Report on the Central States Mission

My brethren and sisters: I feel very grateful indeed for the blessings I am enjoying in attending this great conference of the Church of Christ. I am thankful that I can report to you that the mission where I am laboring is in a most excellent condition, and that your sons who have been sent there by the authority of the Lord are in good condition spiritually and physically for their work. They travel largely in the country districts; at the same time many of them labor in the cities. Four of the great commercial cities of our country are located in that section embraced within the Central States Mission. The elders travel principally two by two; but when circumstances demand they go singly. They work in the cities and in the country districts; they sleep in all kinds of places; they visit all classes of people; and yet out of more than five hundred elders who have labored in that mission since I have been there, not one of them, so far as my knowledge goes, has returned home unclean, as a result of anything he has done while laboring in the mission field. I have felt that that was a remarkable record for upwards of five hundred young men who have gone into the world inexperienced, and many of whom have scarcely been away from their homes before. During the past year our elders have visited, for each elder, one thousand families, of those who are strangers to the Gospel as revealed through the Prophet Joseph Smith, and inasmuch as they travel generally two by two, that would make two thousand families to each pair of elders. In Louisiana the elders were quarantined during a large part of the year because of an outbreak of the yellow fever in the city of New Orleans. Notwithstanding this, our baptisms for 1903 were in excess of the year previous. The work of the Lord is growing in that part of the land. But there is a large part of the population that we are unable to reach because we have no elders in the field who can speak the language of the people I refer to. The Lord has brought to this country millions of people from other nations of the earth, and from the Germanic states of Europe thousands have come who are among the best people of that section of the country in which we are laboring. In several states of our mission there are whole counties the population of which is nearly altogether German. They speak but very little English, and we have not an elder in the mission who can visit them and teach them the Gospel. I say the Lord has brought these people to this land. He has brought them to our doors; they are a superior class of people; they are industrious, thrifty, and hospitable, and our elders could go among them without purse or scrip, according to the plan the Lord has revealed, and teach them the Gospel and receive their hospitality. We are satisfied that thousands of them would rejoice in the message that our elders would bear to them. Some of them who have learned to speak the English language a little have received the Gospel and are among the very best of our members. ¶

Sometime ago one of our elders was taken by a body of men out into the woods, tied to a tree, and whipped. This is a very exceptional case in our mission. As soon as this fact was reported to me, I wrote to the Governor of the State where the whipping occurred (the State of Arkansas), and called his attention to the outrage that had been done upon this young man. I asked him, as the executive of that state, if he would not see to it that protection was given to our elders, and that the wrongs that this citizen of the United States had suffered should be redressed. He wrote me a very kind and courteous letter, stating that it was the first time during his administration that he had heard of anything of the kind in his state, and he promised to send the papers and an account of the outrage to the prosecuting attorney and judge of the district where it took place, and see that steps were taken to bring the guilty parties to justice. ¶

A short time after I received a letter from the judge of the Fifth judicial district of the State of Arkansas, and it read something like this: "Pres. J. G. Duffin, Kansas City, Mo. Dear Sir: Papers have been placed in my hands from the governor of the state, giving me information that an outrage has been committed upon the body of one of the elders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I regret exceedingly to learn that such a thing has been done in this state. I have heard that such things have been done, that your elders have been mistreated in years past, and that the guilty parties have gone unwhipped of justice; but in this case, if it is possible that I can do anything to bring these guilty parties to justice, I can assure you that they will not escape." He goes on to say that, about the time the elder was receiving this treatment in his district, his sick wife was in the State of Utah for her health, and she was being cared for by a family of our people, and receiving the kindest of treatment at their hands. I thought, my brethren and sisters when this letter came to me, what an example it was to us of the treatment that we should give the stranger within our gates, and after many days the bread that is cast upon the water will return to us with a blessing, not only unto our people, but unto our sons who are proclaiming the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. The work of the Lord is increasing in that land. The faith of your boys is growing. They plant their feet firmly upon the revelations of God. They are not ashamed of the Gospel, neither are they ashamed of the name they bear, nor of their parentage, nor of their people. They face the world with the glorious message of revealed truth that they have to bear, and they are loyal and true in defense of that truth, upholding before the people the man of God whom our Father has placed at the head of His work upon this earth. The man to whom He has given the keys of the priesthood has their loyal support, confidence, and love, and this work has their loyal support and love also. With the help of our Father in Heaven, so long as we are in that land laboring among our young brethren, it is our desire that when your sons return to their homes they will have it to say that their brethren who presided over them, in every act of their lives, in every word of instruction, advice, or counsel, sought to instill into their hearts the principle of faith in this great work that God has established upon the earth, nevermore to be taken therefrom, nor to be given to another people. May the blessings of heaven be with you and His Spirit continue with us in this conference. I ask these blessings in the name of Jesus, our Lord. Amen. ¶