Brigham Young

“ Sixteen years ago, when we were camped upon this temple block, I told the people that there existed, in the elements around us in these mountain regions, wheat, corn, rye, oats, barley, flax, hemp, silk and every element for producing the necessary articles used by man for food, raiment and shelter. We breathe it in the atmosphere, drink it in the water, dig it when we dig in the earth, and walk over it when we walk. ”

“ Some hundred thousand dollars a year are paid out by the community for tobacco, and the cash Tithing paid on this money expenditure probably does not amount to a thousand cents. How can the people be justified while committing such errors only upon the score of ignorance? We are trying to instruct you in the knowledge of the truth, that you may learn better. I do not condemn the Latter-day Saints for all this.
It is almost useless to ask any man possessing means to pay a little labor Tithing; if any is paid in the season when it is wanted, the poorest portions of the community pay it. ”

“ Instead of bringing in machinery and in every way within my power encouraging home production, suppose I had brought large quantities of goods from abroad, encouraged gold mining, trading, trafficking, specu-lating, erecting whisky palaces and gambling saloons, I should have been hailed as a great Prophet, a wise leader and a great financier by those who love to swim in such waters, and hundreds would have been with me heart and hand. ”

“ Should you be entirely indifferent; as to how the financial affairs of God's kingdom on earth are managed? If this kingdom suffers, will you not suffer with it? If it prospers, becomes wealthy and powerful, will you not prosper and become wealthy and powerful with it? ”

“ We like the country and climate here, we like our calling and situation, and we are happy and contented." I am ready to endorse all the goodness and good-feeling that were manifested, and I can truly say that love, union, faith, fervency of spirit and faithfulness to our religion are greatly on the increase among the Latter-day Saints, or I am much mistaken; still the warfare is not ended in regard to our being self-sustaining. ”

“ The warfare that I wish particularly to speak of to-day is that which wars against all opposition to economy and to the obtaining of the knowledge of God and that wisdom which comes from him pertaining to self-preservation. My warfare is, and has been for years, to get the people to understand that if they do not take care of themselves they will not be taken care of; that if we do not lay the foundation to feed and clothe and shelter ourselves we shall perish with hunger and with cold ”

“ If you will cease drinking spirituous liquors you will thereby be benefited individually and benefit the community. A man who indulges in any habit that is pernicious to the general good in its example and influence, is not only an enemy to himself but to the community so far as the influence of that habit goes. A man who would not sacrifice a pernicious habit for the good it would do the community is, to say the least of it, lukewarm in his desires and wishes for public and general improvement. Tobacco is not good for man ”

“ If a man knowingly puts a hundred bushels of good Tithing wheat into a bin of smutty, unsound wheat, but thinks that it is none of his business, he does an evil and his offering is not acceptable to the Lord; it is his duty to see that his good Tithing wheat, or anything else, is deposited where it will be taken care of and properly appropriated. We will either stop the paying of Tithing, or have it paid in a way that will do us good.
If we want a job done, we will tell you about it; then we want you to do it in the proper time and place, but we do not want labor Tithing paid in the winter. ”

“ Were the biographies of all the really great and good of mankind known to us, we should know that they lived to do good to their fellow-beings, to benefit and bless their families, neighbors, friends and the human family at large; such men have proved themselves worthy of their existence. Let us all seek diligently to know what we can do to benefit our fellow-beings. ”

“ There is not a better wheat country than this, and we can raise as good rye and corn as can be produced in any part of the earth; we can also raise as good vegetables as I ever saw, and in as great a variety as need be asked for. We have raised hemp, flax, cotton and silk, all of the best quality. We can make ropes and sacking, and cotton, silk and woollen goods in abundance; we have the elements and skill to combine them.
There is no better sheep country than this. Some farmers suppose that their failure to raise wool is owing to ill luck ”

“ They say they pay labor Tithing. If the farmer, merchant, and mechanic are asked to pay a little labor Tithing, "O yes, and we mean to be credited for it in full." "When will you pay it?" "When it is too cold, wet and stormy to go a fishing and hunting. While we can work in the field, go after wood, or go to shoot ducks with pleasure, we will not pay you one day of labor Tithing." They come in the winter to pay it when labor is not wanted. Who pays labor Tithing? "Everybody." Who pays their grain Tithing, their stock Tithing and their money Tithing. ”

