What the Government Owes Its People 205 



nearly forgotten. Brigham Young looms larger with 

 the passing of the years. Whatever his errors and 

 the attempt to establish polygamy under the American 

 Flag was an error, now admitted, officially reversed, 

 and practically abandoned 250,000 happy and inde- 

 pendent homes will plead for him in trumpet tones at 

 the Throne of Grace. 



For many years I have been saying that what this 

 country needs is a Mormon Church without Mor- 

 mons. I mean a policy of the Federal Government that 

 shall do for all our people in the future what the Mor- 

 mon Church has been doing for its own people during 

 the past 74 years. It has not financed its people, 

 except temporarily, and in a very limited way. What 

 it did was to create a system that would enable the 

 humblest settler to proceed in the light of the highest 

 available intelligence. This intelligence, in the early 

 days, consisted of the shrewd common sense of the 

 founder and the very able men by whom he was sur- 

 rounded ; many, like himself, drawn from the best strain 

 of New England blood. In later years, this intelligence 

 took on a scientific cast through numerous schools and 

 universities. 



Intelligent leadership was supplemented by a hu- 

 mane and statesmanlike policy of development. No 

 settler was left to shift for himself, nor allowed to 

 enter upon the adventure at anything less than the 

 best place that could be found. No one was permitted 

 to exploit him in the price of land (for the most part 

 they were able to obtain free public land), nor in the 

 price of water for irrigation. In fact, Utah is one of 



