Conference Address

One hundred years ago today there was held at Winter Quarters near Council Bluffs, Iowa, a conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Easter Sunday was part of that conference if it included Sunday, as it is part of this conference today. Of all groups in the world who profess to believe in Christ, none have more assurance in their hearts of the reality of the resurrection of Christ than did this group who met at Winter Quarters. They could say, as all true members of the Church of Christ today can say, in the words of the salutation of the early Christians, "Christ is risen," and the reply, "He is risen indeed." ¶

The historian Lord Macaulay says that "the people who do not revere the deeds of their ancestors will never do anything to be remembered by their descendants." ¶

Pioneer Migration ¶

Eight days after that conference at Winter Quarters, the first band of Pioneers were encamped on the Elk Horn about fifty miles west from where the Saints had spent the latest winter. The group, as you know, consisted of one hundred forty-three men, three women, and two children. Two of that group were non-members of the Church. Three were colored. ¶

That encampment suggests a picture worthy the skill of your sovereign artists — a band of fewer than one hundred fifty men facing nine hundred miles over an unresponsive, defiant desert and plain. Behind them, stretching from Council Bluffs, Iowa, to the British Isles, were forty thousand people with faith in their hearts in the restored gospel, and an unwavering confidence in the leaders of the Church. And what were those leaders facing? What did they see at the end of their trail? A barren valley on the shores of a great inland sea, a part of the Rocky Mountain territory for which United States Senator McDuffin said he would not for agricultural purposes ¶

"give a pinch of snuff." With all those thousands of people headed toward an uninhabited desert, try to imagine the magnitude of the responsibility carried by President Young and his associate leaders. Six months after the first advance company had entered the Great Basin there were over two thousand people in and around Great Salt Lake City; and in May 1848, that number was more than doubled, for President Young in that month having returned to Winter Quarters, led a company of six hundred wagons and approximately two thousand more people. ¶

In the spring of 1848, the pioneers planted about five thousand acres, principally in wheat. Suppose that the hordes of crickets that blackened the sky in the month of May that year had destroyed those crops, the principal if not the only means of subsistence for the people in the valley and for the thousands who were coming. It is conceivable that there might have been a tragedy second only to that which overtook the ill-fated Donner Party. Truly President Young was right when he said he didn't lead the people here. It was God. Even as it was, the harvest was insufficient to supply the wants of the populace. Food was rationed. People dug sego roots, cooked weeds, and even thistles, for subsistence. ¶

These are the pioneers of whom the historian Bancroft writes : ¶

All ties of the past had been sundered. They were so poor that their utmost hope was to secure the merest necessities of life. If ever a dream of anything like comfort or luxury came to them, they made a grave in their hearts for that dream and buried it that it might not longer vex them. ¶

Legal Opening of the Centennial Celebration ¶

On May 1 this year will be the legal opening of the Utah centennial celebrating the advent of these inteprid Pioneers into the valley of the Salt Lake. On that occasion the pioneers now living, who came to Utah prior to the completion of the railroad in 1869, will be given fitting deference. ¶

May I call your attention on this occasion to some of the features planned for the centennial year, a statewide celebration. The complete schedule of events is now printed in our daily papers, but I wish to call your attention to a few this morning that you may get the spirit of it. ¶

In behalf of the governor, the state legislature, and the centennial commission, I take this opportunity to thank the press, the radio stations, and the hundreds of committee members who are all so sincerely and untiringly devoting their efforts to make this centennial year a worthy expression of our gratitude for the rich and honorable heritage left by the Utah pioneers. ¶

Already the Utah symphony orchestra has given twenty-two performances in thirteen cities. To have an orchestra of such excellence visit so many towns in a state at so little expense to the people is undoubtedly an outstanding record in the United States, and possibly in the world. We are glad the people appreciate it. Here is a sample of what they are saying : From the students of the West High School, in Salt Lake City: ¶

We wish to thank the centennial commission, Doctor Lorin Wheelwright, and Werner Janssen, for bringing the Utah symphony orchestra to our school. To us it was an unforgettable experience, and should aid substantially in building an adult audience interested in the finest of music. You have truly awakened in us a desire to hear this orchestra again and again. ¶

And their principal says: ¶

Never in my experience with high school students has an audience of young people been so attentive and courteous to and so appreciative of this type of performance as were the West High School students on this occasion. The success of the experiment proves that high school boys and girls really appreciate things of high quality. ¶

