fitted. If
an immigrant, in his former estate, had been a silk-weaver, efforts were
made to establish his industry and give it public support. If he had
been a musician of talent, a little conservatory was founded, and
patronage obtained for him. When the growth of population made it
necessary to open new valleys for agriculture, the Church, out of its
community fund, rendered the initial aid; in many instances the original
irrigation enterprises of small settlements were thus financed; and the
investments were repaid not only directly, by the return of the loan,
but indirectly, many times over, by the increased productiveness
and larger contributions of the people. Co-operation, in mercantile,
industrial and stock-raising undertakings, assured the support and
patronage of each community for its own particular enterprise, prevented
destructive competition and checked the greed of the individual--for the
more he toiled for himself, the larger the share of the general burden
he had to carry.

It was the First Councillor's theory that when people contributed to a
common fund they became interested in one another's material welfare.
The man who paid less in tithes this year than last was counselled with
as to why his business had been unsuccessful, and the wise men of his
little circle aided him with advice and material help. The man who
contributed largely was glad of a prosperity from which he yielded a
part--in recognition of what the community had done for him and in
a reverent gratitude to God for making him "a steward of mighty
possessions"--but he was anxious that his neighbor also should be a
larger contributor each year.

The whole system of tithe-paying was built upon a series of purported
"revelations" received by Joseph Smith, the original Prophet. It was
declared to be the will of God that all men, as stewards of their
possessions, should give of their increase annually into "the storehouse
of the Lord," which should always be open for the relief of the poor.
Inasmuch as the man who received help--or whose widow and children did
so--had been a tithe-payer during all his productive years, there
was none of the feeling of personal humiliation on the part of the
recipient, nor any of the feeling of condescending charity on the part
of the giver, in the distribution of funds to the needy. And it was
astonishing how few the needy were--because of the abstemious lives, the
industry, and the thrift of the workers.