Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1896-03-13
THE MORMoNs' INDUSTRIAL, SYSTEM.

helps out the swine and poultty. The orchard
and garden keep the family in all kinds of veg
etables, berries and fruit. Of course there is
an abundance of eggs and milk and their pro-
ducts. And thus, i'll spite of tariffs, and pan
les, and sympathetic strikes, MILFORD Woodruff
and his family fare comfortably through the
years, certain not only of sustenance, but of
such luxuries as turkey, Strawberries and
peaches with cream when they want them.
Not only are these things sure, but the family
has always had little surplus to invest in the
banking, mercantile and manufacturing enter
prises of the territory.
1t is plain, of course, that each producer on
his little farm received the full return of his
labor up to the point which he could reach by
his individual effort Is it possible to protect
him when he gets to the place where he must
deal with the store, the factory, the bank?
Brigham Young thought so.
Fortunately for the Mormons, they had no
rich men and represented no considerable cap
ital collectively They had found a way to
live independently upon the soil, but their
larger industrial and mercantile life necessitated
the use of capital and employees. When
store, or WOODEN mill, or bank was to be started,
the subscription list was thrown wide open to
everybody. AS all worked for themselves and
received the full fruits of their labor, all were
able to take little stock in these things. Gen
orally they paid in cash tit!ling -house script,
tho sometimes in products, and not infrequent
ly in labor Thus, step by step, capital was
secured for enterprise after enterprise, and the
business represented not an individual proprie-
tor nor syndicate composed of few, but a
multitude of shareholders.
lions Cooperative Mercantile Institution
transacts an annual business OF between four
and six millions, and has numerous branches.
All the larger factories and banks are organized
on the same basis. The latest important un-
dertaking of this sort is the beet-sugar factory
at Lehi which cost $500, 900, and paid dvi-
dends of ten per cent. last year. besides pro-
viding a prosperous home market for farmers
and keeping vast annual expenditure at home
instead of handing it over to the sugar trust.
To an Industrial system calculated to give
the people high average of prosperity Brig
ham Young sought to add social arrangements
which would make them contented He quick
" realized that irrigation implied very small
farms; that small farms meant near neighbo1s,
and that the advantages of neighborhood asso-
citation might be still further enhanced by hav
ing the homes assembled in village centers. 1t
is likely that the idea originated from the ne
cessity of protecting the people against Indian
attacks, but the leader proceeded to make the
most of the social advantages of the plan,
Take the little communityof Huntsville, for x-
ample This is ten miles off the railroad and d.
rectly north of Ogden, an important railroad
point, familiar to all trans-continenta travellers.
Huntsville is reached by an inspiring drive
through the beautiful canon of the Oregon
river AS one makes this drive, one meets
score of comfortable country wagons, filled with
healthy and contented people, and drawn by
sleek, well-fed horses. These are Huntsville
villagers on their way to Ogden to exchange
their products for goods sold at the stores, to
attend some religious festival or merry-making
Emerging from the upper end of the canon
into the valley Of the Ogden river, one finds
small but beautiful plain surrounded by shelter
ing mountains. In the midst of the tract of
5000 acres is the village. It occupies an area
of about half-mile square, which is divided
into blocks of four acres, while the blocks are
divided into lots of one acre each. Two hun
dred of these acre lots are occupied by that
number of families, and the total population Is
about 1850.
In the center of the village is park of ten
acres. Here is the modest tabernacle used for
religious purposes on Sunday and all sorts of