Our higher educational institutions, the University of Utah, Brigham Young University, and the Agricultural College, are giving their respective dramas in approximately fifty-eight different localities, making a total, including Blossom Time, of one hundred eighty-seven appearances. ¶

The traveling art exhibits have been booked for fourteen cities. I am informed by the chairman of the arts division that they will have visited every county in the state with one or more of these events before June 1 . ¶

Last Sunday night in this auditorium, the Tabernacle Choir rendered a sacred concert of unequalled excellence. Mr. Max Krone, who is at present director of music at the University of Southern California, and an outstanding authority on music, after hearing it, said, and said truly, "This is the greatest choral organization in the United States." That was the first of a series of eight Sunday evening concerts to be given by our choir. ¶

In the music educators' conference, held in the Tabernacle, Wednesday night, April 3, four hundred students from fifty-two high schools united in song with an orchestra from thirty-two high schools from southern California. ¶

Events Ahead ¶

Following the tribute to the pioneers the first of May (to be specific May 5 ) The Message of the Ages will be given in the Tabernacle, continuing until June 5. ¶

Following that, the Young Men's and Young Women's M.I.A. conference and centennial celebration will be held, which promises to be the greatest conference ever conducted by these organizations. ¶

July 22, commemorating the entrance into this valley of the advance company, the Sons of the Utah Pioneers will complete a trek from Nauvoo to Salt Lake. ¶

July 23, a pageant in the form of a cavalcade, telling the story of Utah from its first explorations through one hundred years, including a glimpse of the future, will be staged here. ¶

On the morning of July 24, dedicatory services of "This is the Place" monument will be held at the mouth of Emigration canyon. On this occasion there will probably be assembled two thousand band performers from the schools of Utah to participate with the Boy Scouts in their parades of youth. ¶

July 24th there will be pageants in Ogden, Logan, Salt Lake City. There will be encamped on Fort Douglas grounds five thousand or more Boy Scouts, perhaps the largest encampment of its kind ever held in the country. ¶

An historical cavalcade will be held at Brigham Young University, July 4 and 5. ¶

One hundred years of American painting will be opened at the Capitol, July 1 5 to August 30, and it is hoped that acceptance exercises will be held near October at which will be exhibited the marble statue of President Brigham Young, which is to take its place in the Statue Hall at Washington, D. C. ¶

The conference of governors of the United States will be held here July 13 to 16. ¶

As a fitting climax, there will be given in the University stadium, the opera pageant, "The Promised Valley," depicting through song and pageantry the history of the pioneers as told or experienced in the imagination of the author and musician through the people who made the trek. ¶

Members of the state fair board, in cooperation with the centennial commission, are preparing the greatest exposition in the history of the state in which agriculture, horticulture, animal husbandry, mining industry will all be given due recognition. ¶

In the field of athletics champions from Switzerland, France, Sweden, and Canada have already thrilled thousands in the centennial ski tournament. Fifteen other events are on the program. I shall not take time to narrate them. ¶

Officials in every county with the possible exception of one county, are uniting wholeheartedly in making this statewide celebration such as will do honor to those who participate and be a worthy tribute to the heroic men and women who have left us such a rich heritage. To this end music, drama, art, pageantry, athletics will all combine to interest, instruct, and inspire young and old. In every important town from Cache valley on the north to St. George and Kanab on the south, from Vernal on the east to' the Salt Flats on the west, there will be appropriate dignified events commemorative of the accomplishments of these pioneer builders of this western commonwealth. ¶

Neighboring states are contributing to this celebration and even asking the privilege to make monetary contributions. Worship, education, music, drama, recreation, art were all fostered in our early history by the pioneers, and we do well in paying honor to them to emphasize these phases of culture and progress. ¶

Well, I've given you just this glimpse of what the hundreds of men and women on the centennial committees are doing to make the year '47 memorable in tribute to the past achievements and inspirational to us for future accomplishments. ¶

Highest Honor Shown Emulating Ideals ¶

But the best way to honor the pioneers is to emulate and make practical in our lives the ideals and virtues that strengthened and animated their lives. These eternal ideals and principles which they fostered and upheld, even under the most adverse conditions, are as applicable today as they were when emphasized by the pioneer leaders. ¶

