The Apostate

EDITOR'S TABLE. 461 Church authorities interfering, or even taking part, in temporal affairs. Whereas, formerly it was pronounced a great blessing to the people, when they were poor and stood in need of assistance, of credit and financial aid, such action is now cried down by our enemies, as ruinous to progress—the commercialization of a sacred organization! The Latter-day Saints with their leaders have often been commended for their thrift and industry in building cities and inaugurating enterprises; for improving their temporal surroundings and their financial situation, providing labor for the unemployed, and for leading out in the establishment of -industries. Men have praised us for our practical qualities. But a new cry seems just now to have arisen against this idea, and, strange to say, the chief objector to the authorities of the Church mixing in the affairs of the world, is one who only a few years ago was the chief promoter in saddling upon them financial burdens which were so placed, at that time, for the benefit of the people. For some reason, personal it may be, he was anxious to have them placed back of some of the leading enterprises of the State—the great power plant in Ogden, Saltair, a railroad thereto, the first sugar company. Largely through the instrumentality of this same strenuous objector, they were involved in great debt, and the authorities, notably President Woodruff, were made to sweat blood to meet the bonds placed upon him. The legacy has been transmitted. Some of them died with its heavy weight still bending them down, and the burden is by no means yet lifted. But it was thought a blessing in those days to help the people, by reviving business, providing work, opening markets for farm products, creating new enterprises, and establishing industries And so it was to many. In truth, the people of the state are still reaping great benefits from the establishment of these industries. Even to this day, but for the willingness of the authorities to bear the responsibility of failure, some of these valued industries would never have been established. Countless thousands of dollars have been returned to the farmer because of the sugar industry, in the increased value of land and farm products. It can be truthfully said that every financial plan undertaken by the Church authorities has been inaugurated for the sole purpose

462 IMPROVEMENT ERA. of helping the people, and if they had not led out in these things, undertaken them, and stood back of them, these enterprises either never would have been begun, or would have failed because of the faithlessness of capital. The credit and prestige of the Church •authorities saved them; and generally, when an enterprise has been well founded, the Church authorities have withdrawn, retaining only a small interest in each, giving men with capital and business capacity a chance to carry on the work. There is not a concern in which they have been interested whose stocks cannot be bought in the open market by any person having money and inclination to buy. Furthermore,competition has not been stifled. Capital followed where success was pointed out by the credit and effort of the Church people. There is competition in every industry which the Church authorities have pioneered or initiated, and in which they have become, in a measure, interested—in the generation of power and light, in the manufacture of sugar, in banking, in mercantile and manufacturing business, in the drama, in printing, in the publication of papers and magazines, in mining, in amusements,—no man can truthfully assert that competing institutions are being stifled by their action. If anything, their initiative and credit have been an impetus to commercial enterprise, and, as a result, business of all branches is flourishing in our favored state. And none will successfully deny that in a moral way—in personal virtue, in business integrity, honesty, freedom from labor troubles, in equality in the distribution of wealth—the Latter-day Saints are one whit behind the people of any other state of the Union. I deny that there is any power, open or occult, in the Church which denies to any member of the Church, or to any person not a member of the Church, the privilege and right'of competing with any organization in any line of business. The statement that certain of the authorities of the Church have threatened to crush, or in any other way interfere with, any competing business, is false. Such a denial would be unnecessary, only as far as it is needed to enlighten people not familiar with conditions here; every resident of the state must understand it. I desire to say this much to the young men, and the Saints generally who,from the false statements set afloat by unprincipled

EDITOR'S TABLE. 463 men, might be led to believe that the Church authorities have become corrupt in business affairs, and that they are conducting the Church as a vast corporation for the personal aggrandizement of one man, or one set of men, and they the officers of the Church. Nothing could be further from the truth; whatever enterprises the Church authorities are interested in, with the credit or influence of the Church,they have become so for the peoples' interests, and not for that of any one man nor class of men; and furthermore, the Church is not organized for the sake of making money. Where it has supported enterprises,it has temporarily done so with its credit, for the advancement, assistance, and welfare of the community. This talk about the Church or its authorities ever having threatened, in any way, to crush any business, is founded in personal acrimony and falsehood. It is on a par with the declaration that free speech, and thought, and action, is suppressed by the President and authorities of the Church; one only needs to hear the speech, read the thought, and observe the actions of certain men, as a refutation, and to know that such declaration is false io the extreme, and very ridiculous. Joseph F. Smith. THE APOSTATE. There's the apostate, now. He's a queer creature. Very queer! He has some remarkable notions. And no matter who he is, or when he apostatized, he is all alike in some things. For instance, he always feels very much abused. No matter what has been done, or what left undone; your apostate, if he is the genuine article, feels that any number of people have been in league against him. Of course, there are those who simply drift out of the Church through indifference or general neglect. And indifferent and neglectful they generally remain. Again, there are those who leave other churches. But someway, such people never manifest the real apostate spirit. For they fail to manifest the