Since the commencement of our Conference we have heard very much
valuable instruction, and testimonies which have been very cheering to
the hearts of those who have heard them; and no doubt every person who
has attended Conference from its commencement until the present time,
and who will continue until the Conference shall terminate, will feel
amply rewarded for the time spent, and will go away feeling better
prepared to perform the duties which may devolve upon him or her.
There is so much to talk about connected with our circumstances and
condition, that it requires a portion of the Spirit of the Lord to
enable a person, in speaking, to dwell upon those points which are
best adapted to our present requirements. We are not situated as any
other people, that is, in many respects, and instructions adapted to
our circumstances would differ probably from those which would be
required by others. We have been, from the commencement, a peculiar
people; our religion is in many respects at the present time a
peculiar one; yet, if there be any distinctive peculiarity about the
religion of the Latter-day Saints, it is that they believe and receive
the Scriptures as they are, and do not attempt to put double meanings
to their teachings. Our religion being peculiar, the effect of it is
somewhat peculiar. The message which the Elders of this Church declare
when they go forth to preach the Gospel has a different effect, upon
people who listen to it, to that which is declared by any other
denomination. Not because faith in Jesus Christ, repentance of sin,
baptism for the remission of sins, and laying on of hands for the
reception of the Holy Ghost are taught, but because, following these
principles, there is declared unto the people the propriety and the
necessity of gathering out from the various nations where they dwell,
from the midst of their kindred and their former associates, and
concentrating at the place which God, as the Elders testify, has
selected as the place for his people to reside in. This is a strange
doctrine, and one that is peculiar to the Latter-day Saints, and, as I
have said, the effects upon the people are peculiar. No sooner do they
hear the proclamation of this doctrine, and in some instances before,
than there springs up in the hearts of those who have received the
testimony of the Elders a desire to gather out, and be associated with
the people with whom they have joined, and whose faith they have
received. I suppose that among the thousands who live in this
Territory, who have been gathered from the various States of this
country, and from the various countries of Europe, of Asia and the
islands of the sea, there is scarcely one to be found who did not, as
soon as he or she embraced the Gospel, have an intense desire to
gather with the people of God, and to become closely associated with
them, to believe as they believed, to live as they lived, to share
their trials, to partake of their prosperity or adversity, as the case
might be; to receive instructions from the man whom they believed God
had chosen to preside over his Church upon the earth. And the effect
upon the Latter-day Saints in every land is the same in this respect.
You may travel to the most inhospitable climate—to the bleak regions
of the north, or to the sunny climes of the south; to the lands of
sterility and barrenness, where hardship seems to be the lot of the
people, where privation is one of the incidents of their existence; or
to the lands of fertility, where the inhabitants acquire a livelihood
with ease; in fact, no matter where you go, nor whatever the
circumstances may be which surround the people, when they hear the
testimony of the servants of God, and receive and act upon it, the
same spirit takes possession of the people, and they gladly forsake
the lands of their nativity, and the associations of life—of early
life and mature age, the homes of their childhood and the graves of
their ancestors, and wend their way with joy and gladness to this
strange land, which God, as they verily believe and know, by the
testimony of his Holy Spirit, has prepared as a resting place for
them. This is the universal effect wherever the Gospel has been
preached, and in this respect the Latter-day Saints are a peculiar
people.
But though we have gathered together, as we have, in this country,
there seems to be in the minds of a great many people a disposition to
overlook the reasons which God our heavenly Father has had in view in
gathering us out, and collecting us together, and making us one
people. The prophecies which were recorded in ancient days, as well as
those which have been given us in the day in which we live; all point
forward to this great dispensation, as a time when God should do a
great and mighty work in the midst of the earth, and when a great
revolution should be effected and a great reformation accomplished
among the children of men; when he should have a peculiar people—a
people who should be gathered out from all nations, a people who
should be free from the vices and the evils of all nations, a people
upon whom he should place his name, and whom he should recognize as
his. We are told by the Revelator John, that a time would come when
the people of God should be commanded to come out of Babylon, out of
confusion, when they should be gathered out from every nation, from
the remotest parts of the earth, and when he should make of them a
great and mighty people.
