Brigham Young

“ What is the advantage of following the path of life? It makes good neighbors, and fills everybody with peace, joy and contentment. Is there contention in a family that follows in the path of eternal life? ”

“ It is the duty of a Saint of God to gain all the influence he can on this earth, and to use every particle of that influence to do good. ”

“ Five months after they had commenced their retail store on this co-operative system there, they struck a dividend to see what they had made; and they found that every man who had paid in twenty-five dollars—the price of a share, had a few cents over twenty-eight dollars handed back or credited to him. Is not, this cruel? Is not this a shame? It is ridiculous to think that they are making money so fast. Did they sell their goods cheaper than the people of Lehi could buy them before? Yes. Did they fetch the goods to them? ”

“ Taking up the system of our cooperative method of merchandizing, it gives to the people ease and money. They are not obliged to run a mile or two through the mud to buy a yard of ribbon, they have it in their own Ward, and they can purchase it twenty or thirty per cent cheaper than they ever could before I know it is frequently said by our Elders when any new system is introduced to the people, "put down your names, hand over your money, and if you are required to pay two dollars for that which is worth only one, do it and ask no questions." ”

“ The knowledge I have gained in my private experience proves to me that there is not a man or woman, community or family, but what, if they will hearken to the council that God gives them, can do better in everything, spiritual or temporal, than they can if they take their own way. ”

“ Take the whole world, and comparatively few of its inhabitants are producers. If the members of this community wish to get rich and to enjoy the fruits of the earth they must be producers as well as consumers.
As to these little traders, we are going to shut them off. We feel a little sorry for them. Some of them have but just commenced their trading operations, and they want to keep them up. They have made, perhaps, a few hundred dollars, and they would like to continue so as to make a few thousands; and then they would want scores of thousands and then hundreds of thousands. ”

“ Our Female Relief Societies are doing immense good now, but they can take hold and do all the trading for these wards just as well as to keep a big loafer to do it. It is always disgusting to me to see a big, fat, lubberly fellow handing out calicoes and measuring ribbon ”

“ I recollect the Tenth Ward in this city had but seven hundred dollars to start with; in two or three weeks after they commenced I asked some of the brethren how they were prospering, and was told they had a thousand dollars' worth of goods on the shelves and money in the drawer and owed nothing. This is considered one of the poorest wards in the city, but it is not so.
Now take upon you this yoke; it is a great deal easier than to pay so much more for goods as you have been doing. I say the "yoke is easy and the burden is light" and we can bear it. ”

“ To bring you interest for your money. Put your time and talents to usury. We have the parable before us. If we have one, two, three or five talents, of what advantage will they be if we wrap them in a napkin and lay them away? ”

“ These little stores at American Fork, Lehi, Provo, and other wards and places around, can drive their teams here in a day and replenish their stocks of goods, and that enables them to turn over their money quickly; and if they put on six or eight per cent. instead of fifty, by turning their money over every week, in about twelve weeks they make a dollar double itself. ”

“ We will get some more of them to gathering up hides and making them into leather, and manufacturing that leather into boots and shoes; this will be far more profitable than letting hundreds and thousands of hides go to waste as they have done. Others may go and make baskets; we do not care what they go at, provided they produce that which will prove of general benefit. Those who are able can erect woolen factories, get a few spindles, raise sheep and manufacture the wool. ”

“ I will tell you how it is: our own merchants make a calculation of charging you just fifty per cent. on their staple goods, and from one hundred to five hundred on their fancy goods. Now these Co-operative Stores sell their goods for twenty per cent. less than they can be bought from the merchants; and although they sell at a lower rate, the reason is they recruit their stock of goods every week if necessary, while our merchants, up till very recently, did it only about once a year. ”

“ I reckon some of us have done it already; and all who will live faithful, may have the privilege of so doing. Many of this people have sacrificed all they possessed on this earth, over and over again, for the truth's sake ”

“ They say, "you are taking the bread out of our mouths." We wish to do it, for they have made themselves rich. Take my community, three-eighths of whom are living on the labor of the remaining five-eighths, and you will find the few are living on the many. ”

“ What I have in my mind with regard to this co-operative business is this:—There are very few people who cannot get twenty-five dollars to put into one of these co-operative stores. There are hundreds and thousands of women who, by prudence and industry, can obtain this sum. ”

“ They, to my certain knowledge, commenced by selling the goods they brought at from two to five hundred per cent above cost. There were a few articles, with the real value of which everybody was acquainted, that they did not put quite so high; but just as quick as they came to a piece of goods, the value of which everybody did not understand, the people might look out for the five hundred per cent. They continued their operations here until they made hundreds of thousands of dollars. I do not think I ever heard a person, professing to be a Latter-day Saint, complain of those merchants. ”

“ Others may raise flax and manufacture that into linen cloth, that we may not be under the necessity of sending abroad for it. If we go on in this way, we shall turn these little traders into producers, which will help to enrich the entire people. ”