Keep the Children Near Home

I pray, my brethren and sisters, that I may enjoy the good spirit that actuated Brother David H. Cannon in his remarks to you this afternoon. ¶

I was very much interested this morning in the theme and remarks of President Smith, in our morning session of conference at the Tabernacle, and I feel the importance of them. Not only in the line that we will be blessed in dollars and cents, with better habitations, more comforts in our homes, by the observance of his admonitions, but that we will get a little closer to our boys and our girls, and instil into them the principles of faith. I have always been impressed with some of the methods of the Patriarchs of old in keeping their household and families around them. It seems to me as Latter-day Saints that we ought to be anxious, particularly as to the employment of our own families. So in the theme of more intense cultivation of our farms, better regulations in regard to our horticultural interests, etc., these things are of vital importance. I believe that there are few farms in this intermountain country which would not produce a much larger percentage in cereals, and other crops to which they are adapted, if we would only apply energy, intelligence and care in the manipulation of the same, to the end that instead of our boys going to other countries and places to secure employment, or to get new farms, they could remain and be employed in our midst. I have always felt that there are few large farms in this country but what, if they were cut up, and our boys were to go to some of our agricultural colleges and familiarize themselves with better cultivation of the soil, that we would find plenty of room on our farms to accommodate the boys without their having to go to some other place. It is the duty of a father in Israel to look out for the employment of his boys, and also of his girls, that they may not need to go away from their own firesides and home associations for employment. It is a splendid proposition for the fathers to divide up their farms with their boys, help them to get a home on their own places, and apply themselves to the more intense cultivation of the land; thus occupy their boys and keep them near, instead of having them scatter over the country. It would also be profitable for them to do it. ¶

I have been thinking of these matters recently in relation to our community, as to how we can better employ our young people, and keep them at home, and on inquiry I find that we have men who are getting along splendidly in a financial way on small tracts of land, who are intensely and intelligently cultivating the soil as truck gardens, and they are becoming well off, they are giving employment not only to their own families but to others in their neighborhood who are in need of it. I also find that we have people who are intelligently cultivating the soil on the best lines of our horticultural interests, developing their places to the end that their own children do not have to go elsewhere to find employment. They are building other homes around the old homestead, and they thus keep their boys and girls near them. It is right that we should have them with us, and that we should give employment, not only to our own, but, if we have the means and ability, we should furnish employment to as many of our neighbors as possible, so that they also need not have to go to other localities to find work. It has always been a source of regret to me to think that in this agricultural country, where we have the best fruit-raising districts in the United States, that many of our boys have to go to smelter and mining towns and other places to find employment, when there are so many opportunities at our own door. ¶

I was recently talking with a man who had rented some land, in fact some from myself. He had not had any experience in agriculture before coming to this country, but he saw there was an opportunity for him to get along well in that line, and he now cultivates the soil intelligently and intensely, with the result that he is one of the largest tithe payers in the ward where he lives, and he has been in this country only a little while. He not only gives every one of his own family employment, but a number of other people besides. He said to me the other day, I could use hundreds of the young people if they would only follow in this line. They could have profitable employment where they could be near home, and they would not have to be seeking places elsewhere, providing they would take my advice, cultivate the soil where they are living. I think we ought to take advantage of this idea. Where any part of our land is adapted to a certain crop, we ought to cultivate that portion to that crop, we should thus cultivate each part of our farms and apply them to that for which they are best adapted. If it is better adapted for fruit, plant fruit trees; if it is better for truck gardening, use our land for that purpose; if for wheat, grow wheat; whatever it is we ought to cultivate it in the best manner possible, so as to make it produce abundantly and give employment to our own people near our own homes. ¶

It is wrong in the sight of God to have our boys or girls going here and there and everywhere for employment. We ought to keep them under our own roof, or near our own fireside, where we can teach them the principles of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Not only would this matter, as President Smith suggested this morning, be a great blessing to us in a temporal way, but it would be a wonderful blessing to us in a spiritual way. One of the things wherein we are lacking as Latter-day Saints is, that we do not get close enough to our boys. There are not enough fathers that work along side by side with their boys. They do not know enough as to their faith, their habits and their conduct. They trust too much to them, and let them go here and there and everywhere instead of having them around them. ¶

One of the important duties of Latter-day Saints is that they should teach their own children the principles of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I regret to say that too many of us leave it to the quorums of the Priesthood, and to the auxiliary organizations, to teach our boys the principles of the everlasting Gospel, when as fathers and mothers we ought to have them around us, teaching them ourselves. I believe that the responsibility, the great responsibility, of a father and a mother is that they shall rear their boys and girls in the love of the Lord our God, and with an understanding of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, and we ought to spend more time with them. I believe that as fathers, we should be companions to our boys, and get closer to them. There ought to be the closest and the kindest friendship and love and companionship existing between father and son and mother and daughter, and between father and daughter, and mother and son. One of the ways that we could accomplish this, and get close to them, is to gather our boys and girls around us by the hearthstone, and teach them the principles of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ; teach them from the standard Church works and other good books, and be teachers to our boys and girls in pure love according to the relation that we bear to them, and thus they may be to us a great treasure and blessing, and we may feel that we are doing our duty to them, and carrying out what the Gospel teaches us. I tell you, it is a mighty pleasant thing to know that our boys have faith in this Gospel, to feel confident that our girls also have faith in the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, and that they are clean, sweet, and pure. The main responsibility that they become so rests upon the fathers and mothers. When we neglect this we do not do our part. We have no right to presume upon the Bishop to take care of our boys or girls, or upon the Priesthood, or on the auxiliary organizations. They are doing their part, and doing it splendidly, nobly and well; but the great responsibility of all rests upon us, that we should take hold of them and rear them in the fear of the Lord, that they may keep His commandments and do that which is right, so that when we get older we can look around and point to every one of them and say that they are good, clean and sweet, and that they love the Lord and keep His commandments. Without this condition there cannot be much happiness in any home. I do not care what your surroundings may be; I do not care how palatial your residence may be, or how ample your bank account, or what your social standing may be; I tell you you cannot have much happiness in this world if you have one of your boys or girls going astray. I would rather have a log cabin with all my little ones around me, loving the Lord and keeping His commandments, than to be in a palace with one of them not there. I repeat, I think the remarks of President Smith this morning relative to not going here and there and everywhere are very pertinent to us as Latter-day Saints; and if we want to keep our boys and girls with us, we should divide up the farm if necessary; divide up our business, if necessary. Let us have our boys and our girls under our own wing. ¶

I feel that it would not be right for me to continue my remarks. I am delighted with the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. It brings peace to me. I know it is true. I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God, and I want to live a life that I can always have this testimony with me. I hope that every one that belongs to me will continue to love the Lord and keep His commandments. May the Lord abide with you in your homes, and bless all that appertains unto you; I ask it in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