THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 



civilization to-day. Wars and panics have swep t the 

 country since the pioneers built their homes in Salt Lake 

 Valley, but they and theirs have not gone hungry for a 

 day or an hour. Nor need they do so while water runs 

 down hill and mother earth yields her increase. 



The conquest of Utah began with the establishment 

 of agriculture, which is everywhere the foundation of 

 civilization. Brigham Young realized, as the American 

 people may well do to-day, that there can be no prosper- 

 ity if agriculture languishes. He realized that whatever 

 the Mormon people might have in the future whatever 

 of factories, stores, and banks, whatever of churches tem- 

 ples, and tabernacles must come primarily from the 

 surplus profits of the soil. 



As soon as his people had been supplied with food and 

 shelter, he turned his attention to the development of a 

 broader industrial life. Workshops, stores, and banks 

 were necessary to furnish facilities for manufacture, dis- 

 tribution, and exchange. All these enterprises were un- 

 dertaken in a co-operative way under the familiar forms 

 of the joint-stock company. Those who were unwilling 

 to engage in them upon these terms generally left the 

 church and set up for themselves. At the beginning 

 there was no capital for such undertakings except the 

 capital which resided in every man's land and labor no 

 wealth but the commonwealth. As all had started on a 

 basis of equality, so all were given an equal chance to 

 participate in the new industrial, mercantile, and bank- 

 ing enterprises of the Territory. When a factory or 

 store was to be started subscription papers were circu- 

 lated and everybody urged to take some of the stock. 

 Payments were made sometimes in cash, more often in 



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