk, from Utah wool, and wear cloth from
Utah looms, or go without? And you, my sisters, my wives, and my
daughters, come here to meeting clothed and adorned with the
workmanship of your own hands and rejoice therein; and do the same if
you have occasion to go to a party, and tell your neighbors what you
have done.
The wicked and selfish portion of mankind are constantly engaged in
pandering to their own selfish and avaricious desires, regarding not
the wants and sufferings of their fellow beings. Were the biographies
of all the really great and good of mankind known to us, we should
know that they lived to do good to their fellow beings, to benefit and
bless their families, neighbors, friends and the human family at
large; such men have proved themselves worthy of their existence. Let
us all seek diligently to know what we can do to benefit our
fellow beings. We must try with all our power to overcome every
injurious tradition and custom we have learned from our fathers and
teachers.
We must learn to think for ourselves, and know for ourselves, and
provide for ourselves. We can here produce any amount of the raw ma terial, and we are importing machinery, and shall continue
to do so until we shall be victorious over the traditions and customs
which oppose themselves to our becoming self-sustaining and
independent. I never mean to give up the conflict; I never mean to
yield one point until I see this accomplished; while every obstacle
surmounted, every object gained, every purpose accomplished and every
aim in view is to build up the kingdom of God upon the earth, save and
redeem the house of Jacob, and save all the inhabitants of the earth
that can be saved.
I shall not worry while I am struggling to gain this great conquest,
but I intend to live and feel well about it. The man who fights with
coolness and calculation in moral and domestic reform will win every
time. Let us apply our minds to know what our life is worth and what
we can do to sustain it and the lives of those who are connected with
us, instead of continually whining for something to satisfy "great,
big self," instead of wanting this and that, instead of being
miserable because we do not do this or because we do not do that,
instead of being unhappy because this is so or because that is not so,
all of which we cannot help with all of our complaining. Let us see
what we can do to do good to our children, to our neighbors, to our
husbands, to our wives, to our brethren and sisters, and then to the
inhabitants of the whole earth. Let us make ourselves capable of doing
at least a little good, and this will occupy our minds upon something
that is indeed profitable to others, and will somewhat divert our
attention from worshiping ourselves and blaming everybody that does
not do the same.
I will now address the Bishops, and the people through their Bishops
and Teachers. Why are we not as willing to pattern after good as after
evil? Since we again commenced labor on the Temple we have been much
troubled and perplexed with regard to getting Tithing labor. I
immediately put on the work two good mule teams with a good man to
manage each, then I put on two good common laborers to work on this
block; I feed, clothe and pay the men, sustain the teams and keep the
wagons in repair. I shall receive credit for this on labor Tithing.
Besides this, I have kept two and sometimes three teams with drivers
traveling to and from the country settlements to gather and bring in
butter, cheese, eggs, &c., for the hands who work on the public works.
For this team work I ask nothing but labor Tithing. I have given other
men the privilege of doing the same. Have they done it? No, not one,
with the exception of brother Daniel H. Wells' having one yoke of oxen
and a wagon on the public works.
Since I have been in these valleys, when I have received fifty cents,
fifty dollars, or ten thousand dollars, I have invariably put it into
the general fund; not every dollar, because I have my family to
support. Who has followed that practice? Very few, if any. They may
not have had the means nor the advantages for getting them that I have
had. Do those who have the means do this? They do not. From the
beginning I have striven with my might to get men to bring machinery
into the country, to get them to raise sheep and wool, have the wool
made into cloth and then wear it. Who has followed my example in this?
Instead of bringing in machinery and in every way within my power
encouraging home production, suppose I had brought large quantities of
goods from abroad, encouraged gold mining, trading, trafficking,
specu lating, erecting whiskey palaces and gambling saloons, I
should have been hailed as a great Prophet, a wise leader, and a great
financier by those who love to swim in such waters, and hundreds would
have been with me heart and hand.
When there was no whiskey to be had here, and we needed it for rational
purposes, I built a house to make it in. When the distillery was
almost completed and in good working order, an army was heard of in
our vicinity and I shut up the works; I did not make a gallon of whiskey
at my works, because it came here in great quantities, more than was
needed. I could have made thousands of dollars from my still, which
has ever since been as dead property. Have others followed my example
in this? They have not, but there was a whiskey shop established here
and another there. Some have even told me that they would starve if
they did not make whiskey. I said to them, make it then, and be damned,
for they will be damned anyhow. Am not I able to make whiskey? Yes;
there stands the still and the stillhouse to this day, which I have
never used and from which I might make thousands of dollars. Have I
made whiskey and sold it in what some call Whiskey Street? No. Had I
done so how many would have hailed me with, "You are a good man,
brother Brigham, and you are the right man to lead Israel; thank God
for such a man: he keeps a whiskey shop, drinks liquor, trades with
our enemies and hugs them to his heart as long as there is any money
in their pockets, and takes them to his house and introduces them to
his wives and daughters; what a blessed man brother Brigham is."
I will now confine a few of my remarks directly to the people who live
within easy reach of this Temple Block. They say they pay labor
Tithing. If the farmer, merchant, and mechanic are asked to pay a
little labor Tithing, "O yes, and we mean to be credited for it in
full." "When will you pay it?" "When it is too cold, wet, and stormy to
go a fishing and hunting. While we can work in the field, go after
wood, or go to shoot ducks with pleasure, we will not pay you one day
of labor Tithing." They come in the winter to pay it when labor is not
wanted. Who pays labor Tithing? "Everybody." Who pays their grain
Tithing, their stock Tithing, and their money Tithing? "Everybody."
