The psychological and ethical aspects of Mormon group life

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THE PSYCHOLOGICAL AND ETHICAL ASPECTS
OF MORMON GROUP LIFE

THE UNIVERSITY OP CHICAGO PRESS
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS

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THE CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS

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The Psychological and Ethical

Aspects of Mormon

Group Life

By
EPHRAIM EDWARD ERICKSEN

Professor of Philosophy, University of Utah

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS

Copyright 1922 By
THEiUmvERSiTY of Chicago

All Rights Reserved

Published September 1922

Composed and Printed By

The University of Chicago Press

Chicago, Illinois. U.S.A.

TO MY
FATHER AND MOTHER

PREFACE

It is the purpose of this work to interpret the life-history of the
Mormon group in the scientific spirit, and, in so far as the present
methods of social and psychological investigation are adequate, to get at
fundamental psychological and ethical principles. I realize, however,
that the Mormon group life is extremely complex, as is every social unit,
and cannot be stated in simple terms. I realize also my own limitations
in dealing with the problem. One who has been associated all his life
with the Mormon people, as I have been, is sure to have formed prejudices
and conceptions which render an objective and impartial study of them
extremely difficult. But on the other hand, the inner life of the group,
its sentiments, and ideals, can be comprehended only by one who has
actually experienced them. I therefore regard myself as justified in
attempting to describe and interpret the sentiments which I have to a
certain extent experienced in common with the group.

In this work I do not pretend to give a detailed account of Mormon
history. The accounts of historical events have been purposely reduced
to very brief statements in order to give greater prominence to the psy-
chological aspects of the different situations in which the Mormon group
was placed. It is the group sentiments with which we are here con-
cerned, and particularly the genetic development of Mormon group
consciousness.

In so far as I have succeeded in making this work scientific it has
been through the influence of the instructors in the departments of
philosophy and political economy in the University of Chicago. I am
especially indebted to Professors James H. Tufts, George H. Mead, and
Edward S. Ames, for the ethical and psychological point of view. For
methods of investigation and organization of material I must acknowl-
edge the help which I have received from the late Professor Robert Hoxie
and from Professor James Laurence Laughlin, of the Department of
Political Economy.

In the collecting of the material as well as its interpretation I am
deeply indebted to my wife, who collected much valuable source material
which I otherwise would not have received.

Ephraim Edward Ericksen

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I. Introduction 3

The Psychological Point of View. Description of Mormon
Ideals and Institutions. Mormonism as an Accumulation of
Sentiments.

PART I. MALADJUSTMENT BETWEEN MORMONS
AND GENTILES

II. The Origin of Mormonism and the Beginning of Conflict 13
The Relation of the Prophet to the Group. The Imitation
of Ancient Israel. The Conflict between Mormonism and
Christian Traditions. The Origin of Mormon Economic Ideals.

III. Zion in Missouri — Group Consciousness as the Cause of
Conflict 18

The Establishment of Zion. Causes of the Conflict in
Missouri. How Group Sentiment Developed. Mob Spirit as
the Outcome of Group Consciousness.

IV. Zion in Illinois — An Independent City 25

Group Sentiment Affects Only the Conflicting Groups.
Significance of Group Solidarity. Joseph Smith Expresses the
Spirit of the Group. Lasting Effect of the Group Conflicts.

PART II. MALADJUSTMENT BETWEEN MORMONS
AND NATURE

V. The Mormon Migration — From a Conflict with Men to a

Struggle with Nature 35

A New Type of Leadership. The New Problems. The
Organization for the New Life.

VI. Mormon Colonization 40

The Colonization Problem. The Irrigation Problem. The
Establishment of Colonies. The Population Problem. The
Success of Mormon Enterprises.

VII. Industrial and Commercial Co-operation — The United

Order 49

The Demand for Co-operative Methods. The Manufactur-
ing Problem. Zion's Co-operative Movement. The Decline of
the Co-operative Enterprise.

x CONTENTS

PART III. MALADJUSTMENT BETWEEN NEW THOUGHT
AND OLD INSTITUTIONS

CHAPTER PAGE

VIII. The Innovation of Science and Democracy .... 59
The Conditions of Internal Conflict. The Growing Spirit of
Individualism. The Influence of Mormon Priesthood. Con-
flict between Dogmas and the Scientific Spirit.

IX. The Church and Business 66

Traditional Character of the Mormon Economic Life. The
Changing Attitude toward the Tithing System. The Centralized
Control of Church Revenues. The Pecuniary Point of View of
Church Leaders.

X. Conflicts in the Mormon Marriage Institutions ... 73
Origin and History of Mormon Polygamy. The Relation of
Polygamy to the Social Ideal. The Conflicting Attitudes toward
Polygamy.

XI. The Ethics of Mormonism 80

The Significance of the Life-History of a Group. The
Ethical Study. The Period of Mormon Group Ethics. The
Utilitarian Stage of Mormon Ethics. The Formal Stage.

XII. The Possibilities for Adjustment 96

The Two General Points of View. The Negative Character
of Criticism. The Reconstructive Factors in Mormonism. A
Demand for a New Problem.

Index 103

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION

According to functional psychology, development in the life of the
individual is marked by a series of crises. Meaning grows out of con-
scious behavior, but behavior becomes conscious only when a maladjust-
ment exists between the individual and his environment. Consciousness
becomes most alert and active when there is a need for adjustment.
Under ordinary conditions instincts and habits direct the conduct of the
individual but when a new situation presents itself these forms of control
are inadequate and must be directed by consciousness. Instincts and
habits tend to maintain that level of behavior already established, but
it is the factor of consciousness which accounts for present standards of
conduct; it is this extraordinary form of control which inhibits instincts,
breaks up old habits, and initiates new modes of behavior. These crises
may thus be regarded as the essential causes of the individual's mental
attitude, his sentiments, and concepts, as well as the characteristic
organization of his thinking.

This principle holds in social evolution as well as in individual
adaptation. A problem presenting itself requires that the individual or
the community change the old habits, customs, and thought and estab-
lish new modes of behavior suitable to the new situation. Any event,
institution, or idea which facilitates or hinders this adjustment receives
attention and is given significance. Thus historians are beginning to
realize that the unity of history is best attained if the great problems
which the people encounter are made the basis of discussion and if the
historical events and characters are given importance according to the
part they have played in the larger social adjustments.

This thesis is an attempt to apply the principles of functional psy-
chology to Mormon history. The latter is here conceived as a process
of mental and social adaptation. The discussion divides itself into three
parts on the basis of three great maladjustments. The material selected
for discussion and the points emphasized have all been determined by
their relationship to these larger problems. The first part is a discussion
of the conflict between the Mormons and Gentiles and is an analysis of
the psychological and sociological factors involved. The second part
deals with the maladjustment between the Mormon people and nature in

4 PSYCHOLOGICAL AND ETHICAL ASPECTS

the desert region of the Great Basin. An effort is here made to define
the problem and to present the Mormons' method of co-operation
employed in its solution. We shall also observe here the reopening of
the conflict between the Mormons and the Gentiles, caused in part by
the economic competition between local institutions and eastern factories
and business houses, which resulted from the extension of the Union Pacific
Railroad into the Territory, and in part by the practice of polygamy which
caused friction with the United States government. The third part is a
discussion of the present maladjustment, a conflict between the Mormon
institutions and traditions on the one hand and the innovations of science
and the new democratic spirit on the other.

In the present chapter it is intended to give a general description of
the social ideal of Mormonism, its organization, and system of revenue.
But, since the purpose of this thesis is to deal with ideals and institutions
as they developed in the community, only those most characteristic need
be described here. There are, however, elements which seem to have
functioned either positively or negatively throughout the entire life of
Mormonism. To state the factors in an introductory way may help the
reader to see at the outset the nature of the problems.

Mormonism embraces the economic and the political as well as the
religious life of its adherents. Its ideals are temporal as well as spiritual.
The material welfare of the community has occupied the attention of the
ecclesiastical leaders quite as much as have the purely religious matters.
Every president of the church from Joseph Smith, the founder of the reli-
gion, to Joseph F. Smith, the recent leader, has established colonies, built
factories, and promoted mercantile institutions,1 The ideal social order
is the "Kingdom of God" or "Zion," a concept which, to the Mormons,
means a community of prosperous people as well as a community of
righteous people. To build temples in which the "pure in heart" might
worship is a sacred task but no more so than to establish industries in
which the " chosen people " might be employed. The church is in reality
a theocracy. God is its supreme temporal and spiritual ruler. Through
his priesthood he directs the affairs of the commonwealth and of the
religious body. In this ideal order only one set of statutes or laws exists
and they are God's commands which serve the purpose of both " Church
and Kingdom."2

1 "It has always been a cardinal teaching with the Latter-Day Saints," says the
late President Joseph F. Smith, "that a religion which has not the power to save
people temporarily and make them prosperous and happy here cannot be depended
upon to save them spiritually, to exalt them in the life to come" — Out West, XXIII, 242.

2 Keeler, Lesser Priesthood, p. 57.

OF MORMON GROUP LIFE 5

But, according to original Mormon doctrine, the "Kingdom of God"
cannot be built up under the present economic conditions. The individ-
ual accumulation of wealth must be abolished before the ideal spiritual
relationship can exist. The highest spiritual and moral life cannot
develop under a system of individual ownership. AU^ea,lthJ3elongs to
th^Lord and it is to be used in the furtherance of his cause. Property
and human effort have but one purpose, the establishment of Zion.
The ideal economic relationship, emphasized more in early Mormon
history than now, is called by them the "United Order." In the lan-
guage of the late President Joseph F. Smith:

The "United Order" is a religo-social system communal in its character,
designed to abolish poverty, monopoly, and kindred evils, and to bring about
unity and equality in temporal and spiritual things. It requires the consecra-
tion to the church, by its members of all their properties, and the subsequent
distribution to those members, by the church, of what were termed, steward-
ship. Each holder of a stewardship which might be some farm, workshop,
store, or factory that this same person had consecrated — was expected to
manage it thereafter in the interest of the whole community, all his gains
revert to a common fund, from which he would derive a sufficient support for
himself and those dependent upon him. The bishop being the temporal
officer of the church, received the consecrations of these properties, and also
assigned the stewardships; but he performed his duty under the direction of

the First Presidency *

This order is regarded as a system patterned after that which the apostles
of Christ set up in Jerusalem in which they had all things in common.2
The Mormons also believe that it was this divine order which "sanctified
the City of Enoch."

The term priesthood in the Mormon church stands for authority as
well as signifying a special calling. There are only two priesthoods in
the church but there are many degrees of authority. Each of the two
orders or grand divisions is subdivided into groups of offices embodying
different degrees of authority and demanding different kinds of responsi-
bility. An individual, for example, is ordained to the Melchisedek
Priesthood in the office of an Elder, Seventy, or High-Priest. Or he may
be ordained to the Aaronic Priesthood in the office of Deacon, Teacher,
or Priest. In general, offices in the Melchisedek order are higher and of
a more spiritual character while those of the Aaronic priesthood are of a
temporal nature and carry a lesser degree of authority. Such a distinc-
tion, however, holds only in a general way. Both priesthoods have, to
a certain extent, both spiritual and temporal functions. All matters

1 Out West, XXIII, 244. 2 Acts 4: 34~35-

6 PSYCHOLOGICAL AND ETHICAL ASPECTS

of church interest are directed by officers in the Melchisedek priesthood.
The president of the church who holds the higher order of authority has,
in theory at least, unlimited power in all matters of church interest, both
spiritual and temporal. The presiding bishop, who is also of the higher
order, directs in all those matters which pertain to the collection of tith-
ing and church revenues.1 The local bishop, unless he, through revela-
tion, is declared to be a direct descendant of Aaron, holds the Melchise-
dek priesthood. His special calling is to preside over a local church
community and to direct in both temporal and spiritual affairs.

The revenue system of the church adds greatly to its strength and to
the effectiveness of its efforts. There are three main sources of revenue,
the tithing, income from property holdings, and free-will offerings. The
first two represent permanent and increasing incomes, the third comes in
the form of donations presented at times and in amounts determined by
the need of the occasion and the ability and disposition of the giver.
The tithing is like an income tax except that instead of having a variable
rate dependent on the income, the tithing calls for 10 per cent regardless
of what the individuals' earnings may be. The collection of tithing is,
however, free from all coercion except such as the social and psychologi-
cal consequences may impose. The following is the "commandment"'
regarding tithing. It is typical of all the revelations which Joseph
Smith presented to his people.

Verily thus sayeth the Lord, I require all their surplus property to be put into
the hands of the bishop of my church of Zion. For the building of mine house
and for the laying of the foundation of Zion and for the priesthood, and for the
debts of the presidency of my church:

And this shall be the beginning of the tithing of my people; and after
that those who have thus been tithed shall pay one tenth of all their interests
annually; and this shall be a standing law unto them for ever, for my holy
priesthood sayeth the Lord.3

The law of tithing was instituted in Missouri immediately after the
discontinuance of the law of consecration or United Order.4 It was not
intended, however, to do away with the latter law. The United Order,
although it is not often referred to by the present authorities of the
church, is still regarded by many as the ideal economic system.

1 Keeler, op. cit., p. 116.

1 The revelations of Joseph Smith are compiled in a book called Doctrine and
Covenants. To the Mormon people its content is of great importance, ranking equal
with that of the Bible.

J Doctrine and Covenants, Section 119 : 1-4.

* Joseph F. Smith, Eighty-fifth Conference Report, pp. 139-40.

OF MORMON GROUP LIFE 7

The source of revenue next in importance to tithing is that derived
from church property holdings. The church holds stock in some of
the leading corporations of the state. Among these are sugar factories,
salt manufactures, and mercantile institutions. It was the policy of
the church, when there was insufficient private capital in the state, to
invest in enterprises which it regarded as needful in the community.
From these investments the church draws a revenue quite sufficient to
pay the salaries of all church officials who are compensated by the church.

The free-will offering is much less in amount than either of the above-
named sources. The bulk of these offerings is received on "Fast-day,"
the first Sunday in each month, which is a day of general fasting. The
equivalent value of the food thus saved is turned over to the local bishop
for the support of the poor. These contributions are immediately dis-
tributed to the poor for the purchase of food, clothing, etc. Another
source of revenue is known as the "Relief Society" donations. Every
woman in the church is expected to make regular contributions to this
fund which also goes to the support of the poor in the church.

This brief analysis of the ideals and institutions which are most
characteristic of Mormon life prepares the way for a more detailed study
of the larger problems. These factors, combined with human prejudices
and persecutions on the one hand and the forces of the physical environ-
ment on the other hand, have determined Mormon history as well as
the present spirit and life of the group. The relationship of these factors
and their relative importance will be made obvious when we consider
them in connection with the great maladjustments of Mormon history.

But this attempt to define Mormonism in terms of its aims and
institutions should serve only to give a general notion of the system. It
is by no means intended to be a full description. The ideals and institu-
tions have themselves only relative or functional meaning. Processes of
elimination, modification, and accumulation are constantly taking place.
Like every other social system Mormonism has been forced to adjust
itself to varying circumstances. This has been true notwithstanding the
tendency within the church to regard the system as universal and
eternal and entirely beyond human control. And notwithstanding the
appropriation of many of the ideals and institutions of ancient Israel
the group has absorbed sentiments and ideas from its social environment.

This thesis endeavors to account for the structure and aims of
Mormonism through a study of its life-history. The writer maintains
that ideals were developed and institutions were formulated in the course
of this history and that many of these ideals and the essential forms of

8 PSYCHOLOGICAL AND ETHICAL ASPECTS

social control as well were given birth through a strongly felt need for
them. These institutions in turn reacted upon the life of the community,
and thus the effect became also a cause. So important did these second-
ary causes become that many people have identified Mormonism with
them. They have been regarded as its very essence. For example, to
some people Mormonism means polygamy, to others it means commun-
ism, and others identify it with revelation, belief in divine authority, or
conceptions of baptism for the living and the dead. Mormonism is not
to be identified with any one of these doctrines or with the entire sum of
them. Its essential characteristics are not found in its theology. A large
part of its theology is copied from the Old and the New Testament. To
find the true meaning of Mormonism we must go to its group sentiments.
If we are to comprehend its life we must analyze its spiritual life, we must
study the problems which have confronted the people and the sentiments
derived from the struggle with them. We must observe Mormonism in
the periods of its greatest activity.

The great conflicts and struggles of the Mormon people, those
events in the life of the group which have received the focus of attention
and which were felt as vital experiences by the entire group, are here
considered to be the essential causes of their sentiments and ideals as
well as conditions out of which many of their institutions developed.
We are thus concerned with analyzing problems, rather than following
the sequence of historical events. We are more concerned with the
attitudes, sentiments, and ideas in relation to events than we are with
the events themselves. That which transpires externally is here con-
sidered less significant than the reaction which follows in the conscious
life of the community. It is the ideals and sentiments resulting from
experience rather than the experiences themselves which reveals the
true life of a people. Special attention will therefore be given to direct
statements and expressions of sentiment.