We see a partial fulfillment of this prediction in this Territory—this
people are gathered from various lands, and are dwelling together in
peace and in union, without litigation, animosity or strife, all
harmonizing together—their interests blended in one. To my mind this
is one of the most remarkable phenomena to be witnessed on the face of
the earth. It strikes me as such, and although familiar with it from
my childhood, I look with wonder and astonishment at the great work
that has been done in gathering this people together. Visitors
come here, and they are full of admiration for the great labors that
have been accomplished by the Latter-day Saints in transforming this
wilderness land into a fruitful field, in creating these gardens, in
erecting these houses, in adorning this land with beautiful
habitations and with groves, and making this soil, once so barren and
sterile, teem with fertility. They admire the physical works which we
have accomplished; but to my mind there is something greater than this
to be admired. There are works which far surpass the work accomplished
on the face of nature. When I contemplate the work that has been
accomplished in gathering the people from the various nations; when I
see men of various languages and, originally, of various creeds, born
under various forms of government, spread throughout this land,
dwelling together in peace, union and love, worshiping together in the
one Tabernacle, or in the same places of worship throughout the length
and breadth of this Territory, I see something which to my mind is
far, far more surprising than anything wrought by our physical labors.
I see a power wonderful in its effect—a power which has molded the
heart's and blended the feelings of the children of men, and created a
oneness in their midst, the effects of which are witnessed all around
us. God has done this, and to his name the glory must be ascribed. Man
cannot do these things, he cannot thus affect and operate upon the
minds of his fellow men. He may produce some effect, may accomplish
some results, but that union, love and harmony which we witness among
ourselves is beyond the power of man to bring about—it is the power of
God which he has manifested; and for wise and great ends has this
wonderful God like power been restored, which binds the hearts of men
to their fellow men, and causes them to cooperate, as they have done
in this land, in accomplishing the labors which have devolved upon us.
But yet, though I can admire these things, brethren and sisters, there
are many things which we have neglected to do, which devolve upon us.
God has given unto us a great mission in the earth, and whether we
realize it or not it is a fact. He has entrusted to us, as a people, a
great and mighty work to perform. We look around us in the various
nations as well as in our own nation, and we see a great many evils
existing, we see these evils increasing in magnitude, and becoming
more formidable and threatening every year that passes over our heads.
Probably we who reside in these mountains, and have done so for a
quarter of a century, can realize the evidence of these evils better
than they who live in the midst of them and witness their gradual
growth without noticing the great changes which have been effected.
But we see extravagance, corruption, and a lack of virtue and public
morality; we see the breaking down of those barriers which formerly
existed, and a sapping and demoralization of public sentiment and of
private morality throughout the nation of which we form a part, as
well as in other nations.
Now there is laid upon us, as a people, the labor of establishing
righteousness in the earth. There is laid upon us the duty of building
up in purity and power a system which God has revealed unto us. Not a
system of theocracy to be exclusive in its effects, not to build up a
class, a priesthood that should domineer and wield unjust and
oppressive power over the hearts and minds of the children of men. Our mission is to lay the foundation and to build up a system
under which all the inhabitants of the land can dwell in peace and
safety. But I notice a difficulty in our own midst, and that is that
we yield, to a great extent, to the tendencies of the age, to the
influences which surround us on every hand. We must refrain from this,
we must set our faces like flint against every species of corruption,
against every kind of wrong, in whatever form it may approach us. We
must seek with all the energy that we have, to build up in truth and
righteousness that which God has committed unto us, and establish
impregnably the system of reformation with which we are entrusted.
There can be no better way for us to commence than by listening to the
counsels that have been given unto us in the past, and which have been
the means of producing the peace, happiness and prosperity which we
witness among us.
There are tendencies to be witnessed in this city, and among our own
people here, that we have to guard against. We well know that, of
late, there has been an increase of wealth, and of the means of
acquiring luxuries and comforts. God has bestowed these upon us, and
the question now is with us, Will we use these, means aright, with an
eye single to his glory? Will we, with our increased prosperity,
devote ourselves in the future, as we have in the past, to the
building up of the kingdom of God, as our paramount duty? Not for our
own aggrandizement, but for the benefit of our fellow men in every
land, as well as for the benefit of those who reside in this
Territory. If we do this, God will bless us. But you know what the
fate of all people has been who have been similarly situated to us in
the beginning. In their early days they were pure, they were not
extravagant, they were simple in their tastes, habits and dress. They
did not allow their minds to go out after earthly things, or to be
placed upon them. But means and wealth will always increase among
frugal, economical, virtuous and industrious people, for it is one of
the natural consequences which follow industry and well-directed
labor, and we are no exceptions to this rule. We live in a land that
has been barren and sterile above all lands on this continent, and by
well-directed energy and industry, by perseverance, temperance and
frugality, we have been blessed, and now the fruits of our
long-continued abstemiousness and industry are beginning to flow in
upon us, and we are becoming wealthy. Our lands are becoming valuable,
our surroundings are becoming, if not luxurious, at least comfortable,
wealth is pouring into our laps, and the prospect is that ere long we
will be as wealthy a community, probably, as can be found between the
two oceans. This seems to be the natural tendency of events at the
present time.