I should like to take time this morning to refer to only a few. As I name them, will you please mentally point out their applicability to present world conditions? ¶

Foremost was their outstanding faith in the Lord Jesus' Christ and in his restored gospel. The very first instruction given when they began their journey across the plains was that they should pray morning and night and keep holy the Sabbath day. When they arrived here in the valley, to quote the words of President Young, they prayed ¶

. . . over the land and dedicated it and the water, air, and everything pertaining to them unto the Lord, and the smiles of heaven rested upon the land and it became productive. ¶

Among the outstanding virtues of the pioneers were industry and thrift. They condemned idleness and wastefulness as not being in accordance with the rules of heaven. Said President Young: ¶

My experience has taught me, and it has become a principle with me, that it is never any benefit to give out and out to men or women, money, food, clothing, or anything else if they are able-bodied, and can work and earn what they need when there is anything on earth for them to do. This is my principle, and I try to act upon it. To pursue a contrary course would ruin any community in the world and make them idlers. . . . To give to the idler is as wicked as anything else. ¶

Capital and Labor ¶

I have here notes on their ideas of capital and labor. Elder Widtsoe has already called our attention to this ideal, and I'll pass it without further comment except this added quotation: ¶

Labor builds our meetinghouses, temples, courthouses, fine halls for music, and fine schoolhouses; it is labor that teaches our children, and makes them acquainted with the various branches of education, that makes them proficient in their own language and other languages, and in every branch of knowledge understood by the children of men; and all this enhances the wealth and the glory and the comfort of any people on earth. ¶

Then President Young admonishes his people to join with what he calls the capitalists. He says: ¶

I am acquainted with a good many of them, and as far as I know them, I do not know but every man is an honorable man. . . . Work with them, receive your wages and then use them to build up the kingdom of God. ¶

Of home life: To the pioneers marriage was ordained of God. It was not something which should be entered into lightly, terminated at pleasure, or ended at the first difficulty that might arise. They taught that the marriage bond should be as eternal as love, the most divine attribute of the human soul. Most surely, then, that bond should continue as long as love is an attribute of the spirit. Said the President: ¶

Let every man in the land over eighteen years of age take a wife, and then go to work with your hands and cultivate the earth or labor at some mechanical business, or some honest trade to provide an honest living for yourselves and those who depend upon you for their subsistence, observing temperance and loving truth and virtue. Then would the women be cared for, be nourished and honored and blessed, becoming honorable mothers of a race of men and women farther advanced in physical and mental perfection than their fathers. This would create a revolution in our country, and would produce results that would be of incalculable good. ¶

He further admonished: ¶

Strive to make your little home attractive. Use lime freely, and let your houses nestle beneath the cool shade of trees, and be made fragrant with perfume of flowers. ¶

One way, then, truly to pay tribute to these builders of the west is to clean up, fix up and paint up our own homes. ¶

Chastity and Virtue ¶

What was their idea regarding chastity and virtue? As fundamental to domestic happiness and social uplift they cherished these ideals. Said President Young on one occasion: ¶

Any man who humbles a daughter of Eve to rob her of her virtue and cast her off dishonored and defiled, is her destroyer and is responsible to God for the deed. If the refined Christian society of the nineteenth century will tolerate such a crime, God will not, but he will call the perpetrator to account. He will be damned; in hell he will lift up his eyes, being in torment, until he has paid the uttermost farthing, and made full atonement for his sins. The defiler of the innocent is the one who should be branded with infamy and cast out from respectable society and shunned as a pest or as a contagious disease is shunned. The doors of respectable families should be closed against him, and he should be frowned upon by all high-minded and virtuous persons. Wealth, influence, and position should not screen him from their righteous indignation. His sin is one of the blackest in the calendar of crime, and he should be cast down from the high pinnacle of respectability and consideration to find his place among the worst of felons. ¶

Birth Control Condemned ¶

Those pioneers condemned the artificial means of limiting the number of children in the family, a growing evil, not only throughout the United States but also here in our own settlements. Said the great leader: ¶

To check the increase of our race has its advocates among the influential and powerful circles of society in our nation and in other nations. The unnatural style of living, the extensive use of narcotics, the attempts to destroy and dry up the fountains of life are fast destroying the American element of the nation. ¶

Regarding self-control, the pioneers voiced the teachings of the Church on this principle: ¶