But sentiments are not to be regarded as independent of the active life
of a community. They develop out of the social intercourse which takes
place in connection with the larger economic, social, and religious prob-
lems of the community. The greater the problems are the stronger will
the sentiments become. But these economic and social problems are to
be regarded also as the effect of the psychological life. In other words
an external situation becomes a problem only when it is conceived as
such. The relation between the subjective and the objective life is
reciprocal. The Mormon people were confronted by great problems in
their relations with the people of Missouri and Illinois and in their

OF MORMON GROUP LIFE 9

struggle for life in the Rocky Mountain country and these problems
created strong sentiments among the individuals who were co-operatively
engaged in the struggle. On the other hand, these group sentiments
thus created reacted upon the objective life.

To explain the Mormon community life in terms of its whole life-
process, its conflicts, its struggles, its crises, is the problem of this thesis.
Although there were notions advocated by Joseph Smith which were
antecedent to the conflict and which really occasioned it yet these were
not important in themselves. Had it not been for the conflict which
forced them upon the attention, they would perhaps not have survived.
It is group conflict and struggles which have created and maintained the
basic Mormon sentiments.

PART I. MALADJUSTMENT BETWEEN
MORMONS AND GENTILES

CHAPTER II

THE ORIGIN OF MORMONISM AND THE
BEGINNING OF CONFLICT

Since the social point of view is the one proposed in this study the
method to be followed is pragmatic rather than analytic. The special
emphasis will be upon the consequences of the Mormon institutions and
methods rather than upon the origin. Institutions are made and ideals
are formed in the process of adjustment. Neither the individual con-
sciousness nor the social life will indulge in absolute luxuries. If an
idea or an attitude or an institution is to long remain it must serve some
purpose, at least it must function in adjustment. The very fact that a
social system continues and grows gives evidence that it meets some
human need although it may be the mere satisfaction of a very primitive
and artificial desire. The aim here is, therefore, not to pass judgment
upon the absolute Tightness or wrongness of the Mormon system but
rather to recognize its problems and to evaluate its elements by consider-
ing the part they play in the solution of these problems. "In the end,"
says James, " Christian mysticism had to come to our empiricist criterion:

'By their fruits ye shall know them'; not by their roots

The roots of man's virtue are inaccessible to us."1 Furthermore, the
validity of a religion should not be judged by the neurotic constitution
of its author. He says: "In the natural sciences and industrial arts it
never occurs to any one to try to refute opinion by showing up their

author's neurotic constitution It should not be otherwise with

religious opinions. Their value can only be ascertained by the spiritual
judgments directly passed upon them."2

Joseph Smith met with extraordinary success in establishing his
ideals in the minds of his followers. In less than a year he succeeded in
bringing hundreds to his way of thinking. Before his death thousands
had joined the church. What is the explanation? To the orthodox
Mormon it is simple. It was the voice of God speaking through his
prophet. Christ had called them and they knew the voice of their
shepherd. It was the spirit of God or the "still small voice" which
brought conviction to their souls. To the opposing religious dogmatist
the answer is likewise simple. To him Joseph Smith was an agent of

1 James, Varieties of Religious Experience, pp. 17-18. a Loc. cit.

13

14 PSYCHOLOGICAL AND ETHICAL ASPECTS

Lucifer. The followers of Joseph Smith were deceived. Satan had
tempted them and they fell into darkness. Neither answer satisfies the
true scientist who knows man only, on the one hand, through his social
and physical environment and, on the other hand, through the response
he makes to this environment.

Mormonism had its beginning in an environment, physically and
socially, of a most primitive character. Western New York, the place
of its inception, was in 1830, little more than a wilderness. The boy
prophet was limited very seriously in educational opportunities. For
him and his associates the Bible was practically the only literature.
Schools were conducted for only a few weeks during the winter. The
church was the one means of social intercourse. But this sort of social
intercourse was found in abundance. It was rich with spiritual sug-
gestions and dominated the entire social consciousness. Religious
revivals were frequently held and the minds of the people were very sus-
ceptible to mystical phenomena. The stories of the Bible seemed very
real to them and they naturally embodied their ideals in Abraham,
Jacob, Moses, and other Old Testament prophets who talked with God
face to face.

But in addition to the mystical and highly spiritual environment
which was undoubtedly favorable to the acceptance of the new revela-
tions, there were, in the personality of Joseph Smith, elements charac-
teristic of a religious genius. He was emotional, impulsive and spiritual-
minded. He was uneducated, yet he possessed considerable native
ability. Few men seem to have such keen insight into human nature.
This ability is manifest in his dealings with his followers. He never
imposed his views upon them directly. He assumed the position of a
prophet and spoke in the name of the Lord. In a most tactful way he
held himself separate from the things revealed. Yet he was by no means
lost to the consciousness of his people. On the contrary he was the
prophet through whom God revealed himself; he was the means whereby
the Lord was to bring about a wonderful work. Every commandment
must be revealed through him before it could become law to the com-
munity or the individual members.

Another method which he employed was to present the revelations
as nearly as he could in Bible language. This gave to them a divine ring.
It made his followers feel that they were living a life such as that of
ancient Israel, that a prophet was in reality presenting to them God's
message. To a people who idealized the past as did the Bible readers
of the frontier in the first half of the nineteenth century, such language

OF MORMON GROUP LIFE 15

was truly divine. The language of the Bible was the language of God.
This ability to imitate the sacred literature was thus a source of strength
to the modern prophet.

But Joseph Smith not only imitated the language of the Bible but he
appropriated all the institutions and ideals of ancient Israel. And here
we find the cause of the beginning of the great Mormon and non-Mormon
conflict. The ideals and institutions of that ancient people were out of
harmony with Christian tenets. The latter had made the other world
the ideal home and resting place for the faithful. Mormonism, in its
attempt to introduce Israelitish ideals, was setting up a material kingdom,
a Zion on earth. To the Christian world, it was materialism against
mysticism, carnality against spirituality. In the Tenth Article of Faith,
Joseph Smith, in speaking for the people, says: " We believe in the literal
gathering of Israel and in the restoration of the Ten Tribes. That Zion

will be built upon this (American) continent " This Zion was

more than a mere mental state or spiritual order such as the Christian
world held up as its ideal. It was a real country which was given to the
Saints of God, an eternal home for scattered Israel, a land which was
sanctified and blessed for the select children of God. It was a city which
the Mormons were to build and which was to stand over against all non-
Mormon communities. Here is the revelation:

And I hold forth and deign to give unto you greater riches, even a land of
promise, a land flowing with milk and honey, upon which there shall be no
curse when the Lord cometh :

And I will give it unto you for the land of your inheritance, if you seek it
with all your hearts:

And this shall be my covenant with you, ye shall have it for the land of
your inheritance, and for the inheritance of your children forever, while the
earth shall stand, and ye shall possess it again in eternity, no more to pass
away.1

Thus the Mormons were called out of Babylon, the country of the
Gentiles, to inhabit a promised land just as Israel was called out of Egypt.
They were the people which God recognized and to whom he would grant
special favors. Note the resemblance between the foregoing revelation
to the Mormons and the following to Abraham and ancient Israel:

And the Lord said unto Abram, .... Lift up thine eyes, and look from
the place where thou art, northward, and southward, and eastward, and
westward :

For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it and to thy seed
forever.

1 Doctrine and Covenants, Section 38 : 18-20.

16 PSYCHOLOGICAL AND ETHICAL ASPECTS

And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth: so that if a man can
number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered.1

This promise was repeated to Israel.

And I have also established by covenant with them, to give them the land
of Canaan

And I will bring you in unto the land, concerning which I did swear to
give it to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob ; and I will give it you for an heritage.2

In contrast with the material kingdom of ancient Israel and early
Mormonism, with their land "flowing with milk and honey," their flocks
and herds, and numerous posterity, is the Christian blessedness of the
spiritual life and the other world, "the kingdom of God within you"3 or
the kingdom "not of this world," or the "holy city, new Jerusalem"
which was already prepared and should come down from God out of
heaven.4 The kingdom of God according to Christianity transcends
life. It is in a sphere beyond the carnal nature of man. This is true
whether it is conceived as a gift from God or an attainment through
righteous living; whether it is regarded as an ideal social order or as a
quality or power within the individual. The one attitude which seems
to have been held in common by all Christians is that the carnal nature
of man is opposed to the highest spiritual life. Sinfulness lies in bodily
desires and worldly ambitions, righteousness in spiritual hope, and a
longing for complete union with God.

But it was the patriarchal order of marriage and ideal of a numerous
posterity, even more than the material kingdom which set the Mormons
in opposition to the Christian world. The following from the revelation
on plural marriage suggests again the source from which Mormonism
received its ideals and institutions:

Abraham received concubines and they bare him children, and it was
accounted unto him for righteousness, because they were given unto him, and
he abode in my law; as also Isaac, and Jacob, did none other things then that
which they were commanded. David also received many wives and concu-
bines, and also Solomon, and Moses s

Although marriage was conceived by the Christians as a sacrament,
virginity and celibacy were regarded as the highest and purest life.
"The virginity of the holy mother of our Lord," says Bruce, gave to
celibacy a virtuous beauty that it had never before possessed. Many of
the Christians of Asia Minor began, even in the time of the apostles, to

'0611.13:14-16. ^ Luke 17:21.

3 Exod. 6:4, 8. * Rev. 21:2. s Doctrine and Covenant, Section 132 137.

OF MORMON GROUP LIFE 17

look down upon marriage; and in some of the writings of the fathers we
find glowing descriptions of the superior dignity and spiritual worth of
celibacy.1 Tolstoi regards marriage as the service of self, and from the
Christian point of view, even a fall, a sin. This being the attitude of
the Christian religion toward even the legitimate monogamous marriages
it is obvious that a religion which advocated "many wives and con-
cubines" would be condemned as sensual and directly opposed to Christ's
spirit and true religion.

But the materialism in Mormonism is also in part accounted for by
the fact that it originated at a time when there was considerable interest
taken in communistic enterprises. It was between 1824 and 1830 that
Robert Owen established his communistic societies in different parts of
the country and especially in the West. Two such communities were
established in Ohio, one at Kendal and the other at Yellow Springs.
In fact, the nucleus of the first Mormon community was a small com-
munistic society, living at Kirtland, Ohio. The members of this society,
before conversion to the Mormon faith, were members of the Disciples
of Christ. Practically the entire community joined the Mormon church.

It is also significant that among those who left the Disciples' church
to join the Mormons was one of its preachers, Sidney Rigdon. In fact,
according to H. H. Bancroft, it was out of the "friendship and associa-
tion" between Alexander Campbell, Walter Scott, and Sidney Rigdon
that the Disciples or Campbellites ' church arose.2 Rigdon undoubtedly
became interested in Robert Owens' communistic system through the
famous debates carried on between his friend, Campbell, and Owen in
18293 (one year before the Mormon church was organized). During
the early years when the ideals and institutions of Mormonism were
taking shape, Rigdon was intimately associated with Joseph Smith,
standing in authority next to him for a number of years. It is very
probable, therefore, that Rigdon carried over into Mormonism Owen's
communistic doctrine so generally discussed at that time.

1 W. S. Bruce, Social Aspects of Christian Morality, pp. 66-67.

2 H. H. Bancroft, History of Utah, p. 76.

^ John H. Noyes, History of American Socialism, p. 87.

18 PSYCHOLOGICAL AND ETHICAL ASPECTS

CHAPTER III

ZION IN MISSOURI— GROUP CONSCIOUSNESS
AS THE CAUSE OF CONFLICT

It was in Jackson County, Missouri, that the prophet had hoped to
fully realize his ideal social scheme. This was the "land of Promise"
and "blessed above all other lands." Even today the Mormons refer
to Jackson County as the "Center Stake of Zion" and look forward to
the time when they may reinhabit this sacred place. Great care was
taken in the selection of those who were to settle on the "Promised
Land." Only the worthy were to have inheritance there; only those
who had fully entered into the Mormon group spirit and were willing
to consecrate all their property and be content with such an amount as
the bishop thought was actually needed. Every man who would join
the new community was required to present a certificate from the bishop
at Kirtland as a proof that he was a "wise steward" and worthy of this
special blessing.

In August, 1 83 1, the first settlers were received by the authorities
who had previously been appointed to buy the land and to " divide unto
the Saints their inheritance." The laying of the first log for the building
of the first house was an occasion of celebration and ceremony. It was
placed by twelve men "in honor of the twelve tribes of Israel." The
ceremony of the dedication of the land distributed among the favored
pioneers is significant as showing the sacredness with which they regarded
their Zion.

Sidney Rigdon stood before the Saints and asked: "Do you receive this
land of your inheritance with thankful hearts, from the Lord?"

The audience responded : "We do."

"Do you pledge yourselves to keep the law of God on this land, which you
never kept in your own land ?"

"We do."

"Do you pledge yourselves to see that others of your brethren who shall
come hither do keep the laws of God ?"

"We do."

Prayer was then offered and the ceremony ended with the words: "I now
promise this land, consecrated and dedicated unto the Lord for a possession and in
heritance for the Saints and for all the faithful servants of the Lord, to the remot-
est ages of time, in the name of Jesus Christ having authority from him. Amen."1

1 Evans, Hundred Years of Mormonism, pp. 144-50.

OF MORMON GROUP LIFE 19

These ceremonies suggest the key of the entire struggle between the
Mormons and Gentiles in Missouri. The causes of the persecutions are
not explained by assuming, as many Mormons do, that the people of
Missouri were possessed with bad motives or evil spirits. There prob-
ably were many immoral acts committed by individuals among both
Mormons and Gentiles and there were undoubtedly many evil-spirited
men, even human devils engaged in this warfare, but no more perhaps
than could be found in any other frontier community in the country.
The causes of the antagonism were psychological. There are unsocial
tendencies in human nature which, under certain conditions, will express
themselves regardless of the moral attainments of the people. All
peoples are at times creatures of group consciousness and group morality
as has been plainly illustrated in the recent world-war. The soldiers
of one army did not hate the soldiers of the opposing army for anything
that they had done as individuals but because they belonged to another
group. The Gentiles did not despise the Mormons because of any acts
of individuals but because they were Mormons and had set themselves
over against all the old settlers of Missouri. Three causes were respon-
sible for the group animosity; these were: (1) purely religious differences,
(2) the claim which the Mormons made to land of their Zion, and (3)
their attitude toward the negroes.

That the Mormon persecution in Jackson County arose essentially
out of differences of religious belief is evident from the content of what
was termed the "Secret Constitution," a document by which the non-
Mormons of the county bound themselves together for the purpose of
expelling the Mormons from the state. The document contains the
following:

It is more than two years since the first of these fanatics, or knaves (for
one or the other they undoubtedly are) made their appearance first amongst us,
and pretended as they did, and now do, to hold personal communication and
converse face to face with the most High God; to receive communications
and revelations direct from heaven; to heal the sick by the laying on of hand;
and, in short, to perform all the wonder working miracles wrought by the

inspired Apostles and Prophets of old They openly blaspheme the

the Most High God and cast contempt on his holy religion, by pretending to
receive revelations direct from heaven, by pretending to speak unknown
tongues, by direct inspiration and by diverse pretenses derogatory to God
and religion and to utter subversion of human reason.1

1 Joseph Smith, History of the Church, I, 378. The document was copied from
the Evening and Morning Star of July, 1833.

20 PSYCHOLOGICAL AND ETHICAL ASPECTS

Thus, it was not for crimes committed nor for immoral motives that
the residents of Jackson County expelled the Mormons but for pretending
to have heavenly communication and for possessing spiritual gifts. In
other words the beliefs and extraordinary pretentions had made the
Mormons a group different from their own. Group consciousness and
group morality developed. The individual shifted his personal respon-
sibility upon the group to which he belonged. He lost sight of his
personal ideals and sacrificed himself entirely to the group. In this
state of mind the individual was led to do things that he otherwise would
not do.1

Again the Saints declared openly that God had given them the land
which both Mormons and Missourians then occupied and even in revela-
tion were they told that the "obedient shall eat the good of the land of
Zion . . . . " and the rebellious "shall be plucked out."2 Although no
attempt had been made to gain possession of the land by any means
other than by purchase it was rumored that if the land could not be
bought some other method might be employed. But rumors were about
as effective as knowledge in developing emotions of antagonism. The
Mormons had already been made to regard themselves as God 's favored
ones. It was they who had been blessed with a prophet, with revelations,
with spiritual gifts and with a land for their eternal inheritance. The
Missourians, on the other hand, were conscious of belonging to a righteous
band whose task it was to put an end to the Mormon blasphemy and
protect their land from Mormon invasion. Both groups felt that they
were fighting for Christ and pure religion.

This group prejudice was further intensified by the fact that the
Mormons came from the northern and New England states while the
old settlers of Jackson County came from the southern states. Con-
sequently the two groups differed in attitude toward slavery. The
Mormons were charged with sowing dissension and raising sedition among
the slaves and inviting free people of color to settle in Jackson County.
The Mormons denied these charges and declared in their official paper,
the Evening and Morning Star,* that the church had taken no definite
stand on the subject of slavery and that "wisdom would dictate great
care among the branches of the church of Christ on this subject. So
long as we have no special rules in the Church, as to people of color, let
prudence guide, and while they as well as we, are in the hands of a merci-

1 Doctrine and Covenants, Section 64: 27-30.

2 Ibid., 35-36.

* Evening and Morning Star Extra, July 16, 1833.

