Remarks by Alonzo A. Hinckley

My brethren and sisters, I feel exceedingly timid in standing before you, and desire your 'help and sympathy. I sense, I think, at least in a measure, the great responsibility that is upon me when I occupy your time. Every word that I utter should be guided and inspired by the Spirit of the Lord, and it should be pregnant with meaning and with good. I pray that it may be. ¶

As I have sat through the sessions of this conference, facing this stand, looking at the brethren, I have felt exceedingly happy. I have been all these years up to the present, in this Church, ana I am happy to say that up to the present I have never looked upon the face of any of the general authorities of the Church with any other feeling than that of reverence. I believe that this reverential feeling was handed to me by my father and mother. In days long since past, when I was a boy, having been born at Cove Fort, and my father being sent there under the direction of President Brigham Young, and kept that place as a stage station, and with all of the visitors that traveled that way on that overland route, I remember one hour in the morning and one hour, or occasion, in the evening that were sacred to my father; ¶

drawing his family away from worldly men and worldy thoughts with this one sentence : "Let us go over aside." We knew that that meant family prayer. I cannot remember hearing my father pray when he did not sustain, in his prayer before the Lord, the general authorities of the Church. I remember that it was in my father's prayer that he prayed for the President of the United States. He prayed for those who carried heavy responsibility. I remember that my father taught his children that when you sustain with uplifted hand the brethren, as prophets, seers and revelators, you sustain them with your life, your works, as well as your prayers ; and I thank the Lord that up to the present that spirit has obtained with me. When one of the brethren ■ — Brother Ballard— was talking this morning about the responsibility of rearing a family, I thought then:Jiow grateful I am, as I sit here in this vast audience and think of those who call me father, that they are as numerous as they are in our household — fourteen such having come into our family. ¶

I express my thanks and gratitude to the Lord for the gospel of Jesus Christ and for the influence it has had in my father's family and in my family, and I have a prayer in my heart that that influence shall go down through the generations. It is a delight to me, in my own family, to hear innocent children call upon the Lord to bless President Grant, to bless his counselors, the Council of the Twelve, and those who bear rule in this Church of the Lord. ¶

My heart is in accord with all the teachings of this conference. I think that I should feel, and I do feel, almost as keenly, perhaps, as any of you, the importance of some of the statements that have been made during this conference, on account of my connection with the producer, my connection with the farmers, the tillers of the soil, as my way has led me through this state. Only the other day I stopped in a town, a railroad center, where I discovered good men whom I knew. We held meeting there and thev came to meeting. I said, "You here?" ¶

"Yes, I am here, Brother Plinckley." ¶

"Away from your family?" ¶

"Yes, away from my family." ¶

"How can that be, my brother? You have good land and good water; why are you here?" ¶

"Brother Hinckley, so long as it remains as it is now, and the prices of my products are as low as they are now, and the workers in the various lines of industry can draw the wage that they can draw, I must be here to make a livelihood." ¶

The words of President Grant entered my heart — the encouragement for us to stand and stay upon the soil, the assurance that better times are coming. I stand before you not able to say, as some who have stood here, that I do no', owe a soul anything in the world. As I sat here and listened to the words of President Grant, I wondered just what kind of a feeling that must cause a man to have; ¶

and then I thought of the thousands who could not say it. I went over my stake of Zion and I thought back to the promise made by President Grant that if we would remain faithful — I think he said his key-note speech was : Keep the commandments of God — if we would pay our tithes and observe the Word of Wisdom, the Lord would lead us out of our troubles. I am following on in faith and believing that that promise shall be fulfilled. I hope to pay my tithing and to pay it honestly; and I trust the Lord for his part in the fulfilment of the promise that he has made. I hope to observe the Word of Wisdom, that I may have strength in the navel and marrow to the bone, and be able to run and not be weary, and to walk and not faint, and to have wisdom given unto me — great treasures of knowledge — that I shall know what to do. ¶

Now, if I could offer anything that would help that farmer who is yet upon the soil, who is in the condition that I am in, oh, how happy I would be! I do believe this that that farmer ought not to run to extremes and plant all in one line : because only a year ago, I remember very well, we were wondering what we could do with hay, and hay was piled mountain high in many a field, with no price, no value. Hay now brings a good price. Now, we talk about running to the extreme and having planted too many potatoes. I believe, my brethren and sisters, that we have been taught a long time by our agricultural col- • . lege, by the extension division, by the agriculturists who represent the sugar industries and by the best farmers in the state, to diversify, to raise something of all the things we need. I believe it was Bishop William B. Preston, who used to say : "I can tell you how to succeed : Raise everything you need and a little to sell." I believe that answers the question. We ought not to have to bring on to our table that which we have to pay out money for. We ought to raise it; we ought to have it stored in the cellars and in the store-houses. It ought to be of the best quality. We ought to raise that which we have to sell, the kind the people want to buy. It ought to be the quality that would carry with it repeat orders that would come back to us. I was delighted when President Grant said what he did about the dairy industry. Only the other day I was talking to Brother James M. Kirkham, who has been back in Wisconsin, and I will add to what he said, a brief statement also from Senator C. L. Funk who had been back in Wisconsin. I said. Senator Funk, what is the condition in Wisconsin, that great dairy state?" ¶

"Oh," said he, "they are in clover. I never saw greater prosperity." ¶

James M. Kirkham was back there looking for dairy cows. He walked into a great barn and wanted to see what the man fed the cows. He was told : "Oh, the basic feed here is alfalfa." ¶

"Where does it come from?" ¶

"It comes from Colorado." ¶

He looked around and opened a sack, and said, "What is this?" ¶

"Dried beet pulp." ¶

"Where does that come from?" ¶

"That comes from Utah." ¶

Then he said : "You walk down to a cheese store and when you ask him what he has there, he has Wisconsin cheese that you buy." Cows fed on Colorado alfalfa and Utah beet pulp, made up into cheese back there, shipped out here and bought as Wisconsin cheese. ¶

Let me give you just one more thought, if I may, and I see that I have gone beyond my ten minutes, so I will stop shortly. One cow, if she only gives 6,000 pounds of milk, if she only makes three hundred pounds of butter fat, and if the butter-fat only brings forty cents a pound, will net you $120 for the butter-fat and leave the milk for pigs and for chickens ; and that cow will only eat, if you give her all she can eat, if she eats nine months in the year out of your hay-stack, four and one-half tons of hay. Four and one-half tons of hay measured into $120 gives you $26.66 a ton for your hay. She will leave there with you several tons of fertilizer. She will keep your. boy at home. She will give him a job. She will give you the cheapest and best food that you can have, and she will help lift the mortgage. She will feed the pigs and they will help lift the mortgage. She will feed the chickens and they will help lift the mortgage. She will furnish the fertility to put on the beet ground to draw the cash, and they will help lift the mortgage. ¶

Now, brethren, we are invited to stay on the farm. We are invited to make it profitable while we stay on the farm. It is possible. It should be done. It can be done, Will we do it? I believe it is our duty, under the Lord, to find out how to do it and with his help do it. ¶

I bear you my testimony that I know that the Lord leads this people, that I know that the gospel restrains us where we should be restrained, encourages us where we .should be encouraged, and develops us in every way we should be developed. The Lord help us to be true to it in every sense, I pray in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