Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1903-09-07
EMPIRE
BUILDERS
Success of Mormons Due to Fact
That They Are Deeply
Rooted in the Soil.
AN ENDLESS MIRACLE
Small Irrigated Farms Confer Industrial
independence and Social Equality
on the Holders.

The coming National Irrigation
congress at Ogden Utah, September
1913 directs attention to the remark
able system of irrigation and com
munity building found today in Utah
The bountifully yielding small irrigat
Cd farms of that state have furnished
a theme for many interesting articles
In fact the Mormon people have sup
piled perennial topic of discussion
since they first came into prominence
half q century ago. Volumes have
been written about them, whi.e many
other volumes might be filled with the
magazine and newspaper articles
which have been published on the
same subject And yet of all that has
been said the smallest possible pro
portion has touched the real secret OF
their power.
1t does not lie in their peculiar re-
lgious doctrine and practice, nor is it
explained by the perfection of their
organization or the dominance of the
ocracy in secular affairs, except as
these have been Incidental to the re-
alization of another and much more
substantial fact.
The Mormons owe their success
their constant growth and enduring
hold upon their people-in single
word, their power-to the fact that
they are deeply rooted in the soil.
From the moment that the first small
party Of pioneers lighted the first
campfire by the banks of City Creek
July 27, 1S49, their policy has been
to get possession Of the land and to
make that land yield up to them, in
dividually and collectively, a living
and competence.
True Homcbui!ders.
Brigham Young and his successors
down to the present hour have been
guided by the true instinct or empire
builders. They grasped at the begin
ming, and have held throughout their
history, the great truth that the earth
is the source of all wealth and that
neither man nor communities can be
poor or helpless SO long as they have
a firm foothold on the soil.
But this was only d part of their
wisdom. The other part was the fact
that they divided the land among a
multitude of small proprietors Ac-
cording to the census returns. the
average farm in Utah is twenty-seven
acres. AS many large ranches were
included in the average, it is obvious
that there must nave been many
which were of even smaller dimen-
sions, and this is the fact. 1t Is not
uncommon to find people !, } COM
fortably on two or three acres. while
some of the most famous families, like
the. Woodrnffs, have lived for nearly
two generations on twenty-acre
place.
Utah lies in high altitude and a
northern latitude. 1t has real winter
for several months in the year. It's
growing season is not much longer
than that of New England. How,
then, can its people live and prosper
Oh very small farms?
The explanation is in single word
And irrigation is an end
less miracle. 1t confers industrial in
and social equality on
communities that know how to live in
accordance with its laws. 1t has made
the people of Utah rich, powerful and
impregnable, in an economic sense. 1t
will do as much for tens of millions
more in the next twenty-five years if
it has a chance.
Mormon Power lmpregnable.
Those who have been alarmed at
the growth and persistence of the Nor
mon power, and have sought to curb
it apparently have no appreciation of
the everlasting rock on which 1t is
built.
The Mormon Church has been from
the first great scheme of co-opera-
tive colonization. It has taken poor
men and made them prosperous-con
verted tenants into proprietors,
tramps into taxpayers, hired men into
and made the outcast a
partner. in store, factory and bank.
And how has it done all this? First,
by knowing the value of our great pub
lie domain and proceeding to help it.
self to the wealth thereof, in strict &C
cordance with the letter and the spirit
of the law.
Then, by dividing the land among
those who use it and seeing that the
land owner is also the owner Of the
water and of all the facilities Of its
Fortunately for them, the pioneers
and those who followed them were
poor. No man was rich enough to ex-
ploit the mass. The work to be done
was beyond the reach of individuals.
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