OF MORMON GROUP LIFE 21

ful God, we say: shun every appearance of evil." This was interpreted
to mean that negroes and mulattoes were being invited to become
Mormons and settle in the county. Such misinterpretation illustrates
how easy it is to find cause for complaint when there is really, as in this
case, a long established prejudice. It was not this article nor any par-
ticular act of the Mormons or the Gentiles that caused the enmity. This
was only an occasion for the expression of prejudices already existent.

A mere enumeration of acts of misbehavior on the part of either
group will not explain the cause of the struggle. These events are only
outward manifestations of forces more fundamental. The causes are
more deeply rooted. The struggle was not one of individuals against
individuals but rather one of group against group.

This spirit of enmity grew until the winter of 1833, when it expressed
itself in open violences. The leaders of the church were tarred and
feathered, property was destroyed, and the entire Mormon population,
which had now reached twelve thousand, was driven into the wilderness.
Most of the exiles moved north into Clay County. Having been obliged
to leave most of their goods and chattels behind, they were poorly pre-
pared to withstand the winter cold that was then upon them.

The people of Clay County, however, were kindly disposed toward
the Mormons, permitting them to occupy vacant cabins, employing some
of the men on the farms, some of the women as domestic servants, and
others as school teachers. A few families were able to purchase homes
but the majority either rented land or were hired to the citizens of the
county. But the sympathetic attitude which the citizens of Clay
County at first manifested toward the Mormons was short-lived. The
Gentiles here had no more in common with the Mormons than did the
Gentiles of Jackson County and it was not long before the inhabitants
of Clay County learned to regard the Mormons as a distinct and peculiar
people. In less than three years they began to take actions to rid
themselves of their new neighbors. On June 29, 1836, the citizens
assembled in the courthouse to consider possible means for inducing the
Mormons to leave their country. It is interesting to observe that here,
as in Jackson County, it was not overt acts or series of crimes which
caused the citizens to feel uncomfortable in the presence of the Mormons
but rather an indefinable something that made the Mormon group dif-
ferent from their own. An extract from the minutes of the citizens illus-
trates the situation:

They are Eastern men, whose manners, habits, customs, and even dialect,
are essentially different from our own. They are non-slaveholders, and

22 PSYCHOLOGICAL AND ETHICAL ASPECTS

opposed to slavery, which in this peculiar period, when abolition has reared
its deformed and haggard visage in our land, is well calculated to excite deep
and abiding prejudices in any community where slavery is tolerated and
protected.

In addition to all this, they are charged, as they have hitherto been, with
keeping up a constant communication with our Indian tribes on our frontiers,
with declaring, even from the pulpit, that the Indians are a part of God's
chosen people and are destined by heaven to inherit this land, in common with
themselves. We do not vouch for the correctness of these statements; but
whether they are true or false, their effect has been the same in exciting our
community.1

Thus the Saints were requested to leave Clay County, not because
of misconduct either legally or morally, but because their religious tenets,
their habits, customs, dialect, etc., were different from those of the
other inhabitants. They were asked to leave because they were non-
slaveholders and because they declared the Indians to be their breth-
ren. What could more clearly express group psychology and even group
morality than these accusations? Human society is so constituted
that unless individuals of the different groups can find something in
common they will not associate. The Mormons refused to have any-
thing in common with their Gentile neighbors and consequently the only
thing that would insure peace was isolation. This fact was now beginning
to be recognized by both Mormons and Gentiles.

To avoid serious persecution such as they suffered in Jackson County
the Saints moved at once into the territory attached to Ray County.
They petitioned the state for the privilege of organizing into a county.
Their petition was granted and the Mormons thus became the founders
of Caldwell County. Here the Saints grew rapidly in wealth and popu-
lation. By the autumn of 1838 they had opened in Caldwell and adjoin-
ing counties two thousand farms and had erected many houses, hotels,
stores, and shops of all kinds.

The Saints were beginning to feel that they had now come to a reali-
zation of their hopes. God had in a sort of indirect way led them to a
place where they were to enjoy peace and prosperity.2 This seemed to
give them a feeling of strength and courage and, in the case of some
individuals, resulted in a boldness which had serious consequences. For
example, Sidney Rigdon unwisely gave expression to his feelings in a
Fourth of July speech in 1838. The following is an extract from his
oration:

1 Joseph Smith, op. tit., I, 450.

2H. H. Bancroft, Bancroft's Works, XXVI, 119.

OF MORMON GROUP LIFE 23

We take God to witness and the holy angels to witness this day that we
warn all men, in the name of Jesus Christ, to come on us no more forever.
The man or set of men who attempt it, do it at the expense of their lives; and
that mob that comes on us to disturb us, there shall be between us and them a
war of extermination, for we will follow them till the last drop of blood is
spilled, or else they will have to exterminate us for we will carry the war to their
own houses, and their own families, and one party or the other shall be utterly
destroyed.1

But Rigdon's pride was soon humbled and the prosperity of the
Saints was soon to be replaced by poverty. The two years of peace was
but a calm before the storm. A disturbance in Davis County in August
of that year marks the beginning of the trouble which finally resulted
in the expulsion of the Mormons from the state. Attempts were made
to prevent certain Mormons from voting. The latter insisted upon
their rights as American citizens and cast their votes, but not until after
a skirmish in which several on both sides were wounded. News of this
circumstance spread like wildfire through Davis and Caldwell counties.
A general uprising followed. The leading citizens tried to quiet matters
but to no avail. Conditions went from bad to worse. Finally the
affairs became so alarming that Major-General Atchison called out the
militia of Ray and Clay counties under the command of Generals Doni-
phan and Parks. General Parks with a small army went to Davis
County and Doniphan with a small body of men went to Dewit to put
down a mob uprising at that place.

That the Saints must again leave their homes became evident. They
all gathered at Far West, the county seat of Caldwell, and from there
they were compelled in midwinter to leave the state. Generals Doniphan
and Parks endeavored faithfully to protect the Mormons from mob-
violence, but with little avail for they were struggling against too many
odds. They were outnumbered by the mob and their own soldiers were,
themselves, prejudiced against the Mormons. Governor Boggs remained
indifferent at first and maintained that since the Mormons had brought
the trouble upon themselves it was left with them to fight it out with
the mob. He could give them no help. Later, however, for no good
reason yet known to historians, he ordered General Clark to rally the
state militia and drive the Mormons from the state.

Attention should be directed toward two significant results of the
Mormon residence in Missouri. In the first place Mormon group con-
sciousness was taking definite form. The rapid building up of a colony

1 Ibid., p. 120.

24 PSYCHOLOGICAL AND ETHICAL ASPECTS

in a county, and quick development of prejudice and persecution con-
vinced the Mormons as well as the non-Mormons that the two groups
had nothing in common. Not knowing the cause of the bitter hatred
between the groups and the sympathy which developed within the groups,
a mysticism was apparent in the consciousness of both. God symbolized
the spirit of love which the members of the same group bore toward one
another, and the devil symbolized the spirit of hatred which existed
between the groups.

In the second place the Mormon social ideal or Zion also received its
definite form. Jackson County, Missouri, is to this day regarded by the
Saints as sacred land on which they are to build their Zion. This con-
cept has played no small part in Mormon history since the expulsion from
Missouri and it is sure to play an important part in the future.

OF MORMON GROUP LIFE 25

CHAPTER IV
ZION IN ILLINOIS— AN INDEPENDENT CITY

Driven from Missouri the Saints found refuge in Illinois. There
our story repeats itself. From one community they were expelled by
an armed force and in another received with open arms of friendship.
In one state they were deprived of their homes and property; in another
they were given shelter, food, and clothing. In one state they were con-
sidered outlaws and deprived of the rights of citizenship; in another
state they were not only given the rights of citizenship but were permit-
ted to establish an independent city whose charter allowed them to
organize an army for protection. Why the attitude of these two friendly
states should be so different toward the Mormons, historians have thus
far failed to answer. It is obvious that, had the Mormons been expelled
from Missouri on account of theft, murder, or any illegal or immoral con-
duct whatsoever, knowledge of this would have been had by the people
east of the Mississippi and their reception would have been very different.

But the Mormons were expelled from Missouri not on account of
criminality but because of peculiarity. They were expelled for reasons
that could not be easily communicated. They were driven out because
they practiced their creed, ''mind your own business." They believed
that their business was absolutely distinct from that of their gentile
neighbors. They had their own peculiar religious interests, their own
economic order, and to a certain extent their own political interest and
control. They desired no interest or co-operative intercourse with
people outside of their own group. Such an attitude will be treated
with indifference for a short time, but an entire absence of common
interests leads inevitably to a severance of friendly relations. This was
repeatedly illustrated in Missouri and later in Illinois. Two peoples
cannot live together unless there is some common ground, some natural
interest or condition for co-operation. It is a vital principle in human
society that "he who is not for us is against us." Human nature cannot
tolerate indifference. Only by association could the people of Illinois
be made to understand that the Mormon people were not to become one
with them.

Quincy, Illinois, became the resting-place for the greater number of
the Saints until a permanent place was determined upon. But the

26 PSYCHOLOGICAL AND ETHICAL ASPECTS

prophet was not long in selecting another Zion. Commerce, Hancock
County, was soon selected as the central spot for the new community.
Though at that time swampy and unhealthful it was conveniently
located as it was almost encircled by the Mississippi. It was drained
of its impure water, renamed, and became in a short time the beautiful
city of Nauvoo. Besides the land in Commerce, much land in Iowa was
purchased by the characteristic Mormon method, first by the church,
being later sold or given to its members according to their need and
financial ability.

At first no attempt was made by the prophet to gather his people
to Nauvoo. They were permitted to locate at will in different parts of
Illinois and Iowa. But in the winter of 1840-41 the legislature of the
state granted to the Mormons a very liberal charter. Under it they were
given almost complete political and judicial control of affairs within the
city of Nauvoo. In May following, all the Saints living outside of Nauvoo
were called in to help build up the city and its temple. The call came
as a revelation.

And again, verily I say unto you, let all my Saints come from afar,
And send ye swift messengers, yea, chosen messengers, and say unto them:
come ye, with all your gold and your silver, and your precious stones, and with
all your antiquities; and with all who have knowledge of antiquities, that will
come, may come, and bring the box tree, and the fir tree, and the pine tree,
together with all the precious trees of the earth; and build a house to my name,
for the Most High to dwell therein.1

To the Saints this was indeed a divine call. They were to build a new
Jerusalem and a temple like the Temple of Solomon of "fir trees" of
"precious stones" and "antiquities."2 They responded promptly to the
call. Within a few months the city grew from a population of five
thousand to twenty thousand. It soon became the largest city in Illinois.
Hotels and workshops and business houses and enterprises of all sorts
sprang into existence as it were in a day. There were many industrial
organizations, not for individual gain, but for the building up of the
city. It was the intention of the prophet to make Nauvoo self-support-
ing and entirely independent of outside business and industrial life. A
city government was established and also a military organization. The
prophet became mayor of the city and also lieutenant-general of the
Nauvoo Legion.

But the effect of this wonderful group solidarity was not long to be
expressed in terms of prosperity and city building. The very factors

1 Doctrine and Covenants, Section 124 : 25-26. a I Kings 5:6-8; 6: 21.

OF MORMON GROUP LIFE 27

which created strong solidarity within also developed a strong opposing
group without. Here as in Missouri when the non-Mormons found that
they were excluded from all the Mormon enterprises they became sus-
picious. There was something wrong with a people who were always
all for or all against a political measure. Little by little they began to
feel that since the Mormons' religious, economic, and political interests
were so exlusively Mormon interests that they must be opposed to their
own. Joseph Smith, whom the Saints regarded with such reverence,
now received the attention also of the Gentiles; by them he was regarded
not with reverence but with contempt and hatred. In fact everything
that was considered of vital concern by the Mormons became now of
vital concern to the gentile group. But what was an object of love to
one group was an object of hate to the other and what was regarded with
reverence by the one was regarded with contempt by the other.

The attention of both Mormons and Gentiles in Illinois now became
centered in the prophet and never before had the latter been more active
than during the last two or three years of his life. On one day he would
be presenting to his people a new revelation; the next day he would
appear before them as head of the Nauvoo Legion. He might one day
be under arrest and on trial before a court in Illinois; and the next day
announce himself a candidate for president of the United States. The
prophet recognized his activity and regarded it as a source of strength.
He says: "Excitement has almost become the essence of my life, when it
dies away I feel almost lost. When a man is reined up continually he
becomes strong and gains knowledge and power; but when he relaxes for
a season he loses much of his power."1

The prophet was arrested a great many times and each occasion
tended to magnify his greatness in the minds of his people. Wilford
Woodruff describes a reception the people gave their leader upon his
return after a hearing before a court: "Five days later .... the
citizens of Nauvoo went out in great numbers on horseback and in car-
riages to meet the prophet. The whole scene was a demonstration of
joy. He was escorted home by a band of music and by the great multi-
tude that had gone out to meet him."2

Inspired by the presence of thousands of his people and by the
glorious reception which they extended him, he gave direct expression

1 Statement by Wilford Woodruff, quoted by Cowley in Life of Wilford Wood-
ruff, p. 176.

3 Ibid., p. 182.

28 PSYCHOLOGICAL AND ETHICAL ASPECTS

to his emotions. The following selections from his address reveal his
temperament and also indicate his relation to the people:

"I want you to learn, O Israel! what is for the happiness and peace of
this city and its people. Our enemies are determined to oppress us and deprive
us of our rights and privileges as they have done in the past

"There is a time, however, when forbearance ceases and when suffering
longer without resistance is a sin. I shall not bear it any longer, I will spill the
last drop of blood I have rather than endure it; and all who feel that they will
not bear it any longer say, 'Aye'

"However, I shall restrain you no longer, from this time forth. If occasion
require I will lead you to battle, if you are not afraid to die and to spill your
blood in your own defense you will not offend me. Be not the aggressor.
Bear until they strike you on one cheek and then offer the other. They will be
sure to strike that also; then defend yourself and God will bear you off vic-
torious. If I am under the necessity of giving up our chartered rights, privi-
leges, and freedom for which our fathers fought and bled, and which the con-
stitution of the United States as well as this state grants to us, I will do it at the
point of the bayonet and sword

"It did my soul good to witness the manifestation of your feelings and
love toward me. I thank God I have the honor to lead so virtuous and honest
a people, to be your law -giver as Moses was to the children of Israel. Hosanna !
Hosanna! Hosanna! to the most high God! I commend you to His grace
and may the blessings of Heaven rest upon you, I ask it in the name of Jesus
Christ. Amen."1

Joseph Smith possessed the essential traits of a prophet. He was
highly sensitive to the impulses of his people. This placed him in com-
plete harmony with them. He embodied their spirit and in this sense
he was not only a prophet for them but was made a prophet by them.
He received his inspiration from the group and in return reflected its
life in such a way as to give it restimulation. The group felt the emo-
tions but needed a prophet to make them more objective or give more
concrete expression to them. Such emotional expressions as these:
"I will spill the last drop of blood I have rather than endure it," "I will
lead you to battle," "Defend yourself and God will bear you off victor-
ious," are in a very real sense group expressions. It was the group
speaking through its prophet. When the emotions were expressed in
this form they became stimuli for even more powerful emotional
responses. It is true that the whole life of the people was centered in
their prophet, but it is equally true that the spirit and power of the
prophet came from the group.

1 Statement by Wilford Woodruff, quoted by Cowley in Life of Wilford Wood-
ruff, pp. 184-86.

OF MORMON GROUP LIFE 29

The one event which has made the name of Joseph Smith immor-
tal in the Mormon community is his martyrdom in Carthage jail. He
was murdered while in the zenith of his life, just at the time when the
attention of his entire people as well as his enemy was focused upon him.
The time of his death and the manner of his death has established a
sentiment in the Mormon people toward him and his enemies that has
remained even to the present time and will perhaps always remain as an
element in the consciousness of the Mormon people. The following
hymn illustrates the nature of this sentiment and the manner in which
it is transmitted:

Praise to the Man who communed with Jehovah !

Jesus anointed "that Prophet and Seer"

Blessed to open the last dispensation;

Kings shall extol him and nations revere.
Hail to the Prophet, ascended to heaven!

Traitors and tyrants now fight him in vain;

Mingling with God, he can plan for his brethren;

Death cannot conquer the hero again.

Praise to his memory, he died as a martyr,

Honored and blest be his ever great name!

