The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1909-05-30


and confidence has been undermined
ana must crumble into the dust.
HIs TEMPORAL RULE, AND BEETs.
a reference to the views Of President
Joseph f. Smith on his proper functions
| as the head of the Mormon church, is
appropriate at this time, in view Of the
/ publicity given TO his connection with
The local sugar trust That connection
is both official and personal It's cf
| fcct is that he, as president of the
Mormon church, is president of the local
sugar trust: that is. he would not have
been president of the sugar trust ex-
cept for his position as president of the
Church; be would not otherwise been
thought Of in that connection; and Of
course, he was on the inside Of all Of
the stock manipulations and watcrings
HIS profits from these manipulat lions
and from the dividends he has received
must be very great. And the control
that he has as religious counselor, in
structor, and director of the work and
the consciences Of those who raise beets
for his factories, (thcy being en- masse
members of his church. and so under his
lurisdictiou,) gives him a tremendous
leverage over these farmers, which he
uses without scruple, to his own ad-
vantage.
In the old times, when ton Of beets
would buy hundred pounds of sugar
| Al1,.1 4 Il
the farmers to raise bects. The toll
of raising bcets is very great, and the
pay for that toll at $3.50 per ton is
quite meagcr. For, it must be rcmem-
bered that big crops are not the gen
eral thing, but the exception, and while
ii can be shown that in favorable years
and on especially adapted soil. the
| profits per acre in raising sugar bects
are, under favorable circumstances,
! great, it by no means follows that they
are SO on the average, year by year.
On the contrary, the farmers often COM
plain that they do not receive for their
crops, enough to pay them for the
trouble and cost of raising the beets,
and so they openly protest in the plant
ing seasons and do not want 10 plant
tho bcets necessary TO keep the factories
in operation. it is here that Smith
comes in strong. He tells the farmers,
when they complain and protest, that
they should raise the beets; that it is
their duty to do so, and that the orig
inal investments and the community's
interests will suffer if they don t raise
enough beets TO keep the factories run
ming, and as their spiritual director he
urges submission on their part so they
feel that they are obliged to obey and
always raise enough beets to run tho
factories. in this counec ton il should
be pointed out that President Smith
uses his church supremacy TO his own
personal advantage, considering this TO
be entirely proper; for it will be re-
membered that a few years ago in an
address in Provo, he squarcly stated, as
an inspired man Of God. as a "prophet,
seer, and rcvclator, that the man who
conceded his rights to direct him spir
itually and denied his right to direct
INN in temporal affairs, lied in the face
Of God. This was sweeping state
ment, sufficient to cover every possible
case, and it covers the case Of the beet
raisers to such an extent rs to get all
the beets that Smith desires.
But does that proposition work both
ways? Does the factory stake all the
beets that the farmers raise under the
pressure brought upon them by their
spiritual head Of their church? BY no
means. il it happens that there is an
abundant crop of beets, the factory
takes only what it needs, and the farmer
is left to carry the loss, with acres Of
beets on his hands. There have been
times when fields of beets were not
taken because the factory did not need
them. In such cases, Of course, the only
thing the farmer could do was TO sell
such bects as he could in the open mar.
ket for the feeding OF stock.
1t will thus be seen that the rule laid
down by President Smith, tyrannical
and arbitrary as 1t is, works but one
way, and that in his favor only. The
farmer is obliged to obey the Presi-
don't IS counsel, and raise beets, even If
it doesn't pay him to do SO; but the
President is not obliged to take the
beets unless it suits his convenience.
And this is the way the local sugar trust
of which Smoot was so fervent in his
culogy, operates year by year in its
business in Utah and Idaho, and car,
ries out IN practice the saying of Smoot
that President Smith is the friend Of
the beet-raisers.