--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Wells, John collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 25 number: 4 published: 1922-02 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'John Wells, "Co-operation and Mutual Helpfulness," *Improvement Era* 25, no. 4 (February 1922): 295–296.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2504unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera2504unse start_page: 295 end_page: 296 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1922-02) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2504unse publication_year: 1922 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1922, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Co-operation and Mutual Helpfulness Co-operation and Mutual Helpfulness* By Elder John Wells, of the Presiding Bishopric of the Church I feel a deep sense of responsibility in trying to express my thoughts to this vast congregation of Latter-day Saints. The one thought above all others that has come to my mind is how thank- ful I am to my heavenly Father that I am permitted to be a Lat- ter-day Saint; that I, as a member of the Church of God, have an opportunity of mingling with you. How thankful I am, too, that the Lord permits me to hold the holy Priesthood, with the privilege of ministering among my brethren and sisters. I feel that a tremendous responsibility rests upon all who hold this Priesthood; that it shall be magnified righteously before our heavenly Father; that we shall labor in the ministry with kind- ness sympathy, helpfulness, and with love unfeigned, so that the great work of our heavenly Father may progress in the earth and accomplish its mission among the children of men. I am thankful for the opportunity of mingling my voice in song and prayer, and to listen to the advice and counsel of my brethren. I hope we shall all go home determined to follow the splendid instructions to which we have listened, all of which are for our spiritual and temporal welfare. I am particularly impressed by President Grant's advice that we get out of debt. Indebtedness is one of the great prob- lems of the day facing the Latter-day Saints. We are today liv- ing under a commercial system of competition which has come from the world, and has replaced the conditions which pre- vailed in the early settlement of the valleys. Our present financial situation should set us all to serious thinking. Is not the time coming when it will be necessary for the Latter-day Saints to return to those earlier methods of liv- ing— the old rules of co-operation and mutual helpfulness — each doing his share in the community? It was this system of co- operation that built the roads, canals, bridges, cleared away the brush, organized towns and villages and laid the foundation for the great communities of Latter-day Saints who now occupy these mountain valleys. Co-operation results from the greal truth that human beings must depend upon one another. Now we finance all undertakings with money in the form of bonds. These bonds and certificates of indebtedness are usually sold outside the state and must be paid by our labor, whether we are engaged in the office, on the farm, or on the range. Are *Remarks at the Semi-annual Conference of the Church, Friday, October 7, 1921. 296 IMPROVEMENT ERA we not over-reaching ourselves and becoming the "hewers of wood and drawers of water"? We cooperate wonderfully in spiritual things. Our system of organization, and the operation of the stakes, wards and mis- sions, are the admiration of all unbiased investigators. In all the affairs of the wards and stakes, cooperation is the basic idea. But when it comes to business, we are actuated purely by the spirit of competition. That competition is for the profit of individuals or groups of individuals, and not in the interest of the community. Under our present competitive system of liv- ing, you will find in the small communities a number of people in commercial pursuits, supplying our needs for the purpose of making profit for themselves. Why not develop the spirit by which the community owns these institutions? Why not develop cooperative purchasing as we are now developing co- operative selling? This cooperative spirit could be developed in the cultivation of large tracts of land, in flocks and herds, merchandising, banking, canals and water problems, and in many other ways, some of which have already been developed in the older states and in the countries of Europe. I just want to leave this thought to set us thinking more about this great problem of living, to see if, in the near future, we can put into operation some of the earlier methods in vogue among the Pioneers and early-comers to these valleys; when there was no money, when labor was wealth, and the ability to work and apply labor intelligently created wealth for the com- munity. I again testify to you, my brethren and sisters, of my thank- fulness and appreciation for the gospel. I know this to be the work of God, for the Lord has manifested it to me in many ways, and I thank him with all my heart, and with all my mind and with all my soul that I am a Latter-day Saint. May he bless us with the disposition to understand the gospel, to manifest it in our daily lives, so that we may grow spiritually day by day stronger in the faith and more willing to keep his commandments, I ask in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. The Smoke Nuisance The Chicago Tribune has in its platform for Chicago this plank, "Lessening the Smoke Horror." Smoke issuing' from tall chimneys, to be dissipated by the lake breezes, is an awful nuisance, and should be stopped. Tobacco smoke may even be puffed straight shot into the faces of the citizens of Chicago, in hotels, restaurants and other public places, with no daily paper to protest against the practice. Puck well ex- plains: "What fools we mortals be!" Some smokers in Salt Lake City do the same, notwithstanding it is against the law.