Long shall his blood which was shed by assassins

Stain Illinois while the earth lauds his fame.
Great is his glory and endless his priesthood,

Ever and ever the keys he will hold;

Faithful and true he will enter his kingdom,

Crowned in the midst of the prophets of old.
Sacrifice brings forth the blessings of heaven ;

Earth must atone for the blood of that man;

Wake up the world for the conflict of justice;

Millions shall know "brother Joseph" again.1

In the death of Joseph Smith and the expulsion of the Saints from
Nauvoo the first period in Mormon history has its dramatic ending. It
is impossible to find a situation which illustrates so well the effect of
strong group sentiments. Five times did the Mormons establish settle-
ments and five times were they driven from their homes by mobs. In
each place they were kindly received at first, treated as friends, but
became after a short time objects of extreme hatred and for no other
cause than that they were a peculiar people. We may thus generalize
our conclusions of the first great maladjustment in Mormon history.
(1) That the extraordinary pretentions of the Mormons which made

1 Selected from the Songs of Zion.

30 PSYCHOLOGICAL AND ETHICAL ASPECTS

them unpopular among the citizens of Missouri and Illinois was the first
cause of the conflict. (2) That the conflict itself created solidarity
within the group and prejudice between groups. (3) That the senti-
ments thus nourished by constant group interaction grew in intensity
and resulted finally in mob uprising.

Although the great conflict with the Gentiles practically ended
with the expulsion from Nauvoo, its psychological effect still remains and
functions vitally in the life of the people. The struggle was too intense
and the emotional excitement too great to be quickly eliminated from
their consciousness. There is a tendency to rehearse this great conflict
in their religious services. The expulsions from Missouri and from
Illinois are popular themes for public addresses. In oratorical contests
many young Mormons have won prizes with this theme. But perhaps
the most common appearance of the mental effect of the great con-
flict is in the hymns of the church. The following expressions taken from
some of the hymns illustrate how dominant is this element of conflict
in the consciousness of the people. "All thy foes shall flee before thee";
"Enemies no more shall trouble; all thy wrongs shall be redressed";
"All thy conflicts, all thy conflicts end in an eternal rest"; "All her foes
shall be confounded, though the world in arms combine"; "While the
enemy assaulteth shall we shrink or shun the fight " ; " On the neck of thy
foes thou shalt tread."1 The one element common to all these expres-
sions is that of conflict with an enemy. This is one of the most effective
means of transmitting the old group sentiments from one generation to
another.

But in addition to the effect on the sentiments, the psychology of
group conflict is manifest in a more objective way. It is in the peculiar
character of some of the religious forms. They are unlike that of the
sectarian world. The Mormons had no inclination to compromise with
the outside world. This tendency has grown out of the old classification,
the Mormons and Gentiles, the Children of God and the Children of the
Devil, their brethren and their enemies. Nothing good can come from
an evil source, consequently whatever originated in Mormonism was of
God and whatever came from Babylon was of the Devil. It was the
peculiarity of Mormonism which caused the conflict. And it was the
conflict which caused these peculiarities to continue. There would have
been no strife with the gentile world had it not been for Mormon peculi-
arities and there would have been no Mormonism as we have it today
without this conflict. Thus we have in Mormonism peculiar religious

1 Selected from the Songs ofZion.

OF MORMON GROUP LIFE 31

ceremonies, a peculiar marriage institution, a distinct economic order,
and a unique priesthood with its own institution for social control.

But while we are emphasizing the permanent effect of the great con-
flict in Missouri and Illinois, it is not intended to minimize the significance
of the second great struggle. The struggle for existence in the Rocky-
Mountain country had equally important psychological and social results.
We shall observe how the new problems reshaped, changed, and even
eliminated some of the older institutions. We shall also observe how
the group sentiments of the first conflict were strengthened and how
other sentiments developed out of the new life.

PART II
MALADJUSTMENT BETWEEN MORMONS AND NATURE

CHAPTER V

THE MORMON MIGRATION— FROM A CONFLICT WITH MEN TO
A STRUGGLE WITH NATURE

With the expulsion from Illinois began the great Rocky Mountain
colonization for which the Mormons are so well known. This is the
beginning of a new era in Mormon history and marks as well a forward
step in American Western movement. Although during the first fifteen
years of their history the Mormons were engaged in establishing colonies
and building cities — an aim which has characterized their history
throughout — the great obstacles were not presented by nature but by
their human enemies; the maladjustment was with men. The struggle
of the second period was with nature, the economic condition of an iso-
lated mountainous and arid region, inhabited by Indian tribes. It was
the successful manner in which the Mormons met and overcame their
obstacles that entitles them to a place in the history of the advancement
of industrial America.

"To your tents, Oh Israel! " was the command of the new leader who
was given the task of directing the Mormons in this pioneering enter-
prise. Brigham Young became the prophet to the Mormons after the
death of Joseph Smith. And it was well that a change of leadership
should come at this time. The situation demanded it. Joseph Smith
was a spiritual-minded idealist; he seemed to serve the purpose of his
group when the conflict was social, religious, and spiritual. Brigham
Young was a materialist, very practical-minded and well prepared to
direct the Mormons in their struggle with material problems. It seems
proper that Joseph Smith should be the founder of a religion and that
Brigham Young should be the founder of a state.

Professor Ames in his book, The Psychology of Religious Experience,
explains the conditions out of which social leaders develop :

The underlying condition is ... . that of a vital, urgent life for the
whole social group. Great men have arisen in crises when the nation or race
felt the stress of unusual tension and opportunity. At such times the currents
of thought and feeling are deepened and quickened. Not only are the unusual
men demanded by the situation, but they are created by it through the stress
and stimulation and experience which it furnishes.1

1 P. 344-

35

36 PSYCHOLOGICAL AND ETHICAL ASPECTS

We can hardly find a more vivid example of the principle that a new-
problem forces readjustment than is found in this transition period of
Mormon history. The new need created a new type of leadership. The
spiritually minded, idealistic leadership gave way to common sense and
practical authority. The emotional, inspirational, and impulsive control
gave way to deliberative foresight and direction. The loose and incom-
plete organization was transformed into a more complete, firm, and
definite system based upon immediate practical demands.

Brigham Young was once asked if he regarded himself a prophet and
replied: " I am of profit to my people." And so he was. As a leader he
met the problems confronting his people in such a masterly way that he
soon seemed to them a more than ordinary man. He was at first regarded
as one of the twelve apostles, the president of the quorum of the apostles.
But as his importance to the community became recognized and as the
people tended more and more to look to him for leadership, he became
clothed with a sort of spiritual sacredness that seemed to lift him into a
sphere by himself. He became their "Prophet, Seer, and Revelator."

But what were the problems that demanded this new type of leader-
ship ? They were many and varied in character, but they may be sum-
marized under three general economic problems: immigration, coloniza-
tion, and economic independence. More specifically: (i) How were the
thousands of Mormons to be transported from Illinois to the Rocky
Mountains ? (2) How were they to survive when they got there ? (3)
In their isolation how could they maintain permanently, as a community,
an independent industrial and commercial life ? The problems were not
all grasped at once by the people. Even Brigham Young was unable to
define all of them at the beginning. The problems became organized
in the minds of the pioneers while they were struggling with them. We
shall treat the problems in the order in which we have stated them for
that, in general, is the order in which they presented themselves. But
it should be observed that they are not independent of each other. They
are in reality three aspects of the one big problem, the establishment of a
great and independent Zion in the Rocky Mountain country.

It was on February 4 when the exodus from Illinois actually began,
although weeks before this date the people had been engaged in making
preparation for their journey. Land and houses were exchanged for
cattle, horses, mules, wagons, tents, farm tools, seeds of all kinds, and
minor traveling equipment.

The organization for the great journey was very efficient. And it
must necessarily have been so in order to move such a great body of
people a distance of fifteen hundred miles over trackless prairies, sandy

OF MORMON GROUP LIFE 37

deserts, and rocky mountains. Brigham Young instructed his people
thus: "We will have no law we cannot keep, but we will have order in
the camp. If any want to live in peace when we have left this place,
they must toe the mark."1 Not all the rules that governed the pioneers
were given at any one time but were made as the occasion demanded by
Brigham Young and the twelve apostles who represented the church and
whose word was law.

The following quotation from a pamphlet published by the historian 's
office of the Mormon Church in 1869, gives a detailed account of the
camp organizations and shows the emphasis placed on community
interest even at the expense of the individual.

The companies for the plains were organized at the Elk Horn river, about
18 miles west of Winter Quarters, now Florence, Nebraska, into companies of
hundreds, fifties, and tens; each fifty was provided with a blacksmith and
wagon maker with tools for repairing wagons and shoeing animals. Three
hundred pounds of breadstuff were required for each person emigrating, and a
good gun with 100 rounds of ammunition for each able-bodied man. Many
cows were worked in the yoke. Each family was also required to take a due
proportion of seed grain and agricultural implements. Every wagon, load,
and team was inspected by a committee, and none were allowed to start on the
plains without the required outfit. A strict guard was kept over the cattle
by night and day, also in the camps, which were formed in an oval shape, the
inside making a corral for the stock. Pigs and poultry were carried in coops
attached to the wagons.

No person was allowed by the rules to wander about, not even to hunt
game, except under special directions, and by these precautions, no person was
lost and but few accidents occurred, and the loss of animals was small, although
we traveled ten hundred and thirty-four miles, from the Missouri river to
Salt Lake City, through an uninhabited and desert region. Saturday afternoon
was usually occupied in washing, baking, repairing wagons, and shoeing animals,
and Sunday was a day of rest and worship. Morning and evening prayers
and songs of praise were never omitted in the camps, and occasionally a dance
was enjoyed, the companies generally being favored with musical talent.

Thus the refining influences of society and civilization were continually
felt and kept in view, and the moral status of the camps preserved inviolate
through all the fatigues, hardships, exposures, and vexatious annoyances of
the entire journey.2

This may appear to be a very arbitrary and extremely rigid system,
but when we realize the seriousness of the whole situation it should not
seem unnecessary. These people were traveling in constant danger of
attack from unfriendly Indians and perhaps from some few dissatisfied

1 Quoted in Tullidge's Quarterly Magazine, I, 8. 2 Answers to Questions, p. 17.

38 PSYCHOLOGICAL AND ETHICAL ASPECTS

members of their own group. They formed a very large body and were
in danger of starvation as well as contagious diseases. A routine
method and a most rigid discipline were therefore desirable precautions
against serious disturbances.

A most admirable plan, looking to the needs of the Saints who were to
follow the pioneers, was the establishment of farming stations along the
line. Most of these were located east of the Missouri River where the
rainfall was sufficient to assure a crop. One was established at Garden
Grove, in Iowa, one-hundred and fifty miles from Nauvoo, another on a
branch of the Grand River, and the largest one at Council Bluffs, on the
Missouri River. These places were selected by men sent out in advance
of the pioneer wagons. As soon as the main body arrived at these rest-
ing-places all the men were promptly organized and put to work, some
cutting logs, splitting rails, others building houses and fences, and still
others were engaged in plowing and planting. Thus industrious settle-
ments sprang up in the wilderness as it were by magic. In no time of
their experience have they found their communistic scheme quite so
practical as in the conducting of these farming stations. Thus the
pioneers who reached these stations in the spring would plant the seeds
and the autumn travelers would reap the harvest.

On July 24, 1847, the first pioneers entered Salt Lake Valley. The
problems of the plains had been successfully met. And the Mormons
had found a land of peace if nothing else could be said in its favor. They
were happy in the victory attained but fully realized that a perplexing
problem of a different nature now confronted them.

In order that the reader may fully appreciate the new problem con-
fronting the people and to properly evaluate the methods which Brigham
Young and his associates employed, a few facts are presented. By the
end of the first summer about four thousand people had entered the
Valley. They were without surplus food, having brought with them
only sufficient to meet their needs on the journey. They were practically
without implements or machinery of any kind. They came from the
fertile lands of Illinois and Missouri and with agricultural knowledge
which, although well suited to the conditions of that country, was entirely
unsuited to the dry lands of Utah. They had become familiar with the
theory of community enterprise and had even experienced it under
certain conditions but they were not trained in such co-operation as was
required in irrigation, road building, fort building, and other activities
peculiar to the new country. After the pioneers had been in the Valley
a little more than a year the bishops of Salt Lake wards took an inven-
tory and officially reported that there was little more than three-fourths

OF MORMON GROUP LIFE 39

of a pound of bread for each person. It is not surprising, therefore, to
learn of their eating roots and meat of cattle killed by wolves and even
boiling the hides that had been used for roofing the cabins. Some were
without clothing and were compelled to cover themselves with the skins
of wild beasts when even such could be had.

The psychological effect of these hardships, coming as they did
immediately after the persecution in Missouri and Illinois, cannot be
overemphasized. The Saints naturally regarded their poverty and
misery and the loss of their loved ones as results of the injustice imposed
upon them by their gentile enemies. Isolation did not cause them to
forget these enemies but, on the contrary, every hardship they endured
was a bitter reminder of those who had deprived them of home, of com-
fort, and of happiness. On the other hand, the thoughtful supervision
of Brigham Young and the leaders of the group and the kind helpfulness
manifested by the brethren developed a consciousness of Providential
care. It is in just such situations of extreme suffering, with the accom-
panying feeling of dependence upon others for sympathy and assistance,
that the Providential Spirit comes to consciousness. At such times the
representatives of the group, the prophet, the bishop, the elder, became
clearly the representatives of God. Whatever else Providential care
may be, it is certainly the spirit of comfort in times of distress.

The great migration was also a splendid discipline for the extensive
colonizing enterprises which followed. The careful organization neces-
sary for the moving of such a great body of men, women, and children
proved equally efficient in the establishment of numerous small colonizing
companies in the mountain valleys. And also the type of discipline
which the members of the church received on the plains certainly
strengthened the control of the priesthood. The power of church
authority was so impressed upon the minds of the Saints during their
journey from Illinois to the Great Salt Lake Valley that it tended to
remain for years afterward, even when rigid authority was unnecessary
and sometimes disadvantageous.

40 PSYCHOLOGICAL AND ETHICAL ASPECTS

CHAPTER VI
MORMON COLONIZATION

The question of social control was not so perplexing as was that of
making a living. The Saints were anxious to work out their own methods
of government. When they entered the Valley of Great Salt Lake it was
Mexican territory, but was ceded to the United States in 1848. In 1850
the United States government organized the Territory of Utah and
appointed Brigham Young governor. From 1847 to 1857 the political
control was left absolutely to the Mormon people. This was the oppor-
tune time for them to try out their social institution. The priesthood
was to rule over Israel. The old marriage system of Abraham and
David could be re-established. The communistic system and the order
of Enoch should demonstrate their practical value. We shall observe
in this and the following chapter the function of these institutions in
meeting the new problems.

The problem of colonization presented three aspects: (1) How can
the arid country be made to sustain human life? (2) How can the
Saints gain possession of all the productive valleys of the Rocky Moun-
tains ? (3) How may their population be increased ?

1 . How to make the arid region produce food to sustain life was by
far the most imposing of the many questions that engaged the minds of
Brigham Young and his associates. The Saints had been told by men
of experience, traders in the Rocky Mountain region, and by states-
men at Washington, that this vast Mexican territory was valueless
and would sustain life in neither man nor beast. Thus, before entering
the Valley, the active minds of the camp were undoubtedly focused
on this question. The possibility of taking water from the moun-
tain streams and distributing it over the dry lands had no doubt been
suggested by someone who felt keenly the task of feeding a multitude
in the desert, for the very day on which they arrived in the Valley
the experiment was made.

While irrigation had been practiced in Egypt for many ages and had
been in use in a simple form among some Indian tribes of the Rocky
Mountains, it was Brigham Young and the Mormons who gave it a
scientific beginning. The task of constructing canals in a mountainous
country and of distributing the water in fair proportion among a com-

OF MORMON GROUP LIFE 41

munity of farmers was an accomplishment as meritorious as any of the
scientific discoveries of significance in the industrial history of the
country.

But it is irrigation in relation to the great colonization enterprise
which concerns us here. In the first place, it was irrigation which made
it possible for any large number of people to live in this arid and isolated
country at that time. Starvation would certainly have come to the
thousands of Mormons had it not been for this most important discovery.
The practical demonstration of irrigation made possible a great future
for the new country and its inhabitants. Brigham Young could now see
in vision the Saints growing in numbers and becoming a "mighty
people." He saw them occupying every valley in that great expanse of
country. He saw the water of every stream diverted from its natural
course to cover the dry lands, making them produce useful crops in
abundance. He saw the fulfilment of ancient predictions that Zion
should be established on the tops of the mountains and that all nations
should flow unto it. This was, indeed, the "Promised Land," and the
place where God's Kingdom was to be established.

Irrigation began on a co-operative basis. The task of bringing
water, five, ten, and twenty miles through canals cut deep into hard
rock, along steep mountain sides and through soil containing roots of
trees and brush was not accomplished by a few individuals. It required
the united effort of an entire community. This was always taken into
account in sending out colonizing companies. The size of the company
depended upon the character of the irrigation project that must be
undertaken as well as upon the number and size of the streams of water
in the locality. When the canals were completed and water was brought
to the land there was usually enough for each man to irrigate a garden
plot and a ten- or twenty-acre farm. In the construction of the canal
each man was expected to contribute his labor and would receive water
(water right) in proportion to his contribution. The canals and the
streams of water became thus the property of the community.

