PERILS. — MOR.MOJ>{ISM. 115 



for the church. Then, in some great political crisis, the 

 two present political parties Avill bid for our support. 

 Utah will then be admitted as a polygamous state, and 

 the other territories we have peacefully subjugated will 

 be admitted also. We will then hold the balance of 

 power, and will dictate to the country. In time, our 

 principles, which are of sacred origin, will spread 

 throughout the United States. We possess the ability 

 to turn the political scale in any particular community 

 we desire. Our people are obedient. When they are 

 called by the Church, they promptly obey. They sell 

 their houses, lands and stock, and remove to any part of 

 the country the Church may direct them to. You can 

 imagine the results Avhich wisdom may bring about, 

 with the assistance of a church organization like ours." 



Since these words were uttered the United States gov- 

 ernment has made itself felt in "Zion," and its officers 

 are no longer "nobodies" in Utah; but the astute 

 bishop does not over-estimate the effectiveness of the 

 Mormon Church as a colonizer. An order is issued by 

 the authorities that a certain district shall furnish so 

 many hundred emigrants for Arizona or Idaho. The 

 families are drafted, so many from a ward; and each 

 ward or district equips its own quota with wagons, 

 animals, provisions, implements, seed and the like. 

 Thus the Mormon president can mass voters here or 

 there about as easily as a general can move his troops. 



By means of this systematic colonization the Mor- 

 mons have gained possession of vast tracts of land, and 

 now "hold almost all the soil fit for agriculture from 

 the Rocky Mountains to the Sierra Nevada, or an area 

 not less than 500 miles by 700, making 350,000 square 

 miles " 1 ; that is one-sixth of the entire acreage between 

 the Mississippi and Alaska. In this extended region it 

 is designed to plant a Mormon population sufficiently 

 numerous to control it. With this in view, the Church 



1 Rev. D. L. Leonard, late Home Missionary Superintendent for Utah,, 

 Idaho, Montana and West Wyoming. 