Now the question arises—and I deem it an important one for this
Conference—it has rested on my mind, as I doubt not it has on the
minds of the brethren—will we as a people devote the means that God is
giving unto us, for the preservation and continuation of that system
that he has revealed unto us? Or will we scatter it abroad, destroy
ourselves, and spoil the future which God has in store for us? We must
be a different people from every other that has preceded us, if we
fulfill the predictions of the holy Priesthood, for God has said,
through the mouth of his prophet Daniel, thousands of years ago, that
this kingdom should not be given into the hands of another people, but
it should stand forever. It should not share the fate of
previous attempts of the same character, and be overthrown in
consequence of the weakness of the people, and the abandonment by them
of the principles of truth and righteousness. There is nothing plainer
to my mind than this, that if the Latter-day Saints become luxurious
and extravagant; if they love the world and forsake their former
purity; if they forsake their frugality and temperance, and the
principles which God has revealed unto them, and by the practice of
which they are today the people that they are; we shall be overthrown
as others have been overthrown. But I do not look for any such result,
for I believe firmly in the prediction of Daniel, that this work, when
established, shall not be given into the hands of another people, but
it shall stand forever, and there will be means and agencies used and
brought to bear on the minds of the people, to prevent such a
catastrophe as that to which I have alluded—to prevent the downfall of
the system and the overthrow of those connected with it, and to
prevent the victory of that which is evil over that which is good,
holy and pure.
These means have been indicated in revelations which have been given
unto us. We are not living as we should live. As a people we follow
the systems of our fathers in regard to the management of wealth. We
follow in the footsteps of those who have preceded us. We are
innovators so far as religious thought and doctrines are concerned,
and we have been bold innovators. We have not hesitated to adopt great
reforms, and to proclaim them, and we have sought, with all the
energies God has bestowed upon us, to make them facts in the earth. We
have proclaimed this doctrine of gathering, and the people have been
gathered together. This is a great innovation, it is a bold step, and
it has resulted in success thus far. It is not now a novelty, or a new
and untried experiment, for the gathering of the people together has
been going on for forty years and upwards. But it was a great
innovation when introduced. It is so with other doctrines which the
Elders of this Church have taught. God inspired their hearts, and
they, regardless of all consequences, fearlessly proclaimed the truth
which he imparted unto them. We have made a great revolution in our
domestic relations, and in our social system. We have taken a bold
stand, and have been fearless of the consequences, because God, as we
testify, has revealed unto us a principle that should be practiced,
and which we should carry out, and be the pioneers in inaugurating for
the redemption of men and women, and that should check, and, in fact,
effectually cure, the evils under which Christendom has groaned for
centuries. The Elders of this Church did this, and have risked all the
consequences, from the time the system was inaugurated until the
present time. The results of this we can all see, in the purity and
chastity of our community; for strange as it may seem, in no other
land are the chastity and virtue of women so highly respected as in
Utah. Throughout the length and breadth of this Territory public
sentiment is utterly opposed to anything that would violate that
chastity and virtue.
In these directions, then, we have been bold and fearless innovators.
But so far as financial matters are concerned, so far as the
accumulation and management of wealth are concerned, we have not
followed in the path which God has marked out. Yet the time must come,
and we may as well prepare our minds for it, when we shall
have to take a great step in this direction, and when we shall have to
follow the path indicated by God in order to escape the evils that are
inevitable, and that will otherwise most assuredly come upon, and
overwhelm us.
I have told you that others who have preceded us have fallen a prey to
evils. The increase of wealth in every nation has been attended with
fatal consequences. We have but to read the history of our race from
the beginning until the present time to rest assured of that. Men have
said, probably, to all of you who have been out and mingled with the
world, "It is very well for you Latter-day Saints to talk about your
condition now, because you are a primitive people, you are a young
community, you have not been tempted and tried. Wait till you increase
in wealth, and until you become familiar with the sins which surround
the wealthy. Wait until you are brought in contact with luxury; wait
until the spirit of reform which animated your pioneers dies out, and
a generation rises up who will think more of the world, then there
will be a different feeling and spirit, and you will not be
persecuted, hated or despised. You will become more popular, because
the world will become familiarized with your ideas. Then 'Mormonism'
and the Latter-day Saints will become like every other people that
have preceded them—overcome by the luxuries of the world, and by the
love of riches." Have you not heard remarks of this kind time and time
again? Doubtless they have been made to you or in your hearing.