The social and economic results of co-operative irrigation are signifi-
cant. The country was settled by colonizing communities rather than
by individuals going out by themselves. The individual received the
assistance and protection of the community, and the community in its
turn was strengthened by his efforts and at the same time avoided the
evil of private monopoly of large tracts of land and streams of water.
Consequently, there were in Utah, until recent years, very few large
farms. Small farms and intensive cultivation was the natural result

42 PSYCHOLOGICAL AND ETHICAL ASPECTS

of the Mormons' irrigation system. This situation has facilitated the
development of the beet sugar industry which is now so important
throughout the entire Mormon country.

But while co-operative irrigation, small farms, and community life
still prevail in Utah, there is now a tendency for large private concerns
to buy extensive tracts of land from the government and construct large
irrigation canals and reservoirs and to sell the land and the water to the
farmers. Thus, we shall see that in the agricultural, as in every other
line of economic activity in the Mormon community, the old co-operative
community system is giving way to large corporate methods of business
control.

2. In regard to the second aspect of the colonization questions, it
was the policy of Brigham Young to have his people settle at the
earliest possible date upon all the irrigable land in the valleys. He,
therefore, hastened to establish colonies in the many valleys of Utah,
and in Idaho, Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, and Wyoming. These
colonizing projects were called missions, and properly, too, since the
building up and the enlargement of Zion was the great social aim.
During the general conferences of the church at Salt Lake City, the heads
of families would be called to take these missions. These men with
their families, under the direction of a bishop or a bishop's councilor,
constituted a colonizing company. The bishop had full charge of all the
interests of the company. He directed the surveying, plotting, and dis-
tributing of the land. He supervised the building of the fort, the con-
struction of canyon roads, canals, fences, and all the co-operative work
of the community. He was also the lawgiver and in case of dispute
between members of the company, he was chief arbitrator.

The typical method of establishing a colony was as follows: The
land was surveyed and plotted into five- and ten-acre lots. These lots
were then distributed. The number and size of the lots that each man
received depended upon the size of his family. If a man had five wives
and each wife had sons old enough to cultivate the land he might receive
five times as much land as a man who had but one wife. If a man were a
bachelor, he might receive still less land. The writer interviewed an old
gentleman who had assisted in surveying and plotting the land on which
Ogden City now stands. He thought that due to his valuable service
and because he was among the first to settle there, a good share of the
choice land would come to him. But how disappointed he was, when the
bishop gave him, on account of his being a bachelor, only a small piece
of gravel land next to the mountain. The city lots were similarly

OF MORMON GROUP LIFE 43

plotted and distributed. At first the houses were built to serve as a fort
but as the community grew larger each man built his house on his city lot.
Thus a community of little more than thirty families had its city lots in
the central part and the farms and meadow lands on the outskirts. This
arrangement was desirable not only because of the social advantages it
gave, but because it afforded better protection from Indians.

3. The third aspect of the problem was one of numbers. As an
empire builder Brigham Young needed a large population. If the
Mormons were to occupy all the valleys of the Rocky Mountains they
must become greater in numbers. Two ways presented themselves as
means of increasing the population, the one through proselyting and
immigration, the other by increasing the birth-rate. Each of these
might be presented as a direct religious appeal, the one to "go into the
world and gather out the honest in heart" and the other to "multiply and
replenish the earth." Both of these from the very beginning of the
church have been considered sacred obligations. It was for Brigham
Young to make these principles serve in solving his practical colonization
problem.

The church began a regular system of immigration shortly after the
arrival of the early pioneers. Proselyting had been actively carried on
from the time the church was organized and now there were thousands
awaiting an opportunity to "gather to Zion." In England and the
Scandinavian countries, as well as in the eastern states, there were many
converts who were too poor to undertake immigration to Utah. These
were all anxious to come and take part in the building up of the Kingdom
and Brigham Young was no less anxious to have them come. Although
poor, each able-bodied man and woman was an added unit of strength to
the great Mormon enterprise, and the poor converts, when once planted
in the new country, gained material advantage, for many of them were
without homes in their native land. When these people were offered
the loan of transportation expenses they were not slow to accept this
opportunity to move West. Few there were of the great number who
came to Utah in those early days who realized the physical toil required
to make new homes in Zion.

The immigration was conducted under an organization known as
the "Perpetual Immigration Company." The presidency of the church
stood at the head of the organization and directly controlled its operation,
but every member of the church was expected to make contributions to
it and thus become a member. It was called perpetual on account of a
provision that those who contributed were not to be remunerated and

44 PSYCHOLOGICAL AND ETHICAL ASPECTS

those who were assisted were to return the money with interest, thus
making it a perpetual and ever-growing concern. The people were not
expected to pay cash but anything of general value, such as horses, cattle,
sheep, wagons, grain, and labor, was received as contribution. The
receipt and use of all these things by the company made it possible for
nearly every member of the church to render assistance to his immi-
grating brethren.

The following figures show the immigration to Utah during the time
the company was in active operation and they indicate the success of the
scheme:1

Immi- Immi-

Year gration Year gration

1849 2,078 1868 3,232

1850 I,6l2 1869 2,300

1851 1,370 1870 917

1852 760 1871 1, 5°°

1853 2,636 1872 1,631

1854 3,667 1873 2,536

1855 4,294 1874 2,006

1856 3,533 1875 1,523

1857 2,181 1876 1,184

1858 none 1877 1,532

1859-60 2,433 ^78 1,864

1861-62 5,556 1879 1,514

1863 3,646 1880 1,780

1864 2,697 J88i 2,293

1865 1,301 1882 1,775

1866 3,335 1883 2,460

1867 660

The company not only paid the immigration expenses and conveyed
the Saints across the plains, but it gave them opportunity for employ-
ment and directed them in establishing homes when they arrived. The
names of the immigrants were sent to Salt Lake City in advance and
posted in public places. Friends of the immigrating Saints were also
notified in order that they might meet them and take them to their
homes. Those who were not otherwise cared for were furnished
employment in public shops maintained by the church in the Temple
Block. Others who had had experience in forming colonies and who were
financially able were sent out under the supervision of a practical pioneer
to colonize a new valley which had previously been explored.

1 Marcus Jones, United States Treasury Expert, Utah. Utah (a pamphlet
published in 1890).

OF MORMON GROUP LIFE 45

The instruction of Brigham Young to one of these companies of
newly arrived immigrants makes clear his spirit and method in dealing
with the thousands who were thus brought into his domain. The quota-
tion also illustrates the contrast between his practical and direct method
of instruction and Joseph Smith's divine revelations.

" . . . . With regard to your obtaining habitations to shelter you in
the coming winter, all of you will be able to obtain work and by your industry
you can make yourselves tolerably comfortable in this respect before winter
sets in. All the improvements you see around you have been made in the
short space of four years; four years ago today, there was not a rod of fence to
be seen, nor a house, except the old fort, as we called it, though it was then new.
All this that you see has been accomplished by the industry of the people, and
a great deal more that you do not see, for our settlements extend two hundred
and fifty miles south and almost one hundred miles north.

"We shall want some of the brethren to repair to some of the settlements,
such as mechanics and farmers; no doubt they can provide themselves with
teams, etc., to bear them to their destinations. Those who have acquaintances
there will be able to obtain dwellings until they can make accommodations of
their own.

"Again with regard to labor; don't imagine unto yourselves that you are
going to get rich at once by it. As for the poor there are none here; and
neither are there any who may be called rich; but all obtain the essential com-
forts of life. Let not your eyes be greedy. When I met you this afternoon I
felt to say 'this is the company that I belong to, the poor company' as it is
called and I always expect to belong to it, until I am crowned with eternal
riches in the Celestial Kingdom. In this world I possess nothing only what
the Lord has given me, and it is devoted to the building of this Kingdom.

' 'Do not any of you suffer the thought to enter your minds that you must
go to the gold mines in search for riches. That is no place for the Saints. Some
have gone there and returned. They keep coming and going, but their gar-
ments are spotted almost universally. It is scarcely possible for a man to go
there and come back to his place with his garments pure. Don't any of you
imagine to yourselves that you can go to the gold mines and get anything to
help yourselves with. You must live here, this is the gathering place for the
Saints."1

But no less important than the immigration of converts as a factor
tending to increase the Mormon population and thus hasten colonization
was the strong emphasis upon early marriage and polygamy. The origin
of the Mormon marriage system and polygamy as the cause of conflict
is treated in a following chapter; it is intended here to merely call atten-
tion to this system as a factor tending to increase the birth-rate in the

1 Address of Brigham_,Young, Desert News, Vol. II (1852).

46 PSYCHOLOGICAL AND ETHICAL ASPECTS

Mormon community. It is a basic principle in Mormon religion that
every matured man and woman in Zion should marry and raise a large
family. Bachelors were, therefore, uncommon in early days in Utah and
by no means popular. And under the polygamous regime women of
the class stigmatized "old maids" were also few. Women entertained
suitors from among both the married and the unmarried men and usually
made their choice early in life. A few men in that system had as many
as twenty-five or fifty children and women ten or twelve children. The
following, published in a Mormon journal in 1873, illustrates the situation
as well as the attitude at that time toward the subject:

At the close of a two days' meeting held at Springville a gentleman came
forward and presented a specimen of the practical results of one branch of
co-operation very peculiar in Utah, though rather unpopular in some of the
eastern states. This was a fine, straight, four-year-old boy, which the father
stated was the tenth child of its mother and forty-fourth born to him since he
was forty years old. Such co-operation as that is hard to beat, and is worthy
the imitation of good men and women everywhere.1

The problem of colonization was thus attacked in a masterly way.
The problem of making the arid land produce food was courageously
met and solved about as quickly as it was presented. The solution of
the most immediate problem stimulated the colonization spirit until
nearly every fertile valley in the great Rocky Mountain region supported
a small colony of Mormon people. These colonies grew rapidly. The
constant stream of immigrants coming in from the east and distributed
among the colonies and, on the other hand, the large families were now
demonstrating the efficiency of the entire system.

Having thus before us the facts of the operation and efficiency of
the Mormon colonization system, what is the explanation ? Was it the
result of a great genius ? Was it a plan carefully thought out by Brigham
Young and his associates or was it a sort of chance achievement ? Did
one man's mind work it out or was it the accomplishment of an entire
community of minds ?

Our functional point of view will not permit us to regard this as a
plan worked out in advance either by one man or by the entire group.
The plan was developed in the process of the adjustment itself. Men do
not in real life first think and then act; but they act and think at the
same time. The Mormons were thrown into the new situation and
really had no time to construct plans and formulate aims. The plans
were complete and their aim mentally worked out only when the actual

1 Millenial Star, XXXV, 430.

OF MORMON GROUP LIFE 47

work of pioneering was in process. They later had the plans in the
form of institutions which in many respects were only hindrances to
further progress. The mental equipment as well as the institutions
which the pioneers had for use in organizing their new life was the
accumulation from the first great struggle. The process of adaptation
was that of making this old subjective material meet the new objective
situation.

There were some things, however, which had their origin in the
first period of Mormon history which did carry over intact into the
second period and functioned in the adjustment. There was the strong
group sentiment which held the individuals together. There was also
the old ideal of building up an independent Zion which gave direction to
the activities and at the same time served as a great motive force. It is
doubtful whether the great immigration scheme could have been carried
out had not this old ideal played an important part. The tithing system
which had its origin in the early period also carried over into the new
life and functioned as a means of aiding the poor members of the group
until they were able to care for themselves.

But the old institutions of the Mormon group at the beginning of their
big undertaking were not entirely adequate to the new situation. They
were inadequate for such relatively quick and efficient adaptation of the
group to the new situation. Only in a very general way do these things
serve as material out of which a plan could be formed. Brigham Young
and his associates needed direct experience with the new conditions and
out of the experience itself developed the plans for direction.

The one condition which, perhaps more than all others, brought about
quick and efficient adjustment was that of concentrated attention. The
crisis itself brought about a focusing of the attention upon the problem
of making a living. This was the essential condition for unified action
and successful co-operation. Not one mind but many thousands of
minds were active and alert in the presence of the new situation.

There is a tendency to regard the colonization scheme as Brigham
Young's plan. This was not the case; the latter was inspired by his
group just as much as was his predecessor. He saw visions and uttered
predictions just as did Joseph Smith, and they came as did those of the
latter from the powerful inspiration of the group. Brigham Young was
not the impulsive and emotional type of leader that we find in Joseph
Smith. But it does not therefore follow that he was independent of the
group. The only real distinction here is that the Great Pioneer re-
sponded to a different set of group stimuli. The first Mormon prophet

48 PSYCHOLOGICAL AND ETHICAL ASPECTS

responded to the emotional excitement of his people; the second prophet
responded to the practical attitude of his people toward their immediate
problem. Nor does the distinction lie altogether in the fact that each
man was sensitive to his own peculiar stimuli. The group when in the
Rocky Mountains furnished to their leader stimuli entirely different
from those which they presented to Joseph Smith. To make this more
obvious compare the stimuli which the people of Nauvoo furnished their
prophet upon the occasion of his return from trial before his enemies
with that furnished Brigham Young by the poor immigrants who came
into Salt Lake Valley. This comparison can be made by observing the
quotation in this and in the fourth chapter. In each case we may
observe that the words were only reflections of the attitude of the group
itself. These principles are illustrated in the following chapter.

OF MORMON GROUP LIFE 49

CHAPTER VII

INDUSTRIAL AND COMMERCIAL CO-OPERATION— THE
UNITED ORDER

During a period of nearly twenty-four years (1846-70), from the
time they left Nauvoo until the Union Pacific Railroad reached their
country, the pioneers were engaged in a desperate struggle with nature.
We have observed how effectively the Saints met the problems of their
primitive environment through irrigation and carefully organized co-
operative colonization enterprises. The present and following chapters
will explain further this concerted effort of the Mormons to firmly
establish themselves in an independent kingdom. During these many
years they had lived in peace with the outside social world. Their
isolations had proved to be a safe protection against any serious gentile
invasion. But just as the Mormons were beginning to realize a mastery
over nature the old enemies put in their appearance in other forms. The
rapid extension of the railroad westward gave the Eastern manufacturers
an opportunity to send their goods into a new field. Brigham Young
and his associates, though they regarded with favor the approach of the
railroad, were not unmindful of the new problem which it would present.
They realized the advantages that such communication with the outside
world would bring; a long period of isolation had made that matter
clear. The pioneers knew what it meant to transport large machinery
across the plains by ox team and the weeks and months of time it took to
bring a company of immigrants to the Valley. But while Brigham
Young was conscious of all the advantages which a transcontinental
road would bring, he could see also the danger of his people becoming
dependent upon the outside business life, thus weakening the independent
community life already so well established.

The great Mormon leader was determined to meet the new situation
in such a way that the advantages would be enjoyed and the evils avoided.
He proposed two great co-operative movements, one for production and
another for the distribution of the goods thus produced. The large
machines for manufacturing could now be imported by rail. These
could be installed in the local communities and operated co-operatively.
The articles thus manufactured could be bought by a home co-operative
mercantile institution and sold to the people. This home production

50 PSYCHOLOGICAL AND ETHICAL ASPECTS

and exchange should hold absolute monopoly in the local market and thus
close the door to the gentile manufacturers and merchants. Let us
observe how the scheme operated.

Before this particular co-operative manufacturing movement was
undertaken by the church the greater part of the clothing was manu-
factured in the home. The Mormons lived, in a very real way, in what
economists call the household stage of industry. Knitting, spinning,
and weaving were going on in nearly every wagon during the entire jour-
ney across the plains and continued for many years after the pioneers
were established in the valleys. It was practically impossible to buy
clothes, and it became necessary to make them in this primitive way or
dress in the skins of animals, as many did. Sometimes the hair of wild
animals was taken from the hides, made into thread, and woven by hand
into cloth. It was the task of the women to make the clothes worn by
the family.

The household manufacturing was an extremely slow process which
by no means met the demand of a people accustomed to better things.
Many of the Mormons came from the manufacturing districts of Eng-
land and had made and worn better clothing. But what were they to do
without the machinery to which they had, through many years, grown
accustomed? It was these people who felt most keenly the need of
improving conditions and, as the psychologist would state it, experienced
a felt need for adjustment, a condition which usually precedes invention.
These people, many of whom were iron and wood workers, soon began
to create simple machinery for use in supplying some of their necessities.
A few small and very necessary pieces of machinery were also brought in
from the East by ox teams. At first the houses were built from logs and
the lumber for the door and window frames was cut with whip saws and
held in place by wooden pegs. But soon the blacksmiths began to
hammer out nails. Later sawmills and gristmills were established to
serve the larger communities or a group of small communities.

But manufacturing in Utah did not become general until at least
three years after the advent of the railroad. The real manufacturing
boom came when apparently least favored by economic conditions. It
would seem that the time for home-manufacturing was when the Terri-
tory was free from eastern competition. But on the other hand it was
the railroad which made possible the bringing of larger machinery into
the Valley, the condition essential for co-operative home industry.

