1 FIRMER
am Eje ZMm Plant
PROGRESSIVE FARMER VOL. XX. NO. 24.
THE COTTON PLANT VOL. XXII. NO. 23.
RALEIGH, N. C, JULY 25, 1905.
Weekly $1 a Year.
m Progressive Farmer
AND THE COTTON PLANT.
(Conbolldated September 27, 1904.)
Entered at Raleigh, N. C, as second class mall matter.
The Most Largely Circulated Farm Weakly
Published Between Washington and New Orleans.
CLARENCE H. POB,
B. W. K1LGORB, "I
C. W. BURKBTT.J
Editor and Manager.
Agricultural Editors.
ACROSS THE CONTINENT.
X. In "The Promised Land" of the Latter Day
Saints.
Utah is a beautiful country. A more traveled
and more cultured people than the Mormons
mipht well call it a Promised Land. One rarely
sees a prettier view than that of Salt Lake City,
with the protecting walls of the Wasatch Moun
tains on one hand and the smooth waters of Great
Salt Lake on the other. A remarkably clean-looking
and well built city, its massive Temple and
the terrapin-back Tabernacle seen distinctly from
afar, it makes an impression on the traveler he
cannot soon forget.
Floating Like Corks on Salt Lake.
Without waiting to inspect the Mormon capital,
however, our party first took the cars for Saltair,
the famous bathing pavilion on Salt Lake, This
pavilion, 1,200 feet in length, is owned by the
Mormon Church and was built twelve years ago
at a cost of $350,000. After walking nearly a
quarter of a mile to our dressing rooms.our North
Carolina party donned their suits and we waded
out into this American Dead Sea. And this indeed
was one of the most remarkable experiences of our
entire trip. Six times saltier than ocean water,
in Great Salt Lake you float like a cork, and you
can't sink if you try. People sometimes float
around holding umbrellas over them, and I take
it you could lie on your back and read the latest
novel if you had skill enough to avoid occasional
splashes of brine in your eyes. This is the only
trouble one has, except in trying to get his feet
under the water when he gets ready to stand up.
The water is said to contain 20 per cent of saline
matter, and the evaporation as the water dries
leaves crusts of salt everywhere. My own face
as I camo out was about as badly salt-coated as
a last year's side of bacon. Of course, no fish
can live in the Lake, and the manufacture of salt
from the brine is quite an important industry.
The Mormon Temple and Tabernacle.
The same afternoon after our salt bath the Mor
mons took us in tow again, carrying us through
the main part of town, past the statue of Brigham
Young, to Temple Block, the site of the famous
Temple and Tabernacle of the Latter-Bay Saints,
&s the Mormons call themselves. The Temple is
tmilt of granite, is 186 feet long and 107 feet
gb, with towers 200 feet high. In this Temple
the baptisms and other secret church ceremonies
are performed, no Gentile (all non-Mormon are
called Gentiles) ever being allowed to enter the
building. The bloody oaths of which the country
heard something during the recent Congressional
investigations, are taken here by the communi
cants of the Church.
No Gentile, as we have said can enter the Tem
ple ; but the services in the Tabernacle are always
open to the public. The onlv restriction is that
if you go into this or any other Mormon Church,
you must stay until the services are over; at the
beginning the doors are locked and remain closed
until the benediction. This Tabernacle will seat
8,000 people, and the roof consist of a single
wooden arch. The structure is in the shape of a
terrapin shell, which gives it wonderful acoustic
properties. (
It was an organ recital that we had in the
Tabernacle this afternoon, after which some of the
Mormon leaders belabored us with arguments as
to the grandeur of the Mormon Church, the great
ness of Brigham Young, and the right of the Mor
mon oligarchy to rule Utah just as it pleased.
I reckon Utah is the only place in the United
States where the entertainment of a general pub
lic body .like the National Editorial Association
would have been thrown into the hands of a
religious sect. This in itself was an unintentional
illustration of the constant meddling of the Mor
mon Church in secular affairsi
A Wonderful Organ and How It Deceived Us.