Now, how shall we avert these evils? It is very well to say that God
has established this kingdom; it is very well to say that this is his
Church. Did he never have a Church or kingdom on the earth before? Did
he never have a people on the earth before? Why, most certainly he
did. He had churches before this; he had people before he chose the
Latter-day Saints. He had communities that he owned and recognized
before we were organized. Yet they went the way of all the earth, and
the Church of God disappeared from the midst of the inhabitants of the
earth. Luxury, corruption, vice, extravagance, the love of wealth and
the allurements of sin prevailed in all the earth, and the devil—his
satanic majesty—held high carnival throughout the earth because of the
influence and power of these things over the hearts of the children of
men. It is true that God established his work before; we know it to be
true; and because he has established it in our day, we need not think
that he is going to preserve it without using means to do so. He has
revealed, and will continue to reveal, law, and that law must be
obeyed by us, or we cannot be preserved. The time must come when we
must obey that which has been revealed to us as the Order of Enoch,
when there shall be no rich and no poor among the Latter-day Saints;
when wealth will not be a temptation; when every man will love his
neighbor as he does himself; when every man and woman will labor for
the good of all as much as for self. That day must come, and we may as
well prepare our hearts for it, brethren, for as wealth increases I
see more and more a necessity for the institution of such an order. As
wealth increases, luxury and extravagance have more power over us. The
necessity for such an order is very great, and God, undoubtedly, in
his own time and way, will inspire his servant to introduce it among
the people. I do not wish to foreshadow when it will be done, or what
the circumstances will be that will call it forth, for this is
not my province; but I feel led to talk upon it, and to prepare my own
heart, and to seek, with all the faith and influence I have, to
prepare the hearts of my brethren and sisters for the introduction of
this order. It will doubtless be a time of trial, and will be attended
with many things that will test our feelings; but when we view the
great results that will follow its introduction and its perfect
establishment upon the earth, we should be filled with thanksgiving
and praise that God has devised a scheme of this kind. You can see
already the effects of the partial introduction of something akin to
it in cooperation. We have had that established in our midst, and
what are its effects? We witness a gradual diffusion of means
throughout the community, greatly benefiting all its members. One of
the effects of this which we witness is that wealth does not increase
so rapidly in the hands of the few, and that the poor are not kept in
poverty so much.
Before cooperation started, you doubtless saw and deplored the
increase of wealth in some few hands. There was rapidly growing in our
midst a class of monetary men composing an aristocracy of wealth. Our
community was menaced by serious dangers through this, because if a
community is separated into two classes, one poor and the other rich,
their interests are diverse. Poverty and wealth do not work together
well—one lords it over the other; one becomes the prey of the other.
This is apt to be the case in all societies, in ours as well as
others; probably not to so great an extent, but still it was
sufficiently serious to menace us as a people with danger. God
inspired his servant to counsel the people to enter into
cooperation, and it has now been practiced for some years in our
midst with the best results. Those who have put in a little means have
had that more than doubled since Z. C. M. I. started—three years last
March. And so it is with cooperative herds, cooperative factories,
and cooperative institutions of all kinds which have been established
in our midst, and all the people can partake of the benefits of this
system. You can see the effect of cooperation on the people. But this
is only a limited system, it does not extend as far as needed,
although it required faith to enter into this; yet it will require
more to enter upon the other of which I have spoken.
While upon cooperation, let me here say that we can witness the good
effects of this to the Church, and we shall feel them in days to come.
President Young, the other day, paid into the cooperative
establishment—Zion's Cooperative Mercantile Institution—a hundred
thousand dollars tithing—the tithing of his own personal means—and it
is now where it will yield profits for the benefit of the whole
Church. Now, if this amount had been used to pay the hands on the
public works and those laboring for the Church, how long do you think
it would have lasted? It would very soon have been used up. But I have
admired the wisdom, and have felt thankful that there was a sum placed
where it could be used for the benefit of the work, and at the same
time yield a handsome return for the investment. I do not think it
will take more than three years, if the Cooperative Institution
prospers as well in the future as in the past, for this sum to double
itself in the shape of dividends. I refer to this in passing, because
it is a testimony today, after three and a half years have elapsed,
to the wisdom that prompted the establishment of this
institution; but notwithstanding this you are aware that many cried
out against it, and denounced it as very unwise, and likely to end
disastrously, and several apostatized through its inauguration because
they wanted all the profits themselves, and were unwilling the people
should have any. But we have the facts before us. The people who
entered into it have been blessed exceedingly, and they will continue
to be so if they persevere.