This was the opportune time to preach the gospel of the United
Order, and for nearly five years this system was urged upon the people.

OF MORMON GROUP LIFE 51

It was preached in every religious meeting; special pamphlets were
published by the presidency of the church and sent out among the people;
the papers and magazines of the church were filled with discussions of
the theory and practice of the system. Two lines of argument were
presented: one, that it was the divine order revealed to the Prophet
Joseph Smith and that practiced by the disciples of Christ and by the
Prophet Enoch; the other, that it would serve a present practical pur-
pose. The possibility of the United Order meeting the social needs was
the main reason why Brigham Young advocated it at this time. If he
thought that ideals and methods of Joseph Smith were practical he would
urge them upon his people but when they proved to be unsuited to con-
ditions he would make such substitutions as he thought proper. Many
of his associates were more anxious than he to force into existence insti-
tutions that had no other justification than that they were established by
Joseph Smith or taught or practiced by biblical prophets. The following
statement of E. W. Tullidge made in 1876 illustrates Brigham Young's
methods:

In the altered state of things that quickly ensued, Brigham Young met
all the conditions. Indeed, so rapid and varied were his transformations during
the next few years that he may have often seemed to have been reversing him-
self and his policies. The fact is he was testing his problems, now urging his
social ideas with all the might of his matchless will, now accepting with resigna-
tion the degree of progress attained by the people. This has been strikingly
illustrated in his efforts to transform the Mormons into the great co-operative
community, and to establish in Zion the Order of Enoch.1

A few illustrations will show the character and extent of the organi-
zation as developed at that time. In some communities it was merely
a loose co-operative undertaking, in other places it was highly communis-
tic. In Hyrum, Cache County, for example, the people owned in common
the sawmill, the tannery, and the store, but the individuals owned the
farms, the houses, and the cattle. In Price, Carbon County, on the
other hand, the people lived together as one large family. Their farms,
mills, horses, cattle, wagons, houses, and everything except the clothing
they wore were owned in common. They all ate at the same table, and
the women prepared the food and washed the dishes co-operatively.
In Brigham City, the organization included about fifteen departments,
each under the management of a foreman who, besides directing the
labor, kept the accounts of his department. This institution had a
woolen mill, a saddle and harness factory, and a tailor department.

1 Life of Brigham Young, 442-43.

52 PSYCHOLOGICAL AND ETHICAL ASPECTS

They produced men's suits and fur and straw hats for both men and
women. The cabinet department supplied the homes with furniture.
Besides these departments there were sawmills, machine and wagon
shops, a large dairy, and a cattle and sheep herd. In fact nearly every
material good which comes under the name of necessity was produced
in this little communistic village. It also supplied other communities
with manufactured articles. Most of the surplus goods were sent to Salt
Lake City and sold to the Zion's Co-operative Mercantile Institution,which
in turn made such distribution among the settlements as was needful.

Through the Mormon system of co-operation and the United Order
the manufacturing establishments grew from 533 in 1870 to 1,166 in 1880
and this notwithstanding the railroad transportation facilities with the
East and the constant effort of non-Mormon merchants to place eastern-
made goods on the Utah market.1 The explanation of this rapid growth
of the manufacturing industry in Utah at that time and its subsequent
decline is rendered more obvious when we consider the great co-operative
mercantile movement that was promoted at the same time.

The United Order and the co-operative manufacturing institutions
were incomplete without the mercantile business. A certain amount of
exchange was necessary within the communities and between com-
munities. An organized mercantile institution was necessary to facili-
tate such business relationship. The most independent system that a
community could possibly develop found itself lacking in some things.
A tannery and a woolen factory could not be economically established
in every community. On account of varied altitude, different degrees of
soil fertility, the nearness to good water-power and timber lands, a degree
of division of labor had to be practiced among the communities.

Furthermore there were many commodities very much needed by
the people which they, with all their diversity of industry, could not
produce in Utah. Most of the machinery used in manufacturing had to
be imported. The completion of the railroad and the importation and
the advertisement of a great variety of eastern-made goods made many
people dissatisfied with home-made clothing and notwithstanding the
fact that the authorities of the church condemned these commodities
as luxuries and the purchasers as vain and worldly, the goods were con-
stantly coming in and were being distributed among the people. Thus
since the people would have the eastern-made goods it was advisable
for the Mormons to handle the business and enjoy the profits. More-
over it was made clear to the leaders of the church through experience
with the gentile merchants that the interest of the private concerns was

1 Hollister, The Resources .... of Utah, p. 55.

OF MORMON GROUP LIFE 53

in opposition to the interest of the people. Prices had been higher than
was thought necessary. This was not at all in accord with the Mormon
economic ideal that the welfare of the whole people should always take
preference over the interest of the individual. Brigham Young was
determined that his people rather than the gentile merchants should
enjoy the benefits of the new conditions.

The Mormon church was thus in 1868-69 brought face to face with a
most vital commercial problem. It was a question of subduing or being
subdued.

The issue was, Should the church "hold her temporal power or lose it?"1
Should the gentile money agencies be permitted to exact tribute from the
" Chosen People " ? As early as 1868, Brigham Young recognized the approach-
ing problem and began to take steps toward the organization of a co-operative
system which he intended should completely monopolize all the mercantile
business in the Territory. A year later his scheme was completed and there
was put in operation a most comprehensive mercantile system entitled Zion 's
Co-operative Mercantile Institution.

The name of the organization suggests its nature and purpose. It
was Zion 's institution and was sharply distinguished from private institu-
tions which were of Babylon. In front of every store under the system
was the characteristic inscription "Holiness to the Lord." Thus like
the United Order it was divine in character. So sacred were these
co-operative organizations that those who were directly identified with
them entered into a "covenant by re-baptism to be subject to the

priesthood in temporal as well as spiritual things " In

fact all the stockholders of this concern were to be tithe payers.

Besides the large store established in Salt Lake City called the parent
institution, there were small branch stores located in all Mormon com-
munities. Besides handling the commodities produced in the local
settlement, these small stores would buy eastern goods through the
parent institution and sell them to the people. Nearly every man in
the local community owned stock in the "Co-op" and consequently,
besides feeling a religious obligation to support it, found it to his advan-
tage to do so. And for a few years this institution held a complete
monopoly of mercantile business in the small communities.

But in addition to serving as a distributing agent of the home-
manufactured goods, the Mormons claim for the co-operative mercantile
system three economic results : it lowered the price generally of merchan-
dise, it created and maintained uniform prices, and it distributed the
earnings to the people. In 1873, Mr. Clawson, the manager of the parent
institution estimated that during the first four years of its existence

1 Tidlidge's Quarterly Magazine, I, 363.

54 PSYCHOLOGICAL AND ETHICAL ASPECTS

it had saved the people $3,000,000. In 1889, when the institution had
had a twenty years ' history, we read the following in a Utah magazine :
In the twenty years since co-operation had been established in Utah, its
influence for good has been recognized in every part of the Territory. Not
only in the distribution of profits among its numerous stockholders have co-op-
erative stores been a benefit, but the public at large have shared in the profits,
as the old practice of dealing, which promoted trade to increase the price of an
article because of scarcity, was abandoned. People had no longer to pay a
dollar a pound for sugar, and equally exorbitant prices for other necessaries
and commodities. Goods have been sold at something like uniform rates, at
reasonable profits throughout the Territory.1

But after ten years the small co-operative stores were not succeeding
as well as the parent institution. Many of them had ceased to be co-
operative. And while they continued to carry the name and the inscrip-
tion "Holiness to the Lord," in the minds of many people they were not so
" Holy " as they were intended to be. A few successful business men had
purchased the stock of those not interested and soon the majority of the
stock was owned by a very few, who at the same time enjoyed the monop-
oly by virtue of its being a church institution. People were beginning
to complain and to criticize the system and even the parent institution.
This complaint became so general that John Taylor, then president
of the church, found it necessary to rebuke the critics. This rebuke is
significant, indicating as it does the relation of the church and the priest-
hood to the system.

". . . .1 would make a statement to the Co-op. I have had reports
from the North, that some parties who ought to know better had said that the
Co-op was no longer a church institution and that it was managed, directed,
and controlled by a few monopolists and their operations, which I consider
very infamous talk, and especially coming from men who profess to be men of
honor. The church, I will here say, holds an interest to the amount of $360,000
and then there are 580 stockholders who are Latter-Day Saints in it, besides
the interest which the church holds. And when men make such statements, I
consider it infamous and contrary to correct principles, and I should recom-
mend their bishops and the authorities of the church where they live to bring
them up for standing and treat them accordingly. That enterprise was
started, as was properly implied by the initials of its name. What is it?
"Zion's Co-operative Mercantile Institution."2

The parent institution has continued to operate but with both
Mormon and gentile stockholders. It is no longer regarded as a church
institution since Mormons and Gentiles alike are interested. The pay-

1 Parry's Monthly Magazine, IV, 195.

2 Report of the Fifth Annual Conference, p. 74.

OF MORMON GROUP LIFE 55

ment of tithing is no longer required of the stockholders. While the
president of the church is at the head of the institution it can hardly be
said to be controlled by the priesthood as such. There are about seven
hundred shareholders. The Mormon church is interested but it is not
the largest stockholder. More than 25 per cent of the stock is owned by
non-Mormons. In 191 7 the capital stock was increased from $1,077,000
to $6,000,000 and a conservative estimate of the value of its assets
places it above $5,000,000 with liabilities of a little more than $1,000,000
making it the largest mercantile institution in the inter-mountain region.

From 1880 to 1890 is the declining period of all the Mormon co-opera-
tive enterprises: colonization projects had been greatly reduced, the
many co-operative manufacturing institutions had given way to large
private corporations, and the co-operative mercantile system surrendered
to the competitive system in which Mormons and Gentiles alike are
actively engaged. But though the enterprises themselves have all come
to an end their influence remained and is significant. The co-operative
agricultural and colonization enterprises were the very means of human
existence while the Mormons were engaged in a life and death struggle
with nature and all of the co-operative economic enterprises have had
important psychological effects. The Mormon group consciousness was
influenced as much by this community struggle with economic problems
as it was by the struggle with the common human enemies of the Middle
West.

The second stage in the life-history of the group thus comes to a close
with certain definite results. These results need not be considered here
since they are fully treated in the third part of our discussion. But we
may observe at this point that it was during this period of Mormon his-
tory that most of its institutions took definite form. It was here that
the priesthood received its claim to the guidance in all the activities of
the people. It was here that the purpose and function of the bishop was
most fully realized. He became not only the spiritual advisor, but the
captain of the colonizing company and the chief judge and arbitrator
among the people. It was here that the prophet was made governor and
received his political authority. It was here that the tithing system
became permanently established and the church began its business
activities. It was in this isolated situation that polygamy was first
practiced to any extent and all the Mormon theology connected with
family life and eternal progression received a lasting place in its system
of philosophy. All these institutions were passed on to the next period
and are the sources of the third great conflict to which we shall now turn
our attention.

PART III

MALADJUSTMENT BETWEEN NEW THOUGHT AND
OLD INSTITUTIONS

CHAPTER VIII
THE INNOVATION OF SCIENCE AND DEMOCRACY

On a psychological basis we may distinguish four Mormon genera-
tions. The first generation lived in a period of activity and excitement,
of strife and stress. It experienced strong emotions and spiritual mani-
festations. The second generation lived on the sentiments and tradi-
tions created by the first. It too experienced strong group feelings which
grew out of the thoughts and influence of the past. Like the first, this
class was unreflective, but lived in a world of sentiment. Then comes,
thirdly, a generation of philosophers or theologians who take an intel-
lectual attitude toward Mormonism but whose group sentiments are still
strong enough to determine their thinking. They have a feeling that
Mormonism must be right and they set themselves the task to prove it.
Theirs is a sort of rationalism similar to that of the Middle Ages. And
finally we have a generation of critics and scientists who seem to sense very
little feeling of obligation toward the group but are placing the institutions
of their fathers on the dissecting table for analysis. This class is making
a demand for greater freedom of thought and discussion and it is this
demand which is bringing about a third Mormon crisis. Nearly all of
the Mormons of the first generation have passed away but the second and
third generations are still strong and it is these two classes on the one
hand and the critics on the other that are bringing about the present-day
conflict, the maladjustment to which we shall now turn our attention.
The individuals in our present society may come in contact with each
other in four important relations, educational, economic, political, and
family. If there is lack of harmony in a community it will usually make
itself manifest in one or in all of these ways. Within the Mormon com-
munity at the present time a conflict is clearly manifest in each of the four
relations. In the present and the following chapter we shall discuss
this internal Mormon strife.

When the Mormon people had fairly mastered their primitive environ-
ment and were well established in their mountain homes this new prob-
lem arose. We may regard their first two great problems as external in
character, a struggle with another group and with nature. The present
is an internal problem. And whereas the preceding conflicts tended
toward greater group solidarity, the present is destructive to group life.

59

60 PSYCHOLOGICAL AND ETHICAL ASPECTS

When the outward pressure was removed and the community had created
an economic surplus, thus giving to some of its members leisure and
opportunity for study, individual thought, criticism, and skepticism were
given birth. So long as the people were at war with nature and with
another society there was no time for personal reflection. So long as the
people were engaged with a common enemy the individuals were easily
controlled by the authority of the priesthood but when the outer prob-
lems failed to demand the attenton of the individuals they began to
look into their own institutional life.

The new spirit began to manifest itself in 1869 and 1870, in what was
known as the "Godbeite movement." Three young Mormon elders,
William S. Godbe, L. T. Harrison, and Edward W. Tullidge, men of
ability and education, began the publication of the Utah Magazine.
They were the first to make literature a profession in Utah. They
found, however, that purely literary work in Utah at that time was pre-
mature. They consequently devoted a portion of their time to the dis-
cussion of what they thought were vital social questions.

In Brigham Young's great co-operative scheme he not only thought it
necessary to regulate the prices of the manufactured articles but believed
it desirable to determine the wages of labor. He called a meeting of his
ecclesiastical associates and it was agreed to reduce the wages generally
and to fix the wages for the different classes. The unskilled laborers
were to have one dollar a day and the mechanics were to receive one
dollar and a half a day. As may be expected the working men began to
murmur and to discuss the question of organizing into trade unions.
The Utah Magazine took up the cause of labor and published an article
entitled "Our Working Men's Wages." It was an attack upon the
prophet and his social policies, and a dangerous thing because it dared
question the wisdom of the "Lord's anointed." Next came an article
headed "Steadying the Ark," whose first paragraph illustrated the
new point of view and at the same time showed the actual situation as
it was then manifesting itself.

There are a few people in our territory, who, whenever an independent idea
is expressed on any philosophical or theological subject, immediately call out,
alarmed, that the speaker or writer in question is "steadying the ark," meaning
thereby that such person is trying to dictate to the church. As if — whether
the speaker's intention was so or not — the action of independent thought could
by any possibility be dangerous to an imperishable system like ours. It is a
fear of having something of this kind said about them that has deterred many
a person from expressing conceptions of the truth of which they were assured

OF MORMON GROUP LIFE 61

but which did not happen to tally with popular opinion. The existence of such
a fear dwarfs and stunts the intellect as well as the spiritual growth of men;
and being contrary to Mormonism which was offered to all as the gospel of
free thought and free speech, too, should be broken down.1

The journalists next attacked Brigham Young's policy in the indus-
trial development of the Territory. The latter had from the first opposed
the opening of the mines. The wisdom of this position cannot well be
doubted. To have permitted his people to undertake this industry
might have resulted in starvation and would have at least put an end to
Mormonism. It is now generally conceded that Brigham Young's agri-
cultural policy is largely responsible for Utah 's present prosperity. Had
the mining motives been unchecked, that industry would no doubt have
been more highly developed than it now is, but the great agricultural
resources would have been undeveloped and the state would be unable to
support more than one-half or one-third its present population.

But there were many at this period who were anxious to enter this
speculative industry and were waiting only for the church to change its
attitude. The writers insisted that mining was the industry for which
the territory was well adapted and that that alone promised a vast sur-
plus. The people were carrying on business largely by barter and it was
argued that what the community needed was money, and that the best
way to obtain it was by digging it out of the ground. Whether so
intended or not the publication of these articles was regarded as the
inauguration of a rebellion against the priesthood. Such liberty could
not be permitted. The writers were brought before the High Council
for a hearing. The following question was put to the young critics
by this ecclesiastical tribunal: "Do you believe that President Young
has the right to dictate to you, in all things temporal and spiritual?
The reply came that they did not believe that the president had such
right but that the

light of God in each individual soul was the proper guide and not the intelligence
of one human mind. According to the Prophet and his Apostles this was
sufficient cause for excommunication and action was consequently taken. The
young men inquired whether or not it was possible for them to honestly differ
from the presiding priesthood, and were told that such a thing was impossible,
and that they might as well ask whether we could honestly differ from the
Almighty.2

Whether due to the controlling influence of the leaders of the church
or to some other cause the question of the independent thinking and

1 Tullidge's Quarterly Magazine, I, 22. 2 Ibid., I, 32.

62 PSYCHOLOGICAL AND ETHICAL ASPECTS

freedom of discussion within the church did not become again a disturb-
ing question for a number of years.