But I set out to tell of the organ recital; and
of the music they gave us, there certainly can be
no word of criticism. This great pipe organ,
30 x 33x 58 feet, is said to be the finest instrument
of its kind in America,and this I am well prepared
to believe. With 110 stops and accessories and
5,000 pines, it has a range of tone that is simply
marvelous. It is natural enough perhaps that it
should enable the organist to imitate an orchestra
or military band, but how he gets the effect of a
full choir of human voices fro ma dead, mechani
cal instrument is something harder to under
stand. As I left the street car, my Mormon fellow
traveler spoke of these human notes. "You will
be ready to swear," he said, "that there is a full
chorus of voices." We were at the other end of
the hall, 200 feet from the organ, in front of
which sat our Mormon hosts. At the end of the
first number, the young woman by my side com
mented on "the beauty of the hushed voices" ac
companying the organ; and with the third piece
even I was ready to declare without hesitation
that I heard men and women singing in full har
mony with the instrument. I learned later,, how
ever, that every note came from the organ itself.
The Business Affairs of the Mormon Church.
On Main Street in Salt Lake City we passed
the famous Z.C M. I. Zion's Co-operative Mer
cantile Institution with "its all-seeing eye, em
blem of Mormon authority," encircled by the
words, "Holiness to the Lord." This great million-dollar
department store was founded by
Brigham Young nearly forty years aero, and its
President is Joseph F. Smith, President of th
Mormon Church. This is only one of a score of
business enterprises of which Smith has been
chosen President since he became President of the
Mormon Church four years ago. For the Mormon
Church is a great business institution, as well as
a religious sect. Every good Mormon gives tithes
a tenth of his earnings to the sunport of the
Church, and these amount to $1,600,000 a year.
' The object in making Smith nominal President of
o corporation, of course is to get the support of
the Church. Mines, banks, railways and. factories
all court Morman favor by making the Church
head their President and paying him tribute.
"Viewed commercially," says a writer in Leslie's
Monthly, "the Mormon Church is a menace to all
other business institutions which attempt to com
pete with it." Here is an illustration: While
there are several salt factories partly owned by the
Church, a few years ago two of the "Saints" de
cided to establish an independent institution! Get
ting into debt to a Mormon bank, the President
of the Church sent for them and brought them
to terms by threatening to crush their business."
A Business and Political Autocracy.
Talk about your opportunities for graft in New
York or Philadelphia the opportunities in the
Church of Latter-Day. Saints would make Tam-
many green with envy. The cold truth is, as the
Salt Lake Tribune, an able antKMormon paper,
declared on the morning of our arrival, that -Utah
is ruled by a social, business and political
autocracy. In business and in politics the in
fluence of the Church is almost despotic. A good
story which we heard from a Utah editor was of
a Salt Lake City apostle who somehow accumu
lated an enormous quantity of green paint. And
just then one of the other apostles had a conveni
ent "revelation" that it was "the will of the Lord"
that all the elect should paint their fences and .
front gates green. Whereupon, of course, our
merchant apostle sold his paint at a good profit
and it is not entirely inconceivable that our
prophet apostle also became a richer man.
We believe in religious freedom, for our part. "
We believe in letting a man worship God -in any
way he chosses or in no way, if his mind and
heart do not permit him to worship. For this rea
son we were at first inclined to oppose the ex
pulsion of Anostle Beed Smoot from the United
States Senate. Now, however, it seems to us that
this might be a proper way to rebuke this Mor
mon ecclesiastical machine for its meddling in
politics.
How the Mormon Church Controls Politics.
That it does meddle no man well-informed about
Utah affairs will deny for a minute, unless he
wish to shield the Mormon Churchl And here
again I may quote from the article by W. M.
Raine and A. W. Dunn in Frank Leslie's Monthly
for last February:.
"It may be asked how it is possible for the Mor
mon Church in communities and States where it"
does not have a majority of the votes to control
elections. It is because it unites with one party
or another, with sometimes this and sometimes
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