THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 



from the forbidding soil of the desert when men should 

 learn to adapt their industry to the conditions. 



Such was the humble beginning of modern agriculture 

 in Arid America. The success of this desperate expedi- 

 ent to preserve the existence of a fugitive people in the 

 vast solitude has made Utah our classic land of irrigation, 

 and given the Mormons their just claim as the pioneer 

 irrigators of the United States. It was not, however, 

 until they survived other hardships, including the devas- 

 tation of their first crops by swarms of crickets, that the 

 hardy settlers were able to celebrate a genuine harvest- 

 home, and to feel that the ground was at last firm be- 

 neath their feet. Then began that long era of material 

 prosperity which will never cease until the people depart 

 from the industrial system established by Brigham 

 Young. 



It is this industrial system which makes the Mormons 

 well worthy of study at this time. Nothing just like it 

 exists elsewhere upon any considerable scale, yet its 

 leading principles are certainly capable of general appli- 

 cation. Good Mormons regard the system, like all their 

 blessings, as a direct revelation of God. Many others 

 consider it the intellectual product of a great man's 

 brain. But when it is studied in connection with Mor- 

 mon colonization, it is plain that the system was born of 

 the necessities of the place and time that it is the legit- 

 imate product of the peculiar environment of the arid 

 region. The forces that have made the civilization of 

 Utah will make the civilization of western America. It 

 is in this view of the matter that we shall find our justi- 

 fication for a careful study of the Mormon structure of 

 industry and society. 



no 