Let each person be determined, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, to overcome every besetment — to be the master of himself, that the spirit God has put in your tabernacles shall rule; then you can converse, live, labor, go here or there, do this or that, and converse and deal with your brethren as you ought. ¶

You cannot inherit eternal life, unless your appetites are brought in subjection to the spirit that lives within you, the spirit which our Father in heaven gave. I mean the Father of your spirits, of those spirits which he has put into these tabernacles. The tabernacle must be brought into subjection to the spirit perfectly, or your bodies cannot be raised to inherit eternal life; if they do come forth, they must dwell in a lower kingdom. Seek diligently, until you bring all in subjection to the law of Christ. ¶

We often hear people excuse themselves for their uncouth manners and offensive language by remarking, "I am no hypocrite," thus taking to themselves credit for that which is really no credit to them. When evil arises within me let me throw a cloak over it, subdue it instead of acting it out upon the false presumption that I am honest and no hypocrite. Let not thy tongue give utterance to the evil that is in thine heart, but command thy tongue to be silent until good shall prevail over the evil until thy wrath has passed away and the good spirit shall move thy tongue to blessings and words of kindness. . . . When my feelings 'are aroused to anger by the ill doings of others, I hold them as I would hold a wild horse, and I gain the victory. Some think and say that it makes them feel better when they are mad, as they call it, to give vent to their madness in abusive and unbecoming language. This, however, is a mistake. Instead of its making you feel better, it is making bad worse. When you think and say it makes you better, you give credit to a falsehood. When the wrath and bitterness of the human heart are molded into words and hurled with violence at one another, without any check or hindrance, the fire has no sooner expended itself than it is again re-kindled through some trifling course, until the course of nature is set on fire. ¶

Slander and Backbiting ¶

On slander, already mentioned by the President of the Twelve, George F. Richards, the pioneers held this: ¶

Some are in the habit of talking about their neighbors, of vending stories they know nothing about, only that Aunt Sally said that Cousin Fanny told Aunt Betsy that old Aunt Ruth said something or other, or somebody had a dream; and by the time the story or dream reaches you, it has assumed the semblance of a fact, and you are very foolishly spending your time in talking about things that amount to nothing, or that you have no concern with. A report is started that such a one has done wrong and by the time is has gone its rounds, has become anointed with the salve of the backbiter and talebearer — become endowed with their spirit. . . . When you know what right is and are capable of correcting a person that is wrong, then it is time enough for you to judge. ¶

Profanity ¶

In this connection they condemned profanity. ¶

If any are in the habit of taking the name of God in vain, cease doing so today, tomorrow, and throughout the coming week, and so continue, and you will soon gain strength to overcome the habit entirely; you will gain power over your words. ¶

So taught the father of our country, George Washington, who said to his soldiers on one occasion: ¶

The general is sorry to be informed that the foolish and wicked practice of profane cursing and swearing, a vice heretofore little known in an American army, is growing in fashion. He hopes the officers will, by example as well as influence, endeavor to check it and that both they and the men will reflect that we can have little hope of the blessings of heaven on our arms if we insult it by our impiety and folly. Added to this, profanity is a vice so mean and low, without any temptation, that every man of sense and character detests and despises it. ¶

Service ¶

The pioneers helped each other in adversity, shared with the hungry the last loaf of bread, gave their time and means for the upbuilding of the community and on not a few occasions offered their lives for the truth. That is service. ¶

Thus they exemplified in their teachings the two great commandments, love the Lord thy God with all thy might, mind, and strength, and thy neighbor as thyself. Truly they followed the example of the Prophet Joseph, who, as we have already heard today, was ever an inspiration to the great leader of the Mormon pioneers. "If my life is of no value to my friends, it is of no value to me." ¶

Truly, in this centennial celebration, we can re-echo the words of the great composer, Evan Stephens: ¶

Zion's children sing for joy. Praise the great and guiding hand That led you to the chosen land, Oh, dauntless pioneers! ¶

Sing His praise who made you free In the land of liberty, Thank the Lord, who raised a band Of noble pioneers. ¶

Zion's children, shout for joy, Make the hills and valleys ring. Great the theme the song ye sing, Immortal pioneers. ¶

God give us the power to perpetuate their faith and ideals, and thus help make their lives and deeds an everlasting blessing I pray in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