Some of the more intellectual leaders of the church had written books
on Mormon doctrines but the spirit of these had all been to justify the
prevailing point of view rather than to analyze the institutions for the
purpose of getting at the truth. Of course there had been men not con-
nected with the church who had taught "heresy" to the youth of Zion
ever since the time the church was organized. Men connected with the
larger state educational institutions had modestly expressed their
opinion on what they regarded to be the "delicate subjects." But these
critics were all non-Mormon and the prejudice against those of the other
group had always been so strong among the Mormons that very little
notice was taken of the criticism. Should any of the youth manifest
sympathy toward the new interpretation there were always enough
orthodox Mormon preachers and educators to counteract the unortho-
dox tendency.

But about 1907 a number of young men of Mormon parentage
returned from eastern educational institutions, where they had received
higher degrees. The study of science, philosophy, sociology, and the
higher criticism of the Bible had given them a new point of view. Yet
they were regarded as Mormon boys of good character and were employed
to teach in the high schools and colleges of the church, the system from
which they had been graduated a few years previously. They were also
placed in positions of responsibility on other Mormon organizations,
intended for religious education. But they were not long to enjoy such
confidence. Their frank expressions of opinion on such subjects as
the origin of man, the visions and revelations of Joseph Smith, the literal
interpretation of the Bible, and other subjects in which the orthodox
interpretation had been definitely established soon brought about con-
troversy. The young people under their instruction were quick to
detect disagreements between the interpretation which their parents had
placed upon these things and that which was now made by their profes-
sors. The students were mentally disturbed but were by no means
antagonistic toward the new doctrine. It had come, not from gentile
teachers, but from their brethren in the church. The new doctrine was
carried home to the parents who were much less inclined to view with
sympathy the instruction which their children were receiving.

There are many reasons why it is extremely difficult for the Mormon
doctrines to be harmonized with the new scientific and democratic
conceptions. The more basic doctrines of Mormonism center around

OF MORMON GROUP LIFE 63

such questions as the creation of man, the literal interpretation of the
Bible, the authority of the priesthood, the divine and eternal nature of
Mormon institutions, God's commandments as absolute moral laws,
and revelation through the prophet as the only source of all religious
truth. All these questions create friction between the present educa-
tional spirit and Mormon orthodoxy.

Should Mormonism accept the evolutionary point of view some of its
most sacred doctrinal principles would have to be abandoned. All the
rituals and dogma which have grown up about Adam and his mission on
earth and the commandment given him to multiply and replenish the
earth would become meaningless. The story of the Book of Genesis as
well as that of the Mormons ' own sacred book, the Pearl of Great Price,
would become mere fiction. And to regard the latter as fiction would be
to deny one of the foundation stones of Mormonism. Furthermore, for
the Mormons to accept the evolutionary doctrine of the origin of man
would be to deprive themselves of their best argument in support of their
conception of God. They maintain that God is like a man except that
he is perfect. They prove this by the Scripture which says that God
created man in the likeness of his own image. Thus to accept as truth
the evolutionary theory requires the sacrifice of the basic principle of
Mormon doctrine.

Nor can the orthodox Mormons easily accept the teachings of higher
criticism. As already observed one of the demands which brought
Mormonism into existence was a desire for a more literal interpretaton
of the Bible. A great many of its institutions and points of doctrine
were taken from the Old and New Testaments. That means of course
that they cannot give up the seventh article of their faith which reads:
"We believe in the gift of tongues, prophecy, revelation, visions, healing,
and interpretation of tongues, etc." To deny that these things took
place in ancient Israel and in the days of Christ and still believe the
Bible to be the book of God is, to them, an impossibility.

Again the sixth article of their faith reads: "We believe in the same
organization that existed in the primitive church, viz: apostles, prophets,
pastors, teachers, evangelists, etc." In other words this form of organi-
zation is eternal and cannot be changed by the "whimsical notions of
men." The divine authority of the priesthood is a very distinctive
characteristic of Mormon control. The fifth article of faith is even
stronger: "We believe that a man must be called of God by prophecy
and by the laying on of hands by those who are in authority to preach the
Gospel and administer in the ordinances thereof." All knowledge for

64 PSYCHOLOGICAL AND ETHICAL ASPECTS

the guidance of the church, all interpretation of religious doctrine, all
authority to preach and teach the gospel, all commandments from God,
must pass through one channel, the prophet or president of the church.1

Between this attitude on the part of the more conservative members
of the church toward their institutions and the authority of the priest-
hood on the one hand, and on the other hand the attitude of the social
scientists who regard all social institutions in the process of change and
who recognize no authoritative control above that of the people, and
who find human experience to be the only source of knowledge, there is,
obviously, slight opportunity for compromise.

And so it was in the case of the three university professors and the
committees representing the general authorities of the church. It was
impossible for them to come to an agreement which would make it pos-
sible for the young men to retain their positions and at the same time
continue to teach what they regarded to be scientific truth ! The follow-
ing account of the investigation is taken from the Provo Post, a paper
published in the community in which the controversy took place.

An extended investigation was held, at which the utmost freedom and
cordiality was extended to the professors, each explaining his attitude with
perfect frankness and candor.

As a result of this examination and investigation the committee mentioned
above found that the statements of Superintendent Cummings were substanti-

1 President Charles W. Penrose attempts to reconcile the demand for freedom of
thought with the requirement that the revelations of the Mormon prophet be con-
sidered absolute:

"We don't want to prevent men from thinking. I have heard some of my
brethren say, 'Well, do you want to stop men from thinking?' Not at all. Liberty
to think and liberty to act upon the thought if you don't infringe the rights of others.
Liberty to think, brethren, liberty to read, liberty to have theories and notions and
ideas; but, my brethren, it isn't your province nor mine to introduce theories into
the church that are not in accordance with the revelations that have been given-
Don't forget that. And if any change in policy is to be introduced, it is to come
through the proper channel. The Lord said only his servant Joseph should do that
while he lived, and then after he died others were to be called to occupy the place,
and the key is in the hands of the man who stands at the head, if any change is to be
introduced in our church. Don't let us fix our minds too much on the ideas and notions
that are called science. If it is really science that they produce, something demon-
strated, something proved to be true, that is all right, and there is not a doctrine of
our church that I can find that comes in direct conflict or contradiction to the sciences
of the times if they are sciences, but a great deal of that which is called science is only
philosophy, and much of it speculative philosophy, and these ideas change with the
ages, as we can see by reference to what has been called science in times that are
past." — Charles W. Penrose, Eighty-eighth Annual Conference, pp. 21-22.

OF MORMON GROUP LIFE 65

ated, and they recommended to the board of trustees of the Brigham Young
University, which held its session today in the office of the president of the
church, that these professors be required to refrain from teaching doctrines
that have not received the approval of the church.

At this meeting of the board it was unanimously resolved that no doc-
trines should be taught in the Brigham Young University not in harmony with
the revealed word of God as interpreted and construed by the presidency and
apostles of the church, and that the power and authority of determining
whether any professor or other instructor of the institution is out of harmony
with the doctrines and attitude of the church was delegated to the presidency
of the university.1

This action of the general authorities of the church had important
results. On the one hand it aroused curiosity and stimulated thought
in the minds of many of the young people of the church. They were
anxious to know all about those things which the entire priesthood had
become so concerned about. On the other hand the treatment which the
young professors had received had made it clear to them that these
things must not be taught or discussed in the church schools. This
resulted in a search for information from those who had little regard for
the sacredness of religious institutions. It had also the unfortunate
effect of stimulating hypocrisy among young college men and women.
Young teachers hesitated to express themselves on important matters
of scientific and sociological value for fear of losing their positions and
receiving the boycott of the church.

But notwithstanding those facts, the educational institutions, both
church and state schools, are the great reconstructive forces in the
Mormon community. They are injecting into the minds of the young
people of the state knowledge of present social and scientific thought
which is having its influence in widening their horizon. The young
people are beginning to feel a power within themselves to discover truth,
to analyze and evaluate principles of doctrine. They are taught the
importance of democracy and the advantages of placing in the hands of
the people the right to make and change social institutions as conditions
demand.

1 Provo Post, February 21, 1911. The three professors resigned their position at
the Brigham Young University and two of them have since left the state.

66 PSYCHOLOGICAL AND ETHICAL ASPECTS

CHAPTER IX
THE CHURCH AND BUSINESS

"Institutions," says Veblen, "are products of the past process, are
adapted to past circumstances, and are therefore never in full accord with
the requirements of the present."1 The institutions in the Mormon
church known as the temporal organizations came into existence when
the material interests of the members were largely under the control of
the priesthood. But for psychological reasons institutions once created
cannot easily be eliminated from social life. The fact that they came
into existence and met a community need has made them seem vital.
The tithing system as well as business and industrial institutions came
into being and developed as results of the Mormon effort to meet material
needs. The needs were met but the institutions still remain, causing a
maladjustment similar to that between Mormon dogma and science — a
conflict between old institutions and present demands.

In pioneer days economic life and the spiritual life of the Mormon
community demanded a strong centralized control. The people could
not have survived the early persecutions had it not been for the ability
of the church to help those who were reduced to extreme proverty. The
tithing system and the contributions were found very helpful also in the
great colonizing project of Brigham Young. In regard to the finan-
cial affairs of the Mormon church three criticisms are now common:
(i) that the tithing system is inequitable; (2) that the revenues of
the church are controlled by a few of its leaders; (3) that the
pecuniary interests rather than the social welfare of the people have
become the controlling factor in the distribution of its income.

1. Dr. George H. Brimhall, former president of the Brigham Young
University, presents the argument for tithing which is typical among
those in the church who feel it their sacred duty to justify all the institu-
tions of Mormonism. He says:

Tithe-paying is the most equitable and natural distribution for public sup-
port. Behind it stands the principle enunciated by the Lord Jesus Christ,
that "to whomsoever much is given, of him much shall be required." Tithing
is an income tax divinely assessed and paid as a free-will offering.3

1 The Theory of the Leisure Class, pp. 191 f.

2 Tithing (a pamphlet), p. 5.

OF MORMON GROUP LIFE 67

This argument does not appeal to the critic who cannot call an
income tax equitable which taxes the poor man, whose annual income, let
us say, is $1,000, at the same rate that it does the rich man whose annual
income is $10,000. The most basic ethical principle of taxation, namely,
that the rate should be in proportion to an individual 's ability to pay
taxes, is here violated. The man with an income of $1,000 who pays $50
in tithing may be depriving his family of some of the necessities of life,
whereas the man who pays $1,000 out of his $10,000 income, makes no
such sacrifice. His family will still have sufficient food, proper clothing,
and shelter. Later the church engaged itself in promoting certain busi-
ness enterprises which were considered necessary in the community.
The machinery for the maintenance of such enterprises thus came into
being and has remained until the present time.

The Mormon people are now well established in their mountain
homes. Persecution and extreme poverty no longer threaten them.
There is also enough private capital in the state or within easy reach to
promote any new business enterprise that the future social need may
require. The church does not now make a practice of paying the ex-
penses of immigrating the Saints or of feeding them when they arrive.
In fact few of the old economic problems now remain and yet the old
system still remains and with an increased revenue.

The late President Joseph F. Smith informed us that the "entire
tithing of the church in all the world for the year 1914 was $1,887,920.
In 1917 the tithing dispersements totaled $2, 169,489. "x Besides the
tithing, according to President Smith "enough is received from invest-
ments to pay the expenses of the General Authorities and the mainte-
nance of the office of the First Presidency." The amount of the tithing
annually received by the church was not made public until very recent
years. But owing to the pressure from curious people, whose imagina-
tion magnified the amount of tithing received by the church, President
Smith gave the information. He says:

I am taking the liberty that has not been indulged in very much but there
have been so many false charges made against me and against my brethren by
ignorant and evilly disposed people, that I propose to make a true statement
which will, I believe, at least have a tendency to convince you that we are try-
ing to do our duty the best we know how.2

Although tithing is a free-will offering, the failure to meet this obliga-
tion is thought to bring serious consequences to a church member. To

1 Eighty-fifth and Eighty-eighth A nnual Conference Reports.

2 Joseph F. Smith, Eighty-fifth Annual Conference Report, pp. 129-40.

68 PSYCHOLOGICAL AND ETHICAL ASPECTS

the non-tithe-payer, "the doors of the Temple are closed and the privi-
leges of sacred ordinances cut off."1 He is considered unfit to partake
of the sacrament, for "He that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth
and drinketh damnation to himself." And finally "Apostasy is the
inevitable end of persistent non-tithe-paying." Those who will not obey
" the law of tithing shall not be found worthy to abide among the saints."
To many of the Mormon people these consequences are more terrible
than the consequences which may follow the neglect of other financial
obligations. In fact many do, as President Brimhall claims that they
should, give first consideration to this obligation.

2. But the power that is exercised by the authorities in the control of
the church revenues is more important than is the question of the injus-
tice of tithing. To sacrifice rights in a democratic society is more serious
than it is to suffer the wrongs which a system may impose. Where a
few individuals have complete control of the large and increasing church
revenues, and where these individuals obtain their positions by revelation
rather than by the election of the people and where removal from office
cannot be accomplished through the people's own initiative, we have a
situation entirely out of accord with the social and ethical thought of
the times. The late President Smith was conscious of the criticism and
justified the position of the church as follows:

The Lord has revealed how this means shall be cared for, and managed;
namely by the Presidency of the Church and the High Council of the Church
(that is the Twelve Apostles) and the Presiding Bishopric of the Church. I
think there is wisdom in this. It is not left for one man to dispose of it, or to
handle it alone, not by any means. It devolves upon at least eighteen men,
men of wisdom, of faith, of ability, as these eighteen men are. I say it devolves
upon them to dispose of the tithes of the people and to use them for whatever
purpose in their judgment and wisdom will accomplish the most good for the
Church; and because this fund of tithing is disposed of by the men whom the
Lord has designated as having authority to do it, for the necessities and benefit
of the Church, they call it commercialism.2

The very arguments that he presented to justify the system are the
very ones that the critic uses to condemn it. To say that this method of
financial control was revealed by the Lord is to admit that it did not
originate from the people ; and to say that the eighteen men were desig-
nated by the Lord as having authority to dispose of the tithing again

1 George H. Brimhall, Tithing (a pamphlet), p. 4.

2 Eighty-second Annual Conference Report, p. 6.

OF MORMON GROUP LIFE 69

means that this authority was not given them by the people. The very
fact that these men claim the divine right to the control of the wealth of
the church makes the situation even less democratic.

But the older members of the church, however, do not raise any
question regarding the right of the priesthood in this respect. It is
entirely in accord with the traditional Mormon notions that the prophet
of God has the right to direct in all matters, temporal as well as spiritual.
And then again, while this method is not in accord with the social and
ethical thought of the times, it is entirely in accord with the everyday
practical economic relations. In business and industrial life, absolute
control is in the hands of the relatively few; the great majority of the
people have no voice in such matters. It should also be observed that,
excepting those who have come in contact with the new social and ethical
spirit, the Mormon people are not inclined to favor innovations of any
kind. The great majority are rural people and naturally conservative.
There are very few members of the Mormon church who belong to dis-
turbing industrial organizations or labor unions. The church has always
opposed the affiliations of its people with organizations not under its
own control, and consequently a very few Mormons have become identi-
fied with labor movements.

3. What are the social and psychological effects of this system and
how are these results brought about? It is with the community as
with the individual: when the economic necessities are provided for,
what is left over is spent in luxuries. These nonessentials may take many
different forms and are relative to the stage of civilization as well as to
the interests and values which a community may have developed. A
community may have developed a certain class of spiritual values which
it deems highly essential but which another community may regard as
unimportant, and, considering the effort spent in acquiring them, even a
positive waste of time and energy. There is, for example, in the Mormon
church considerable time and money spent in constructing and maintain-
ing temples in which hundreds of people are engaged every day perform-
ing sacred ordinances "for the living and the dead." Considerable
money and energy is spent in maintaining theological seminaries. To
the non-Mormon these are real wastes but to the orthodox Mormon
they are among the most important activities of the church. From the
social point of view these things must be considered as of secondary
value, i.e., they are acquired interests which should be satisfied only
after the primary needs have been met. And while these activities were
carried on to a limited extent in the early history of the church they have

70 PSYCHOLOGICAL AND ETHICAL ASPECTS

received their greatest prominence during the last twenty years. In the
early days of the church the tithing was used for buying land and for
building canals and factories and for the immigrating of the Saints. But
there is no longer a demand for this type of enterprise and consequently
a large part of the tithing is spent in satisfying "spiritual interests."

But this is not to imply that the church is no longer engaged in
business activities. The church owns stock in a number of corporations
which it helped to establish in early Utah history and which have become
very large and prosperous institutions. It has also investments in new
enterprises. The motive now, however, is pecuniary rather than social.
It invests its money for profit and not because the community is in par-
ticular need of the assistance of the church in promoting business inter-
ests.

