Giving Employment to the Poor

I hope while I shall speak to you, my brethren and sisters, that I shall be under the influence of the same spirit as guided our beloved brethren who spoke this forenoon. It is pleasant to have the privilege of meeting with the Saints in general Conference. We feel that there is a great deal of the spirit of God present and we delight to hear our leaders speak unto us. ¶

At this Conference we are favored by having the First Presidency, the Apostles, and the Presidents of Seventies with us. I do not remember that this has been the case for many years. I believe that during this Conference the Lord will bless us and give us a rich outpouring of His Holy Spirit. ¶

One of the brethren this forenoon alluded to the many hundreds of Elders we have in the field working for the spread of the truth. We have glorious reports from the different missions; our brethren are doing well and laboring to gather sheep into the fold of Christ; and the Lord is blessing their endeavors. Now, while the great majority of us are not called upon to go out into the active missionary field, there is still a great mission which all of us can perform. The Latter-day Saints at home have a great deal to do. Our brethren gather Israel from the different nations of the earth. Most of the Saints when they come have exhausted their means in bringing them to Zion; they come to a strange land; the customs are different, and they have not many acquaintances, though they have many friends. We should look after these, that they be not discouraged. They may not be able to find the kind of work they have been used to do, and we may not be able to provide that for them, but we should try to give them an opportunity to earn their livelihood. We do not want to make paupers of them. We want to study ways and devise means whereby they can earn their living in our midst. Our missionaries who return should continue to take the same lively interest in the Saints after they gather as they did when they were laboring in their midst in the different fields abroad. Sometimes they feel hurt when they come here and no notice is taken of them. The missionaries who are acquainted with them should take some interest in them and try to do something for them. A great many are doing this, and I am always pleased when I hear the missionaries make inquiries about acquaintances, to know if they arrived; and to see interest taken in them; but I have seen other cases where our emigrants have felt as if they were not looked after, and if under such circumstances, when they feel a little slighted, they should come in contact with those who are disaffected it may make them so, and cause some of them to return to the places where they formerly lived; and such have at times done a great deal of harm to the cause. We can fulfill part of a mission in looking after the Saints when they have gathered; we should see to it that employment is provided for them. In early years those who embraced the Gospel were mostly from the rural districts — farmers. When they came here they did not want to stay In the city; they wanted to go out where they could get land and the same kind of employment they had been used to, and they soon established themselves and prospered. Of late years our missionaries in Europe have not been able to do much among the rural population, but have done more in the cities, and more of those who live in large cities have joined the Church than of those outside the cities, and when these come here they seek the more populous centers as they are not accustomed to farming. Such should be looked after and encouraged to go out into the settlements. Our settlements here are not like the rural districts in Europe. Nearly all of our settlements have the advantages of cities — good schools, good societies, and the advantages that are found in cities in the old world are to a certain extent to be found in most of our larger settlements. Our brethren and sisters who come from the cities, need not stay here in Salt Lake City to enjoy the same advantages they did before they came, but they can go out into the larger settlements, and it will not be hard for those who are not too old to accustom themselves to labor on the farms. Many who have been brought up to a certain kind of employment in factories, or different handicrafts, may not be able to get the same kind of employment here, but many of them can go out and take hold of the work that is to be found in our settlements, and it will not take them long to establish themselves and get homes of their own. They will feel happier in doing so, and though farming is often connected with hard work, the labor has been lightened of late years to a great degree. Our farmers by getting machinery, can do much of their work sitting and the hard work that our brethren tell us they did in early days is not required today. I speak thus to encourage our brethren and sisters, who have come to these larger cities and cannot get employment, to go out into the more distant settlements. I believe there are about as good openings now as there ever were. There are many places where people can take up lands yet, or can get land cheaply and have a chance to work for the land they get. It is true they cannot take up large tracts of land as the earlier settlers might have done if they had so desired, but they did not do that. The counsel was to make small farms, and we have seen the wisdom of this. The brethren who will go out now need not fear that they will starve and will be in want of anything. Our brethren and sisters out in the country feel to help those who come into their midst. The Industrial Bureau, which was established, I hope will be an institution that can do much good for our poor. Those who have means ought to study how to use their means to give employment, that there should not be any idle hands in Zion. The hoarding up of means, trying to get riches for riches' sake, will not make a man happy. We had a text read here this morning by Brother Clawson, which I think is an excellent one. The prophet advises us before seeking riches, that we should seek the kingdom of God, and after we have done that, then he promises that we shall get riches, if we will seek them for the sole purpose of doing good. I believe the Lord will bless this people and make them a rich people if they will first seek His kingdom and His righteousness, and providing the object in gathering riches will be that they may be able to do more good. ¶

We used to have more preaching upon home manufacture. I believe those teachings are as good today as they were years ago. What if we cannot follow the fashions from abroad to so great an extent? We ought to make ourselves a self-sustaining people; we have all the elements right here in our State to make us such. Yesterday I read the report of Z. C. M. I. for the last year. It said there had been about seventy thousand pairs of shoes made by that factory. This is quite a step toward stopping the importation of shoes. If we had ten such factories in our midst I presume we could supply our needs in the shoe line. The report also stated that they had made some one hundred and thirty thousand garments — overalls and jumpers. I was pleased with this item. Though they do not make much money in these departments, yet they keep a great deal of means in our midst; and this should be encouraged. We should encourage all of our home institutions that are trying to stop the outlet of means, so that the money we obtain can be kept in circulation among us a longer time. Let us take a pride in our home manufactures. Let us see to it that we do as much as we can to give our poor employment. ¶

I am sorry to think our tanneries have not been a success; I think they could be made so. We have an enormous lot of hides going out from this State. They are tanned abroad and brought back here in a manufactured shape. We could retain a great deal of means here by manufacturing our own leather. Bark is not easy to be secured here, but perhaps other means of obtaining tannic acid can be had and a success made of this branch of industry. All of our wool that goes out and is brought back as cloth would have been a great saving if we could have manufactured it here, and then sent it out as manufactured goods. ¶

Brethren and sisters, there are so many things that our leading brethren in the different settlements should study and think of and advise the people to do that we may be a prosperous people. We cannot afford to keep up the style we do and do it on raising wheat and selling that at forty cents a bushel. Some change must be had in this. I noticed when I was back on my mission in visiting my native land, Denmark, that a great change has come over that country. They formerly exported their rye and other grain, and while they did so they were a poor people. Of late years they import grain, feed it to their stock and export their butter, their eggs, and their meat to England. They have been able to obtain a higher price for their articles of export. The farms there are prospering, or rather, they would have prospered, if they had kept to their old methods, frugality and simple manners; but they are trying to educate their boys and giving them city appetites; they can not live on their country incomes, and they are going into debt, giving mortgages on their farms, while they are getting several times as much means as they were wont to do. I bring this up for our consideration. I believe if we could use up our grain at home and export that which does not weigh so much, we would not have to pay so much freight, would have more means and make ourselves more independent. ¶

I have got on the subject of home manufacture. I believe it is a thing we ought to study, brethren and sisters, for our well-being and we should look after the poor and give them employment. ¶

May God bless you all and bless our leaders, is my prayer in the name of Jesus. Amen. ¶