We have abundantly proved in our experience that if we do not sustain
ourselves, no other people will sustain us, and that we must be
united, as was said this morning, in our temporal as well as in our
spiritual affairs; and that if we would build up and strengthen
ourselves in the earth, it must be by union of effort, and by
concentrating our means in a way that shall produce the best results
for the work with which we are identified. Cooperation, or a union of
effort, has been proved in our experience, when properly carried out,
to be most successful. With small means and limited incomes we can
accomplish, by wisely uniting our efforts, great results, and to bring
about greater union should be our continual effort. As has been said,
there may be failures and mismanagement occasionally, but the
principle itself is a true one, and it recommends itself to every
reflecting mind. We, however, in our mercantile operations in this
city and Territory, have been more than ordinarily successful. I have
heard reproaches indulged in, or rather reflections cast, upon our
general cooperative institution. I think it has been one of the most
successful establishments and institutions that we ever have had among
us, and I do not know that it has been equaled anywhere, when we
reflect that in the short space of three years those who in vested their means in that institution made one hundred per
cent—doubled their original stock; and when the financial crisis came
in the east—the panic as it was termed, and many strong houses went
down before it, our institution was able to withstand the storm, and
tide over, and has met every dollar of its indebtedness promptly, or
at least to the satisfaction of its creditors. We have been subjected
to a great deal of expense in various ways; but the experience of the
past few years enables us to see now how this expense can be
curtailed; and profiting by this wisdom and experience, as a community
we should take the necessary steps to establish, or rather to arrange
it so that it will give the greatest satisfaction. A good deal might
be said on this subject in this connection, but as we shall have a
meeting very shortly in relation to our cooperative business affairs,
probably that would be the proper place for remarks of this character.
But I would say, as one individual, to all the Saints—Let us by every
means in our power, that is, by collecting the little means that we
have, seek to build up and strengthen these institutions in our midst,
and they will prove profitable to us, and be a great blessing to the
entire community and to Zion.
At this afternoon's session of the Conference the authorities of the
Church will be presented, and it is desirable that there should be a
general attendance of the members of the Church, as far as they can
possibly come.
To refer again to this subject of cooperation. We have seen its good
effects in the settlements throughout the entire Territory. I consider
that if it had not been for our institution regulating prices and
governing and controlling the mercantile interests of this Territory,
we should have lost, by having to pay high prices, thousands and
thousands of dollars that we have saved. In Brigham City particularly,
judging by accounts that we have heard, have the principles of
cooperation been exceedingly beneficial to the people, because of the
perfection to which they have been carried out. The great difficulty
with us heretofore has been that, as a people, we have not had capital
to achieve any very great results. No one man, until quite recently,
has had sufficient means to carry on any great undertaking; but by the
masses of the people uniting under a cooperative plan, and putting
their funds in the hands of those who are judicious and good business
men, we can establish every kind of manufacture that is necessary in
this country to make us self-sustaining. The manufacture of iron into
hollow-ware, and everything of this character that is made of iron;
the manufacture of rails for our railroads, of woolen goods of the
best character, the establishment of sheep and cattle herds, of cheese
factories and tanneries, and of every branch of manufacture that is
adapted to our climate and Territory can be carried on upon this
principle, and efforts should be made by us as a people to establish
and make them successful. I took down with me, when I went to
Washington last fall, a suit of clothes manufactured here in this
Territory—the wool was grown here, the cloth was made at President
Young's factory, and the clothes were made by our tailors. There was a
good deal of discussion in the early part of the session concerning
the resumption of specie payments. I remarked to a good many of my
friends that if I were a believer, as some of them were, in the power
of the General Government to make laws respecting such matters,
I should be in favor of making a law that would prevent the
importation into this country of anything that we could make
ourselves; and I believe that specie payments will be postponed until
there is a stop to the extravagance which reigns throughout the
country. The stream of gold which ought to be setting in the direction
of the United States, in consequence of the multiplicity of our
productions and the greatness of our trade, is constantly flowing
toward Europe; and while this is the case, we may struggle in vain to
get back to specie payments. That which is true concerning a nation is
true concerning us as a Territory. If we would be independent, if we
would keep the circulating medium in abundance in our midst, we must
stop the stream that is flowing from the Territory, and every dollar
that we spend here in sustaining a home institution, for making
clothes, paying the cloth manufacturer for his cloth, the wool grower
for his wool, the tanner for his leather, or the shoemaker for making
that leather into shoes and boots, is that much saved to the entire
community. One very prominent free trade member of the House, during a
discussion on this subject last session, remarked that the suit of
clothes he had on cost him but a comparative small amount, and that he
had them sent from Canada. Someone replied, by way of joke, that he
had probably bought a secondhand suit; but there is no doubt the
clothes were new. But suppose they cost less in Canada than the same
suit would in the States, cannot you and everybody see, without
lengthy reflection, that that money all went into foreign hands, and
did not benefit the people of this country? The producer of the wool,
the manufacturer of the cloth, and the maker of the clothes in Canada
received the benefit. But supposing that thirty-five or forty dollars
had been paid for that suit of clothes in the United States, or in the
community where the purchaser lived, you can readily perceive that by
the circulation of that money in his immediate vicinity, he, himself,
if he were in any business, would receive the benefit of the
expenditure, and that the extra cost would not be an entire loss to
him like paying it out to a foreign community. And so it is with our
own manufactures. We talk about brooms and about cheese, butter and
other things which can be brought from the east at lower figures than
we can produce them; but it is better for us to pay twenty-five per
cent more, and I do not know but even a larger percentage, for our
home productions, than to send the money away to a distant community
where it is circulated and we receive no benefit from it. If we bought
homemade cheese, and had to pay ten or fifteen cents a pound more for
it (which, however, we are not required to do) than if it were brought
from abroad, it is not an entire loss to the community, for we all
derive some benefit from the means so spent, because it is circulated
amongst us, and if we have anything to sell we get prices in
proportion for it, and thus we sustain ourselves. Men may say that
such and such things can be bought cheaper abroad than they can be
bought at home, and therefore it is better to buy them; but I say that
it is suicidal for any community to pursue such a policy, and we, with
the experience that we have had in this country on these points for
upwards of a quarter of a century, should begin to learn wisdom, and
begin to foster home manufactures and home institutions. Our
cooper ative institutions should take into consideration the
people's good, and, if there is ink, matches, cloth, leather or
anything else to sell that is manufactured in this country, they
should give the preference every time to the home manufactured article
so far as possible, and endeavor to stimulate and foster home
production and not operate against it.
By this means we build ourselves up, and the people themselves, where
they are ignorant, will soon perceive the propriety and the advantage
of taking this course; whereas if we pursue the old and opposite
course we shall be impoverished and stripped of our means, and, having
no branches of home manufacture, we shall continue to be a poor,
dependent, helpless people.
- George Q. Cannon