The Church tribunals heard and settled all disputes over property or
personal rights not involving the criminal law. Expensive litigation was
thus avoided. Society was saved the cost of innumerable courts. There
were many counties in which no lawyer could be found; and everywhere,
among the Mormons, it was considered an act of evil fellowship,
amounting almost to apostasy, for a man to bring suit against his
brother in the civil tribunals.

In short--as my father pointed out--Utah, at that time, expressed the
only full-bodied social proposition in the United States. There never
had been in America another community whose future, in the economic
aspects, offered so clear a solution of problems which still remain
generally unsettled. It was as if a segment of the great circle of
modern humanity had been transported to another world, otherwise
unpopulated, and there with the experience gained through centuries of
human travail--had attempted the establishment of a just, beneficent and
satisfying social order.

I am here repeating this argument--this exposition--because the
financial absolutism of the Prophets of the Church has since ruined the
whole Mormon experiment in communism, put the Mormon paupers into the
public poor houses, used the tithes to support the large financial
ventures of the Prophet's favorites, and turned the Church's "community
enterprises" into monopolistic exploitations of the Mormon people.
And this change began even while our negotiations were pending in New
York--for they were prolonged, for various reasons, into the summer
of 1898, and they were interrupted finally by the death of President
Woodruff.

As soon as I received word of his illness I took train for Utah.
The news of his death met me on the journey home. Since I derived my
authority solely from him, upon my arrival in Salt Lake I went to the
Cashier of the Church, gave him the keys and the password to the safety
deposit box in New York, and withdrew from any further participation
in the Church's financial affairs. When I came to the office of the
Presidency I found that my father had removed his desk; and this was an
indication to me of what was happening in the inner circles of Church
intrigue.

The president of the quorum of apostles invariably succeeds to the
Presidency of the Church, although it is left to the apostles to decide,
and their choice is supposed to be directed by inspiration. His
election is subsequently ratifie