“ Let us apply our minds to know what our life is worth and what we can do to sustain it and the lives of those who are connected with us, instead of continually whining for something to satisfy "great, big self," instead of wanting this and that, instead of being miserable because we do not do this or because we do not do that, instead of being unhappy because this is so or because that is not so, all of which we cannot help with all of our complaining. ”

“ The Lord requires obedience of his people, which is better than sacrifice.
There is a warfare in which we are all engaged, and there is a victory which we have to win to become self-sustaining and independent, preparing ourselves for the days that are fast approaching. ”

“ The treatment that sheep receive from most of those having them in care is by no means conducive to their thrift. The lambs are too often left for the wolves and dogs to herd or to the care of an inexperienced boy or girl. Large numbers of sheep are often huddled into little, filthy pens and kept sixteen hours out of the twenty-four in their own filth and stench. For this you will be called to judgment, and if there is no one else to charge you with the wrongs I will. There is not a better country in the world to produce wool than this mountain country, if the sheep are properly taken care of. ”

“ We also have a warfare to engage in, and, as the Apostle says, "The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds; casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ ”

“ I am perfectly able to send to the east and buy what I and my family need, but there is a mighty influence in a good example, and what would my precept be worth without my example, besides the conscious gratification of having performed my duty to my God, to myself, to my family and to this people? ”

“ We must learn to think for ourselves, and know for ourselves, and provide for ourselves. We can here produce any amount of the raw ma-terial, and we are importing machinery, and shall continue to do so until we shall be victorious over the traditions and customs which oppose themselves to our becoming self-sustaining and independent. ”

“ They pile up wheat in Cache county, in Utah county, in Sanpete and in every other county distant from this city, in bins and houses where much of it becomes musty and good for nothing. Will they draw it to us here, where it can be put to use? Not much of it. They will let it spoil, unless they can have the privilege of using it themselves, and in many instances they have had the use of it. If wheat in the distant counties could be sold for a dollar-and-a-half a bushel in cash, we should get a comparatively small quantity of wheat in this Tithing-office. ”

“ Let us be active in procuring machinery that will manufacture our cotton and flax into fine yarns for thread of every number and fabric of every quality; then our sisters can knit and manufacture in different ways their frills, ruffles and laces to suit their tastes. ”

“ I have expended more, in the early settlement of this country, to produce wool than any one man. I have bought sheep by hundreds, but I never saw the time that I could go out and herd them myself, consequently had to depend upon others. ”

“ You can have the privilege of gathering the red-top grass and preparing it to make Leghorn bonnets and hats for yourselves and your children. I will invite my brethren to procure and plant the multicaulus or mulberry tree; let your wives and daughters feed silk-worms with the leaves, and thus produce silk for ribbons, for dresses, for bonnets, for scarfs, shawls, neckties, gentlemen's vests, &c. We have skilful artizans among us who can dye and weave the silk into every possible design for beauty and utility. ”

“ Yes; there stands the still and the still-house to this day, which I have never used and from which I might make thousands of dollars. Have I made whisky and sold it in what some call whisky street? No. Had I done so how many would have hailed me with, "You are a good man, brother Brigham, and you are the right man to lead Israel; thank God for such a man: he keeps a whiskey shop, drinks liquor, trades with our enemies and hugs them to his heart as long as there is any money in their pockets, and takes them to his house and introduces them to his wives and daughters ”

“ It has been strenuously argued by our ladies that hoops are a cool and comfortable fashion, but I cannot understand how they derive the benefit that is claimed for crinoline when the accustomed quantity of clothing is still worn. ”

“ If they would give us fifty cents for every bushel of grain they pretend to pay in on Tithing in some kind of property that we can make use of, we would be much obliged to them. We cannot even get this; too many manage through their Bishops to pay their Tithing in a way to do us but little good. ”

“ We have striven for years to convince the Latter-day Saints that rags and ruffles will cease being brought to us from a foreign market, though a struggle is still made to bring them here. We have warred against the principle of promoting and making wealthy those who wish us no good, and we have found it hard to convince our brethren and sisters that the saying of the Savior is really as true when applied to us as it was when applied to his followers in his day, "He that is not with me, is against me ”

“ Our public hands have hats, coats, vests, shirts, garments, pantaloons, shoes, &c.; who buys these articles of clothing? They have to be bought and the money paid for them. The wives and children of our work-hands are well and comfortably clothed ”

“ We have evidence now before us which sufficiently proves that the ruffles and the rags will not continue to come here for a great length of time, and we shall have to do without them or make them ourselves. ”