Young People and Home Industries

It gives me great pleasure, my dear brethren and sisters, to have the privilege of speaking a few minutes to this vast congregation of Latter-day Saints. I am proud indeed to hear the reports that have been given and the testimonies that have been borne this morning by three presidents of missions, and to partake of the Spirit of this conference. I know they are interested in your sons, and in the great missionary work of the Church. I feel to say, thank God for them and their labors. ¶

Our enemies would very much appreciate the claim, if it were true, that many of our young people are ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. But in my travels among our people, and in coming in contact with the young people in our meetings, I can testify to you that instead of being ashamed of the great work, they are proud of the fact that they are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They are proud of their fathers and of their mothers. I am not ashamed of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, for I do know that it is the power of God unto salvation; and I hope I may never live long enough to be ashamed of the Gospel, or of the devotion that my father and my mother gave to this great work. I only hope that I shall have that same fidelity, that same love, and that same confidence in the work of God that they had; that I shall, at all times, have sufficient of the Spirit of God to enable me, if it became necessary, to give all on earth for its advancement, as I know that the father and mother who gave me life would have done any minute after they were baptized into this church. ¶

There are many things that the Apostles of the Church speak of at the different quarterly conferences pertaining to the welfare of the people and properly so. As I visit the different sections of our State, and see prosperity on all hands, I thank our heavenly Father that the people are so well provided with comfortable homes, happy surroundings, and loving children, and while I know that there is very little suffering among the Saints of God, yet, as I travel from one end of the state to the other and mingle with the people, I can plainly see in different localities that there are many natural advantages that are not made the best use of by our people. At the earnest request of the presidency of the St. George stake of Zion, I took a trip recently through that stake for the purpose of seeing if the conditions were favorable for the re-establishment of an industry by which a part of the woolen goods used by the southern people could be manufactured at Washington, Utah. This state had for its emblem the beehive, which means industry, frugality gathering for future need. Would that we all might incorporate its meaning into our lives. In years past that great apostle of home manufacture, President Brigham Young, taught very strongly from one end of the land to the other, the duty and principle of making what we wear and raising what we eat. You can go into many of our communities and you will find the result of his teachings in different kinds of factories and mills, but I am sorry to say that almost every woolen mill in the state is closed today, with the machinery not only lying idle, but going to rack and ruin. Then again we can go into the different counties of Utah and see hundreds of car loads of fruit rotting and going to waste. ¶

It seems to me, for want of proper care and lack of means to preserve the same, we are neglecting one of the great cardinal principles of prosperity, that has been taught to us by President Young and all of his successors, that of loyalty to home manufactured goods. The trouble is we have forgotten the great principle of co-operation by which the mill and factory in our early history were established. And why is this? I rather think that one of the causes is loss of confidence in one another's ability to make money in manufacturing institutions. Perhaps one reason is because there have been a few failures and a loss of means in some of these undertakings. But I believe that if the people today would be as loyal to the great principle of home manufacture as they were when these institutions were established, not only those which we have in our midst would be running, but many others would be started. If the men associated with the institutions that have been established in the past in different parts of Utah, would only get together, and if the men of means would join with them and furnish enough money to resuscitate these industries, and all work upon the principle of sustaining home institutions, I am satisfied, that we would grow in our material interests much faster than we have in the past. ¶

I also find in traveling around, that there is a lack of interest among the people in providing work for their children, and many of them are idle. I have noticed, too, that many of our young people are becoming professional idlers. If there is any one thing that will bring trouble to the children of the Latter-day Saints more than another it is to raise them up in idleness; for an idle brain is the devil's workshop. I tell you, my brethren and sisters, we ought to provide some means of employment for our young people, and teach them in their youth to be industrious and avoid the crime of idleness. The proper time to correct this evil is now. Upon the great face of the world's time piece is only written one word, and that is NOW. I hope and trust that where we see the great blessings which our Heavenly Father showers upon the people going to waste upon this hand and upon the other, we will be interested enough to get together, and men who have been blessed of God with means, utilize their means in starting some kind of industry that will employ our young people. I know that if we will do this and the people be loyal in their support, numerous industries can be established and made a success. It is almost a shame to think of the number of factories that have been started in Utah in the shape of woolen mills and only one running -- a mill at Provo, running night and day, and ninety per cent of all its products going to eastern markets! It did not use to be that way, and it should not be now. Many of our people are restless, and some of the younger men, and some of the older ones, too, are moving away in search of new homes, claiming lack of opportunity to make a living. I tell you that there are just as good advantages and as many of them right within the borders of our own state, if they are only utilized, as you will find most anywhere in this country. Do not get discouraged, and do not leave your homes, but make use of the advantages around you. I have seen lately many who have sold their homes to go to different localities, and they have spent most of the money in trying to get located, and now they are coming back to where they went from, not as well off as when they went, and without any home, and most of the means gone. ¶

I have in mind now many industries that could be started in different parts of the State, and should be by men who have the interest of the people at heart. I ask the leading men of our communities to take an interest in this particular direction, and see if they cannot find something to do for all our boys, and for the idle men, if there are any. I suggested the other day to the Commercial Club of Provo that it would be a very good thing for them to appoint a committee to visit every locality in Utah, and even beyond the borders of our own State, and see what was being done in other localities by way of manufacturing industries, and returning study the natural resources of our city, and see if they could not be converted into something that we must have and for which we are now sending our means out of the State. I believe it would be a good thing, whenever men travel from one place to another, to ¶

learn of the successful manufacturing establishments, and perhaps they might find something that would be of advantage to the people where they are located. If these things are looked after, I believe greater prosperity will be brought to the people than they have enjoyed in the past. ¶

My brethren and sisters, I ask God's blessings upon us as a people, and upon all that we undertake to do in righteousness, that we may be successful. That His blessings may ever attend us, is my prayer in the name of Jesus. Amen. ¶