Prosperity, Debts and Investments

— Prosperity, Debts and Investments 4 By Bishop Charles W. Nibley [A number of speakers at the October conference called attention to the wisdom of getting out of debt during these prosperous times. And they certainly are prosperous, except to the small class who are earning regular and fixed salaries. These, unfortunately, in a great majority of cases are much worse off than in ordinary times, when products of the factory and field are more normal. It is a fact that a salary of $50 six or eight years ago would reach as far as one of $100 today. Therefore, salaried men are practically in a position of hard times, approaching panic, for in a majority of instances, their salaries remain where they were, while their unavoidable expenses are practically doubled. But for all others, there has perhaps never been a time when money was so plentiful, and so easily obtained as now. Hence, the injunction to make good use of the time to pay one's debts and to avoid obligations and borrowing to be paid in the future when things will be reversed and high prices for merchandise and products will tumble. Hence, the financial key word, to the people at conference, was: "Pay your debts and keep out of debt." Bishop Charles W. Nibley emphasized this advice, and pointed out also how money should be used when there are no debts to pay. We suggest that all should read and follow the counsel which he gave. To that end, we reproduce parts of his speech. Editors."] I give it to you as the best advice to myself and to you all, that there never was so good a time to get out of debt as right now. The people are abundantly prospered and blessed. Coming over from my home this afternoon, I noticed both sides of the street lined with automobiles. I suppose all around this block you will find it so. I am glad to see it; I am proud to see it. But I hope that those who are owing for their automobiles, or any part of them, will lay this coimsel to heart, for it is — mighty good gospel for all of us that we pay off our obligations, and also that we lift the mortgages on our homes and farms. Everything that you produce in these times commands a good price. Everything in the way of food stuffs, beef, mutton, swine and cereals, as well as fruits, they are called for in one form or another, canned or put up in different ways, to supply the armies of Europe. They are sent abroad by shiploads. The war has created a great demand for all that you produce, and still more and more is called for. A stream of gold is coming back into this country, so much so that our banks can hardly contain it, for I noticed that in the last few days the banks in New York have been sending seventyfive to one hundred million dollars back to London, to loan it there, because there is so much here that they can't loan it. That

PROSPERITY, DEBTS AND INVESTMENTS 103 stream of gold is pouring back because of these war supplies. Not only the munitions of war, but the supplies of food, clothing, and everything that your farms produce, are called for to be used by those armies, and the prices are of the best. Therefore, now is the time to pay our debts, and, having paid them, to keep out of debt. If we are prosperous to such an extent that we forget our obligations to each other and to the Lord, what kind of prosperity is that? You can read in the Bible a prophecy of Solomon; I wish I had time to read it for you, but these words are the closing of it: "The turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them" (Prov. 1:32). I have wondered if in this immense and unbounded prosperity it shall not be to us the prosperity of fools, which may destroy us. For if it takes faith out of our hearts, if it destroys the faith of our children so that they do not love the work of the Lord as they should do, and are given to frivolity — and going the ways of the world, if it does all that, then it is the prosperity of fools that destroys us! Now, if we are not in debt, and have no obligations to pay, and have a little surplus on hand, instead of investing that money in some "get-rich-quick" scheme, away off, say in South America or Mexico, investing in land, timber, rubber, or bananas, or in sending our surplus money to invest in coal in Wyoming, sending it away to these investments that we don't know anything about, I advise you to keep your money at home, and invest it in something you do know something about. President Young used to tell the farmers in his day, and it is just as good counsel for us today as it was in Brother Brigham's time, "You tend to your farms, and let the mines alone." Why did he give this advice? Because, as he stated, you are farmers, and you are not miners. Mining is all right; it is a distinct and necessary business and a very good one, but as you are not miners but farmers and carpenters and builders and whatever vocation you have, therefore it is the best counsel that the shoemaker should stick to his last. Now, my brethren and sisters, if you have a little surplus, instead of investing it in things that you don't and cannot know anything about, these "get-rich-quick" schemes, let me advise you to invest in one acre or two of land that you do know something about; fix up the home; make your wife and family more comfortable; provide for them better; not to excess in dress or in luxury, but make good and comfortable provision for them. — Add to your little herd of cows you know something more — about that and what you get, let it be of the best kind of stock. If you are in the sheep business, get the best sheep that can be produced; if you are dairying, strive for the best cattle, and the

104 IMPROVEMENT ERA best results. Try to make what you produce a little better than anybody else. We ought to be able to make the land produce much more than it does. I believe that our Agricultural College, under the direction of Dr. Widtsoe, now under the direction of Dr. Peterson, has done a great deal in showing us that we can make one acre of land produce as much as two or three have been producing. A man who makes ten acres of land sustain twenty people, where it only sustained ten before, is a public benefactor; he has done something; he has accomplished results; he is somebody in the community, and I take my hat off to that kind of a man. Bishop David A. Smith and his brothers have a dairy herd, and they are proving to us that one cow will produce as much butter fat, and bring better results in the way of food products, than two or three cows of the ordinary kind would do, and there are others engaged in the same line of industry that are teaching us the same lesson. They are taking the forage produced on one acre of land and by putting it in a silo and making ensilage of it, and by properly and scientifically feeding, they have proven that they can get better results with one cow than you could from two or three cows in the old way of doing things. Now, all this is good. An acre of good land properly tilled can be made to produce $100 every year; that is 10 per cent of the valuation of $1,000. You can make such land worth $1,000 an acre just as well as not. Let me advise you in another point. Do not sell all the wheat you have, but keep enough for your local demands. It is good to have enough wheat on hand for bread, so that we will not be obliged to call on some other country to feed our own people. I know when I went on a mission, forty years ago it — will be forty years next April since I went with President Smith to Europe — that I provided a bin full of wheat for my wife and two children before I left. In those days we used to make it a point to have a year's bread-stuff on hand. That was President Young's counsel, and it is mighty good counsel today. It will not be amiss to keep a little of your wheat at home and not sell it all. So be wise in these temporal things. They are small but we need to lay them well to heart. Don't send everything out of the country. The other day we had a call at the sugar company's office for 150 carloads of sugar to feed the troops in Italy. The Italian government called for that amount, at one time, and so the products go, and so the gold comes back, and many of us think this is going to continue, and we will all pay our debts some other day. Pav them now. There is no time in the world for paying debts like right now; do it at once and don't put it off.