We feed and clothe some two thousand persons on these public works.
Let me ask the Bishops of this city, and there are twenty Wards, how
much money have you paid into the Public Treasury these five years
past? Then ask the Bishops of the different Wards throughout the
Territory the same question, and I think, if they answer the question
fairly, it will be found that they have not paid one dollar to where
we have had to pay out five hundred in cash or its equivalent. Our
public hands have hats, coats, vests, shirts, garments, pantaloons,
shoes, &c.; who buys these articles of clothing? They have to be
bought and the money paid for them. The wives and children of our
work-hands are well and comfortably clothed; who buys and pays for
this clothing? Brother Wells could tell you a story about this, if he
had a mind to do so. I say to the public hands, henceforth, if we have
not the articles on hand that you want we shall not go to the store
and buy them, neither will I permit brother Wells to do so; if he does
he must pay the debt, for I will not.
I will now say to the Latter-day Saints, though this belongs to a
General Conference, Will you do me the kindness to cease paying Tithing from this time forth, unless you pay it in a different
manner than heretofore? They pile up wheat in Cache County, in Utah
County, in Sanpete and in every other county distant from this city,
in bins and houses where much of it becomes musty and good for
nothing. Will they draw it to us here, where it can be put to use? Not
much of it. They will let it spoil, unless they can have the privilege
of using it themselves, and in many instances they have had the use of
it. If wheat in the distant counties could be sold for a
dollar-and-a-half a bushel in cash, we should get a comparatively
small quantity of wheat in this Tithing Office. If they would give us
fifty cents for every bushel of grain they pretend to pay in on
Tithing in some kind of property that we can make use of, we would be
much obliged to them. We cannot even get this; too many manage through
their Bishops to pay their Tithing in a way to do us but little good.
If the people will cease paying Tithing, and let us understand it, we
can build up the Temple ourselves, for I can put forty more teams to
work on the public works, if I say the word. Presidents Kimball and
Wells can do the same.
I am going to give the people the privilege to build the Temple by
donations; as to saying that it is being built by Tithing, it is not
so.
Some hundred thousand dollars a year are paid out by the community for
tobacco, and the cash Tithing paid on this money expenditure probably
does not amount to a thousand cents. How can the people be justified
while committing such errors only upon the score of ignorance? We are
trying to instruct you in the knowledge of the truth, that you may
learn better. I do not condemn the Latter-day Saints for all this.
It is almost useless to ask any man possessing means to pay a little
labor Tithing; if any is paid in the season when it is wanted, the
poorest portions of the community pay it. The Second Ward is one of
the poorest Wards in the city, and I have observed, when I have been
at the Bishop's meeting, that that Ward has responded to the calls of
the Bishop better than any other Ward in the city.
I will now give the privilege to Bishop Hunter to put a good mule team
to work on this Temple Block, and there sustain it and let it work
until we say it is enough. I give brother Kimball the same privilege.
And there are Bishops Raleigh, Cunningham, J. C. Little, and Leonard W.
Hardy, to whom I give the same privilege, and they need not ask one
farthing, only to be credited on labor Tithing. Then there are Bishops
Sheets, Pugmire, and Edwin D. Woolley and John M. Woolley, and all the
rest of the Bishops, with the members of the Wards who are able, I
will give them the same privilege, that we may have what team work we
want. I wish you all to bring your free donations to this work, and
not seek to put your property in a shape that it cannot do the good we
wish, and then say you owe no Tithing.
If the people have a mind to pay Tithing, pay it as it ought to be
paid. I would rather have fifty cents a bushel in good available
property, than to have all the grain that is paid in where it is not
available, for it would do more good. The argument generally used is,
"I pay my Tithing, and that is all that is required of me." But have
you no care, no responsibility beyond this? Do you not feel that the
interest of this kingdom is your interest? And should you not feel
anxious that the kingdom of God should be built up, become mighty,
able to protect itself and independent of all other kingdoms?
Should you be entirely indifferent; as to how the financial affairs of
God's kingdom on earth are managed? If this kingdom suffers, will you
not suffer with it? If it prospers, becomes wealthy and powerful, will
you not prosper and become wealthy and powerful with it?
I am willing to give you an account of my stewardship. Let every man
have a care for the public property which is devoted for the public
good. If a man knowingly puts a hundred bushels of good Tithing wheat
into a bin of smutty, unsound wheat, but thinks that it is none of his
business, he does an evil and his offering is not acceptable to the
Lord; it is his duty to see that his good Tithing wheat, or anything
else, is deposited where it will be taken care of and properly
appropriated. We will either stop the paying of Tithing, or have it
paid in a way that will do us good.
If we want a job done, we will tell you about it; then we want you to
do it in the proper time and place, but we do not want labor Tithing
paid in the winter. The Lord requires obedience of his people, which
is better than sacrifice.
There is a warfare in which we are all engaged, and there is a victory
which we have to win to become self-sustaining and independent,
preparing ourselves for the days that are fast approaching.
May the Lord bless you: Amen.