THE MORMON COMMONWEALTH 



This principle of universal land ownership, and of care- 

 ful division according to location and of differing needs 

 of various classes, has been followed throughout the 

 Mormon settlements of Utah and surrounding States, 

 and is being duplicated to-day in the latest colonies es- 

 tablished by this people. 



It is important to note that the Mormon land system 

 rested on individual proprietorship. There never was 

 any attempt at community ownership. The unit of the 

 State was the family and the home. But the moment 

 we pass from the sphere of individual labor we encounter 

 another principle, which was always applied, though not 

 always by the same methods, to public utilities. This 

 was the principle of public ownership and control. 



If the Mormon leaders had desired to organize their 

 industrial life in a way to make large private fortunes 

 for themselves, no single item in the list of Utah's re- 

 sources would have offered a better chance for specula- 

 tion than the water supply. It was perfectly feasible 

 under the law for private individuals or companies to ap- 

 propriate these waters, construct canals, sell water rights, 

 and collect annual rental. By adopting this method, 

 which widely prevails in other western States, they could 

 have laid every field, orchard, and garden every in- 

 dividual and family under tribute to them and their 

 descendants forever. Neither in law nor in practice, at 

 that time, was it any more a moral and economic wrong 

 to appropriate privately and hold against the public the 

 natural wealth of the streams than it was to do the same 

 with the natural wealth of the mineral belts on govern- 

 ment land. 



Probably the Mormons owed their escape from the 



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