But I have said that this is only a stepping stone to something beyond
that is more perfect, and that will result in the diffusion of the
blessings of God to a greater extent among us. In other lands you see
the people divided into classes. You see beggars in the street, and
men and women who are short of food, dwelling in hovels and in the
poorest of tenements. At the same time, others revel in luxury, they
have everything they need, and more than they need to satisfy all
their wants. Every philanthropist who contemplates this, does so with
sadness, and measure after measure has been devised to remedy this
state of things. Our community is not a prey to these evils. Beggary
and want are unknown in this Territory; at the same time we have no
very rich men among us. Like other new communities we are more on an
equality than we would be if we were older, and if we were to become
an old community under the system which prevailed before cooperation
was established, then it is very probable that some of the class
distinctions to be seen in other communities would be seen in ours. It
is to avoid this that God has revealed that which I have alluded to,
and his design is to bring to pass a better condition of affairs, by
making men equal in earthly things. He has given this earth to all his
children; and he has given to us air, light, water and soil; he has
given to us the animals that are upon the earth, and all the elements
by which it is surrounded. They are not given to one or to some, to
the exclusion of others; not to one class, or to one nation to the
exclusion of other classes or other nations. But he has given them to
his children in all nations alike. Man, however, abuses the agency
that God has given him, and he transgresses his laws by oppressing his
fellow men. There is selfishness in the rich, and there is
covetousness in the poor. There is a clashing of interests, and there
is not that feeling among men which we are told the Gospel should
bring—a feeling to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. This does
not exist on the earth now, it is reserved for God to restore it. We
pray that God's will may be done on earth as it is in heaven, and when
it shall, then the order which exists in heaven will be practiced and
enjoyed by men on the earth. I do not expect when we get to heaven,
that we shall see some riding in their chariots, enjoying every
luxury, and crowned with crowns of glory, while the rest are in
poverty.
I have spoken longer than I intended, but there are some few thoughts
on my mind to which I will allude in this connection before I sit
down, and that is, brethren and sisters, that we should, to the extent
of our ability, foster these institutions that have been established
among us. We should do all that we can to sustain ourselves—sustain
our own factories, do all in our power to maintain these things that
we have established, and seek with all our energy to foster them. We
have factories here that can make as good cloth as any of their size, probably, in the nation. They ought to be sustained by us.
Brother Erastus Snow related an incident a day or two ago in relation
to their operations at St. George. They received quite a quantity of
cloth from the factory of President Young. He told the storekeeper at
St. George not to say anything about where it was manufactured. At the
same time they received a consignment of eastern manufactured goods.
They were put side by side on the shelves of the store and sold to the
people. There were very few—some two or three persons—who knew that
any of these goods were manufactured in the Territory. They sold very
readily to the people, who said they were the best goods they had
bought. They wore them, and they wore well. Several lots were received
from the President's factory, and sold in the same way, the people
remaining in ignorance a good while as to the place of their
manufacture, and imagining that they were brought from the east. There
is an idea prevailing among many of us that something manufactured
abroad is better than that manufactured at home. President George A.
Smith, Elder Woodruff and myself, on our recent visit to California,
examined the Oregon and California goods. We went through a woollen
factory there, where very excellent goods were made. We saw some
blankets and some other things which were manufactured there, which
cannot be surpassed. I recollected that I had heard parties here, who
had purchased Oregon cloth, praise it very highly; but in examining
that class of goods in California, I found that the cloth manufactured
in this Territory compared very favorably with it, and had they been
put side by side, bolt by bolt, it would have been very difficult to
tell which was Utah and which was Oregon manufacture. Indeed if there
was any preference I was inclined to give it to our own cloth.
We have factories that can make straw hats, straw bonnets and every
thing of this kind. We have good tanners' and shoe shops, and harness
shops. We have a great many manufactories in our Territory that should
be fostered by us as a people. We should guard against luxury and
extravagance, and use that which is manufactured at home.
That God may bless us, that he may pour out his Holy Spirit upon this
Conference; upon those who speak and those who hear, is my prayer in
the name of Jesus. Amen.
- George Q. Cannon