Whatever may have been its origin or excuse, the business power of the
president of the church and of the select class which he admits into
business relations with him is now a practical monopoly, or is rapidly
becoming a monopoly, of everything that he touches. I want to call your
attention to the extraordinary list of worldly concerns in which this
spiritual leader holds official position. The situation is more amazing
when you are advised that this man came to his presidency purely by
accident, namely, the death of his seniors in rank; that he had never
known any business ability, and that he comes to the presidency and the
directorship of the various corporations solely because he is president
of the church. He is already reputed to be a wealthy man, and his
statement would seem to indicate that he has large holdings in the
various corporations with which he is associated, although previous to
his accession to the presidency of the church he made a kind of proud
boast among his people of his poverty.
He conducts railways, street-car lines, power and light companies, coal
mines, salt works, sugar factories, shoe factories, mercantile houses,
drug stores, newspapers, magazines, theaters, and almost every
conceivable kind of business, and in all of these, inasmuch as he is the
dominant factor by virtue of his being the prophet of God, he asserts
indisputable sway. It is considered an evidence of deference to him, and
good standing in the church, for his hundreds of thousands of followers
to patronize exclusively the institutions which he controls.
And this fact alone, without any business ability on his part, but with
capable subordinate guidance for his enterprises, insures their success,
and danger and possible ruin for every competitive enterprise.
Independent of these business concerns, he is in receipt of an income
like unto that which a royal family derives from a national treasury.
One-tenth of all the annual earnings of all the Mormons in all the world
flows to him. These funds amount to the sum of $1,000,000 annually, or 5
per cent upon $32,000,000, which is one-quarter of the entire taxable
wealth of the State of Utah. It is the same as if he owned,
individually, in addition to all his visible enterprises, one-quarter of
all the wealth of the State and derived from it 5 per cent of income
without taxation and without discount. The hopelessness of contending in
a business way with this autocrat must be perfectly apparent to your
minds. The original purpose of this vast tithe, as often stated by
speakers for the church, was the maintenance of the poor, the building
of meetinghouses, etc. To-day the tithes are transmuted, in the
localities where they are paid, into cash, and they flow into the
treasury of the head of the church. No account is made, or ever has been
made, of these tithes. The president expends them according to his own
will and pleasure, and with no examination of his accounts, except by
those few men whom he selects for that purpose and whom he rewards for
their zeal and secrecy. Shortly after the settlement of the Mormon
Church property question with the United States the church issued a
series of bonds, amounting approximately to $1,000,000, which were taken
by financial institutions. This was probably to wipe out a debt which
had accumulated during a long period of controversy with the nation. But
since, and including the year 1897, which was about the time of the
issue of the bonds, approximately $9,000,000 have been paid as tithes.
If any of the bonds are still outstanding, it is manifestly because the
president of the church desires for reasons of his own to have an
existing indebtedness.
It will astound you to know that every dollar of United States money
paid to any servant of the Government who is a Mormon is tithed for the
benefit of this monarch. Out of every $1,000 thus paid he gets $100 to
swell his grandeur. This is also true of money paid out of the public
treasury of the State of Utah to Mormon officials. But what is worst of
all, the monarch dips into the sacred public school fund and extracts
from every Mormon teacher one-tenth of his or her earnings and uses it
for his unaccounted purposes; and, by means of these purposes and the
power which they constitute, he defies the laws of his State, the
sentiment of his country, and is waging war of nullification on the
public school system, so dear to the American people. No right-thinking
man will oppose any person as a servant of the nation or the State or as
a teacher in the public schools on account of religious faith. As I have
before remarked, this is no war upon the religion of the Mormons; and I
am only calling attention to the monstrous manner in which this monarch
invades all the provinces of human life and endeavors to secure his
rapacious ends.
In all this there is no thought on my part of opposition to voluntary
gifts by individuals for religious purposes or matters connected
legitimately with religion. My comment and criticism are against the
tyranny which misuses a sacred name to extract from individuals the
moneys which they ought not to spare from family needs, and which they
do not wish to spare; my comment and criticism relate to the power of a
monarch whose tyranny is so effective as that not even the moneys paid
by the Government are considered the property of the Government's
servant until after this monarch shall have seized his arbitrary
tribute, with or without the willing assent of the victim, so that the
monarch may engage the more extensively in commercial affairs, which are
not a part of either religion or charity.
With an income of 5 per cent upon one-quarter of the entire assessed
valuation of the State of Utah to-day, how long will it take this
monarch, with his constantly increasing demands for revenue, to so
absorb the productive power that he shall be receiving an income of 5
per cent upon one-half the property, and then upon all of the property
of the State? This is worse than the farming of taxes under the old
French Kings. Will Congress allow this awful calamity to continue?
The view which the people of the United States entertained on this
subject forty years ago was shown by the act of Congress in 1802, in
which a provision, directed particularly against the Mormon Church,
declared that no church in a Territory of the United States should have
in excess of $50,000 of wealth outside of the property used for purposes
of worship. It is evident that as early as that time the pernicious
effects of a system which used the name of God and the authority of
religion to dominate in commerce and finance were fully recognized.
This immense tithing fund is gathered directly from Mormons, but the
burden falls in some degree upon Gentiles also. Gentiles are in business
and suffer by competition with tithe-supported business enterprises.
Gentiles are large employers of Mormon labor; and as that labor must pay
one-tenth of its earnings to support competitive concerns, the Gentile
employer must pay, indirectly at least, the tithe which may be utilized
to compete with, and even ruin, him in business.
And in return it should be noted that Mormon institutions do not employ
Gentiles except in rare cases of necessity. The reason is obvious:
Gentiles do not take as kindly to the tithing system as do the Mormons.
The Mormon citizen of Utah has additional disadvantages. After paying
one-tenth of all his earnings as a tithe offering, he is called upon to
erect and maintain the meetinghouses and other edifices of the church;
he is called upon to donate to the poor fund in his ward, through his
local bishop; he is called upon to sustain the Women's Relief Society,
whose purpose is to care for the poor and to minister to the sick; he is
called upon to pay his share of the expense for the 2,500 missionaries
of the church who are constantly kept in the field without drawing
upon, the general funds of the church. When all this is done, it is
found that, in defiance of the old and deserved boast of the
predecessors of the present president, there are some Mormons in the
poorhouses of Utah, and these are sustained by the public taxes derived
from the Gentiles and Mormons alike.
Broadly speaking, the Gentiles compose 35 per cent of the population and
pay one-half of the taxes of Utah. In the long run they carry their
share of all these great charges.
The almost unbearable community burden which is thus inflicted must be
visible to your minds without argument from me.
Let it be sufficient on this point for me to say that all the property
of Utah is made to contribute to the grandeur of the president of the
church, and that at his instance any industry, any institution, within
the State, could be destroyed except the mining and smelting industry.
Even this industry his personal and church organ has attacked with a
threat of extermination by the courts, or by additional legislation, if
the smelters do not meet the view expressed by the church organ.
Mr. President, I ask to have read at this point an editorial from the
Deseret Evening News of October 31, 1904, which I send to the desk.
The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Secretary will read as requested.
The Secretary read as follows: