COLONY PLANS AND INSTITUTIONS 



Before we can satisfy capital we must show that there 

 arc security and earning capacity. In like manner there 

 are certain fundamental requirements essential to sat- 

 isfy labor. There are three things which human beings 

 want first, the certainty of a living, which includes 

 food, clothing, and shelter ; second, surplus means above 

 a living for the improvement of the home, the educa- 

 tion of the children, and provision against old age ; 

 third, satisfaction for the social instincts. These three 

 things are as necessary to the contentment of labor as 

 security and interest are vital to the satisfaction of 

 capital. 



The corner-stone of the colony's industrial system is 

 the small, diversified farm, producing the variety of 

 things which the family and community consume. 



Wo have seen how the Mormon farmers prospered for 

 fifty years by following this plan. They lived well in 

 good times and bad, kept out of debt, and steadily ac- 

 cumulated a surplus to invest in banks, factories, stores, 

 and temples. In certain years they would have realized 

 larger cash returns if their lands had been exclusively 

 devoted to corn, wheat, or hops. Southerners speculate 

 in cotton ; middle-westerners in grain ; Californians in 

 fruit. They enjoy brief periods of flood -tide, but at 

 least half the time the tide is running out, and at reg- 

 ular intervals they find themselves stranded on the rocks 

 and shoals left by its ebb. In the long run the Mor- 

 mon workers have distanced them by steadfast adherence 

 to the policy of collecting their living first from the soil, 

 and having a surplus afterwards to dispose of in the 

 markets. It is beyond question, then, that self-suffi- 

 ciency is the first essential of a true industrial system in 



277 



