Graham guardian., 1913-12-26
A THRIFTY PEOPLE
Mormons Are Wanted to
Take Up Land Near
FL Paso, Texas

Judge Ponder, now county treas.
urer of El Paso County, Texas, but
formerly for many years editor of
The Ell Paso Times, has not entirely
got away from newspaper work and
now daily writes column for The
Times under the heading, Heard
on the City Streets" In Sundays
Times we find the following con.
corning the Mormons who abandoned
their colonies in Mexico during the
revolution against Madero:
The chances" says Charles B
Stevens, are strongly in favor of the
Mormous who have abandoned their
Mexico colonies, making homes in
this valley. | saw telegram from
Bishop smith instructing the Mexi-
Can M0rmons to surrender their
homes in Mexico and start new
homes elsewhere, and one of the
Mormuns now located in the valley
told me that DR.. Ivins, who is the
head of the Mexican colonies, is
urging his people to locate in this
valley ard to secure all the land
they can. But on account of losing
their homes and crops in Mexico the
Mormons are short on cash and will
want to buy land on easy terms. A
friend of mine told me this morning
that he and several others owned
sufficient unencumbered land in the
upper and lower Ell Paso valleys to
take care of all the MI xican colon
ists, nd that they have offered the
land to the Mormons on easy terms
and long payments, and | believe
the offer will be accepted. The
Mormons are not now practicing DO
lygamy, and they are the greatest
builders in the world. They are
born farmers and scientific irriga-
tors. From the day of their settle
ment in Utah and reclaiming from
steriity the lands of that state, they
have been studying and practicing
irrigation, and our valley farmers
could learn from them all that is to
be learned about irrigation. If we
can get 1000 Mormon families to
settle in this valley they will, two
years hence, make an agricultural
exhibit at our county fair that will
make the state fairs exhibit at
Dallas look like the work of anna
teurs. The Mormons attend strictly
to their own business, work like
beavers and can make waste places
bloom like the Garden of Eden.
understand DR.. Ivins wants enough
of them to settle in this valley to
build big temple in Ell Paso."
Ell Paso would indeed be FORUM
ate if one hundred Mormon families
should buy land make homes in the
Rio Grande valley, below or above
the city. What Judge Ponder says
of the Mormon people is the truth.
They are regular beavers and they
have nothing to learn in the way of
methods which successfully reclaim
the desert when the water is at hand
for irrigation; they were among the
pioneers in Arizona who undertook
to reclaim the rich valleys of Ari-
zona and wherever they had charge
of this work success was abundant.
They are people who work from
sun to sun and keep their. affairs,
and troubles if they have any, strict
ly to themselves. They have their
own religion, and aside from the
polygamy practiced in the past, but
which now only is a memory, their
religion is that of Christ and Him
crucifed. the writer has listened
to some of their ablest preachers
and wondered wherein the religion
of the Mormons differed from other
religions based on the Crucified
Savior.
At the end of one sermon listened
to twenty years ago in the Gila val
ley, the ward bishop arose and stated
that widow in the neighborhood
was in need of help in getting twen-
ty acres of land plowed and sowed
in wheat; he called for volunteers
to do this work. Half a dozen re-
sponded and stated that they would
go at once and plow and plant for
the widow. This struck US as eyi-
dence that the Mormons were per-
maps more practical in their religion
than some others. Today the Gila
valley in Graham county is the most
prosperous section of Arizona and
the Mormons have acquired SO per
cent of all the land in cultivation.
Ell Paso would be fortunate in hav-
ing a colony of Mormons on the Rio
Grande. If there are drones there
~ i I L N I L