The income from these investments pays the salaries of the general
church authorities, who thus naturally become interested in promoting
the business from which they receive their income. This explains why
some of the apostles become active business men and adopt the business
men's point of view.1 Other high church officials were prominent busi-
ness men before they received their church appointment and were selected
in part because of their business ability. Joseph F. Smith, while presi-
dent of the church, was president of the Utah-Idaho Sugar Company, of
Zion's Co-operative Mercantile Institution, of the State Bank of Utah, of
Zion's Savings Bank and Trust Company, of the Consolidated Wagon
and Machine Company, of the Inland Crystal Salt Company, of the
Beneficial Life Insurance Company, and of other companies which need
not be named. This serves to indicate the great variety of his business
interests. In some of these neither the president of the church nor the
church itself owns very much stock, but the name of the president of the
church attached to a business concern gives it prestige among the Mormon
people and creates an attitude of confidence toward it. Charles W.
Nibley, the presiding bishop of the church, was for many years manager
of the Utah-Idaho Sugar Company. He is one of the most successful
business men of the state. Heber J. Grant, now president of the church,
and Reed Smoot, an apostle and United States Senator, are also active
business men, with the business man's point of view. The other
members of the quorum of twelve apostles as well as the presidents of

1 That the Mormon church has through its leaders become strongly pecuniary
is not to imply that social interests are entirely neglected or that the officials are
using the church to promote their own financial interests. They are men of moral
character and business integrity.

OF MORMON GROUP LIFE 71

stakes are, as a rule, of the business class but are less prominent. Thus
the most influential men of the Mormon priesthood are business men
and as such place high value upon pecuniary ideals and methods.

This pecuniary point of view which has developed among the authori-
ties of the church is criticized not only by some of the younger members
of the church who find it out of harmony with their growing democratic
ideals, but also by the older members of the church, who live in rural
districts and have not kept pace with this developing business spirit,
holding still to the old co-operative and communistic notion of the
pioneers.1 The latter especially are inclined to question some of the
business attitudes of their leaders. For example, Hotel Utah, one of
the most magnificent buildings of its kind in the country, was constructed
through the efforts of the church and its leaders. Many of the people
who come to Salt Lake City only once or twice a year for the purpose of
attending the general conferences of the church cannot afford to buy
accommodations in Hotel Utah. Coming from rural communities they
are naturally conservative and inclined to hold to the traditional notion
that the church should promote the interest of Zion and her people.
They are unable to understand why the tithing which they paid should
go toward the construction of such an institution which only the wealthy
Gentiles can enjoy. Also, before prohibition went into effect this hotel
maintained a bar. Why should the Saints contribute their means to
the erection of a building in which liquor is sold ? This criticism became
so common that the late President Smith took occasion to refer to it in
general conference.

We have helped to build one of the most magnificent hotels that exists
on the continent of America, or in the old continent either. I am told that it
is equal to any in the world in its facilities for convenience and comfort for its
guests, for sanitation, for its situation, and architectural beauty, and in many
other ways. Well, some of our people have thought that we were extravagant.
I would like you to turn to the book of Doctrine and Covenants and read the com-
mandment of the Lord to the Prophet Joseph Smith in the city of Nauvoo.
The people were requested to contribute of their means to take stock in this
building, Nauvoo House, and they and their children after them, for generation
to generation, should have an inheritance in that building, for it was intended
for the beauty of the city, for the glory of the stakes of Zion, and to accommo-
date the stranger from afar who came to contemplate the doctrine of the church
and the work of the Lord

Now I hoped and I prayed and I voted and did all I could in the hope that
the good people of this city would vote it dry so that we would not be com-

1 Heber Bennion, Gospel Problems, p. 36.

72 PSYCHOLOGICAL AND ETHICAL ASPECTS

pelled to allow a saloon or bar to be operated in the Hotel Utah. If you had

voted it dry we would not have had any bar there

But it went wet and therefore the people that visit us want something to
wet up with once in a while, and unless it is provided for them they will go
somewhere else and instead of beholding and viewing the beauties of Zion they
will go where they will see everything that is not beautiful J

The hotel was thus built, according to President Smith, "for the
beauty of Zion, to accommodate the stranger from afar." But the more
humble country folk were unable to comprehend the new standard by
which Zion is judged or to see in this representation of pecuniary strength
a true symbol of Mormonism. They had looked upon the humble elder,
traveling without "purse or scrip" and preaching without pecuniary
compensation, as a true representation of the gospel. And it was obvious
to them that the "stranger from afar" who could afford to visit Hotel
Utah and who is attracted to the hotel because of the bar is not the type
of man who would be likely to become a member of the church. The
class of people who would be impressed by the display of pecuniary
power do not "come to contemplate the doctrine of the church."

Thus the business man's standards and point of view is rapidly
developing among the leaders. There is a growing tendency to take
sides with the capitalist class and with large corporations against the
laboring classes. The philosophy of the church leaders was at one time
radical and socialistic; it is now conservative and capitalistic.3 They do
not hesitate in their sermons and in the editorial columns of the official
papers to denounce socialism and trade unionism as anarchism wThen
those become active in opposing the interests of business corporations.
The present economic order is accepted by them as right and proper. In
fact their philosophy seems to have completely changed in this respect
from that held forty years ago. The United Order is as far from their
minds as is socialism from the minds of the owners of large corporations.

1 Eighty-second Annual Conference Report, p. 30.

2 President Smith disapproved the tendency to criticize corporate interests.
"Let us please fail," he said, "to find fault with industries which are instituted in
our midst for the purpose of giving the people prosperity and advancement .... or
help to build up Zion. . . ." — Eighty-second Annual Conference Report, p. 10.

OF MORMON GROUP LIFE 73

CHAPTER X
CONFLICTS IN THE MORMON MARRIAGE INSTITUTIONS

No institution or doctrine in the Mormon church is regarded as more
important and no ceremony is performed with greater reverence than is
the Mormon marriage. It is performed in the most sacred of places and
by persons possessing the greatest authority. The covenants and vows
made on this occasion are the most binding, and grave spiritual conse-
quences are supposed to follow the breaking of them; on the other hand,
the greatest blessing that can come to a young couple is to be married in
the temple by proper authority for "time and all eternity." According
to the Mormons, proper marriage is the first step that a man takes toward
the creation of his eternal kingdom, the highest ideal in the mind of an
orthodox Mormon.

There is perhaps no relationship of life which is so universally
regarded sacred as that of marriage. From the most primitive tribes, of
Africa and Australia, to that of the most cultured people of Europe and
America, the marriage ceremony is conducted with some degree of
reverence. It is only within relatively recent times and among civilized
people that the contract conception of marriage is taking the place of
marriage as a sacrament. And in the minds of many sociologists this
transition is not always accompanied by moral advancement and social
stability. According to Ames, marriage becomes a sacrament in primi-
tive life because of its relation to the reproductive process.

Among primitive people the gods were the givers of life and of material
blessings, including the young of the flocks and the children of the family. The
gods were the gods of fertility, of reproduction. All agencies and processes of
this reproductive life were sacred. The sexual organs and the sexual acts were
sacred, and they were accordingly consecrated by religious ceremonies. The
very antagonism which some claim to discover between developed religion and
the sexual instinct is due to the fact that religious customs tend to regulate
and thereby preserve and idealize the instinct. Any ascetic tendencies in
developed religions are more than offset by the scrupulous, sympathetic regard
for the reproductive life, which is expressed by making marriage a sacrament,
circumcising or christening the infants, conceiving the deity as father and
exalting motherhood in worship and art.1

1 Ames, The Psychology of Religious Experiences, pp. 221-22.

74 PSYCHOLOGICAL AND ETHICAL ASPECTS

Thus not only do the Mormons consider marriage as sacred, but primi-
tive and civilized peoples everywhere tend to view sex relationship as
sacred and to make the religious ideals center around the sex life. What
is the explanation ? So far as psychology can account for this it lies in
the fact of attention. Anything which frequently attracts the attention
will little by little receive importance in the scale of values. If a thing
receives attention from the entire group, and for many years it takes upon
itself an element of mystery which inspires more than ordinary regard,
it becomes an object of reverence. In fact out of the sex instinct develop
the highest ideals, religious and moral, that the race has attained.

Professor Thomas attaches great importance to the socializing func-
tion of the sex instinct:

This sex-susceptibility, which was originally developed as an accessory of
production and had no social meaning whatever, has thus, in the struggle of
society to obtain a hold on the individual, become a social factor of great
importance, and together with another product of sexual life — the love of off-
spring— it is, I suspect, the most immediate source of our sympathetic attitudes
in general, and an important force in the development of the ideal, moral, and
aesthetic side of life.1

But besides the powerful instinctive force of sex life to attract the
attention of the individual and the social group, attention on sex relation-
ship is also artificially stimulated by ceremonials and formalities that
have grown up unconsciously and which now exercise an influence by
themselves. The younger individuals in the group are in this way com-
pelled to focus their attention upon that which is made so much of by
those around them. They imitate readily; first, the outward expressions
are evident, but soon out of the expression a sentiment in accord with
their conduct is developed.

The young people frequently hear long discourses on the importance
and sacredness of marriage and the blessings of large families. They
observe the building of temples and are encouraged to make contribu-
tions to their construction. They hear their parents tell of traveling
hundreds of miles in order to receive the blessing of marriage in the
sacred buildings. Curiosity is awakened by the taboo placed upon the
discussion of the sacred rites performed in the temple. All this talk
about marriage and preparation for marriage combined with the instinc-
tive interest in sex life have made this relationship the most sacred in the
Mormon community.

Before considering the elements of conflict now active in breaking
up this sacred and orthodox notion of marriage relationship a brief

1 Sex and Society, p. 1 20.

OF MORMON GROUP LIFE 75

statement of the origin and history of this, the most basic Mormon
institution, is necessary. Like every other institution and doctrine in
Mormonism, the traditional element, brought in contact with modern
conceptions, has occasioned conflict. A maladjustment existing between
the accumulations of the past and the demands of the present has caused
contention within the Mormon ranks.

The ideal form of marriage, according to orthodox Mormonism, is
that which was practiced by the ancient patriarchs of Israel. Abraham,
Jacob, Moses, David, and Solomon practiced polygamy, and since the
God of Israel approved of their lives, and since he is the same yesterday,
today, and forever, why, they argue, should he not sanction polygamy
among his favored people in the present age ? The orthodox Mormon
cannot conceive of God's plan as changeable and relative, it must be
universal and absolute. They admit of progress in the human race and
they preach eternal progression as the essence of God's universe, but
the condition of progress they state in absolute terms. For example,
there is no progress outside of the bonds of the " celestial order of mar-
riage." And the degree of progress that is made in eternity depends
upon the size of a man's family. Polygamy is, therefore, an important
condition of progress and a basic principle in Mormon theology.

But it is not enough that a principle was practiced in ancient Israel;
before it can be accepted as a part of Mormon doctrine it must be sup-
ported by modern revelation. Thus on July 12, 1843, when Joseph
Smith was contemplating the marriage form of ancient Israel, he received
the revelation which has so profoundly influenced Mormon life. The
following are extracts from the revelation:

"Verily, thus saith the Lord, unto you, my servant Joseph, that inasmuch
as you have inquired of my hand to know and understand wherein I, the Lord,
justified my servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; as also Moses, David, and
Solomon, my servants, as touching the principles and doctrine of their having
many wives and concubines: Behold! and lo, I am the Lord thy God, and will
answer thee, as touching this matter.

"Abraham received concubines, and they bare him children, and it was
accounted unto him for righteousness, because they were given unto him and
he abode in my law; as Isaac also, and Jacob, did none other things than that
which they were commanded. David also received many wives and concu-
bines, as also Solomon and Moses, my servant, as also many others of my
servants, from the beginning of creation until this time and in nothing did they
sin save in those things which they received not of me."1

While the Saints were in Nauvoo, polygamy was not publicly
preached. Joseph Smith taught it secretly to some of his associates but
not until August 29, 1852, was the revelation presented to the church.

1 Doctrine and Covenants, Section 132: 1, 37.

76 PSYCHOLOGICAL AND ETHICAL ASPECTS

From that date until 1890 polygamy was taught and practiced in every
settlement in the Mormon country.

The Mormon isolation in the West was most favorable for the estab-
lishment and growth of polygamy. There were here only two influences
directing the lives of the individuals, the thought and institutions of
the Mormon church and native human instincts. Both factors favored
plural marriage. On the one hand it was encouraged as ancient custom,
as a revelation from heaven, and as a means to a great posterity ; on the
other hand the fickleness of the sex instinct favored it. The only reason,
says Professor Thomas, why monogamy is practiced today is because it
has become an acquired habit by the race and "not because it has
answered more completely to the organic interest of the individual."
When the instinct is thus not only set free from social restrictions and
conventional influences, but is actually encouraged by the only social
institution now influencing the individual, it is not surprising that the
members of the group so quickly accepted the new order of marriage.

For a period of thirty years (1852-82) the polygamous institution
was permitted to run its course. It was difficult for the United States
officers in Utah to handle the situation. The laws were inadequate and
the enforcement of the laws was a still greater problem. But in March,
1882, the Edmunds Bill was passed by Congress punishing polygamy by
disfranchisement, imprisonment, and by declaring the children of such
marriages illegitimate. This law the government officials in Utah were
determined to enforce. Hundreds of men were imprisoned and many
more driven to hiding in remote places; women and children were left
unsupported and unprotected. Many deaths resulted from the hard-
ships they were compelled to undergo. President Wilford Woodruff
wrote in his daily journal, while in hiding: " There has never been a time
since the organization of this church when such a universal howl was
raised against us. The whole land is flooded with lies against the people
of God. The government seems determined on the destruction of the
faithful Latter-Day Saints."1 It was at this time that President John
Taylor died and his successor, while still in hiding, writes of him: "Presi-
dent John Taylor is twice a martyr. He was shot four times in Carthage
jail when Joseph and Hyrum were slain and there he mingled his blood

with the martyrs Now in 1887, driven into exile by the United

States officers in consequence of his religion, he lays down his life for
the truth."2

In 1890, partly as a result of the vigorous prosecution of the law
against polygamists, but mainly because there was a possibility that

1 Cowley, Life of Wilford Woodrujf, p. 538. 2 Ibid., p. 560.

OF MORMON GROUP LIFE 77

Utah might obtain statehood, the president of the church issued the
" manifesto" in which he declared officially that the Latter-Day Saints
are " to refrain from contracting any marriage forbidden by the laws of
the land." This statement is significant because it marks the beginning
of a new era in Mormon history. The United States officers ceased to
harass the Mormon priesthood and polygamists. Soon Utah received
statehood, and peace and good will seemed to be at once established
between Mormons and Gentiles. Polygamy did not discontinue as
quickly as the government officers and the people of the country had
hoped that it would, but the conflict was made to shift from that between
the Mormons and Gentiles to a conflict within the church itself.

On the basis of their attitude toward polygamy the Mormon people
are divided into four distinct classes: (1) There is a young radical class
who believe neither in the principle nor practice of polygamy, and who
believe that it should be eliminated from the church in both root and
branch. This is the growing attitude among the young men and women
of education in the church. (2) There is also another class of Mormons
who believe in polygamy but not in its practice at the present time.
They interpreted the manifesto to mean that men who had plural wives
at the time that it was issued should cease to live with all but one of
them. There were a few men in the church who thus broke up their
families after the issuing of the manifesto. (3) A third class, and per-
haps the great majority of Mormon people, believe in the principle of
polygamy and in its practice to the extent of maintaining the marriages
solemnized before the manifesto, but they do not believe in contracting
plural marriages after the manifesto. This is the attitude that is taken
by the present authorities of the church. (4) A fourth class is also found
in the church who believe that neither the government nor the church
has the right to eliminate an institution divinely established. This is
perhaps the most consistent orthodox class. There are a few men in
the church who believe that they have the authority to solemnize plural
marriages, and consequently a few such marriages have been performed
since the issuing of the manifesto. A large percentage of the polygamists
of this order have been excommunicated from the church.

This internal strife is thus a very complex affair. It is not only a
conflict between the orthodox and the unorthodox but a contention
between the orthodox polygamists themselves. But the one which need
concern us here is the struggle going on between the radical and unortho-
dox members on the one hand and the conservative and orthodox on the
other. There are important conditions which tend to keep these two
factions actively at war.

78 PSYCHOLOGICAL AND ETHICAL ASPECTS

We have already observed the main reasons why the orthodox Mor-
mon element cannot easily give up the polygamous doctrine, (i) It
was divinely revealed and taught by the prophet as a sacred marriage
relationship accepted by God from the beginning of time. (2) Many of
the leading men of the church had plural wives and to break up the
family would mean great suffering on the part of the women and children.
They had already made great sacrifice for what they regarded to be a
sacred marriage relation and now to be disowned by husband and
father seemed unfair and inhuman. (3) Again, polygamy is regarded
as the means whereby the great ideal of the kingdom, here and hereafter,
is realized. Says President Woodruff:

The reason why the church and Kingdom of God cannot advance without
the Patriarchal Order of marriage is that it belongs to this dispensation just as
baptism for the dead does, or any law or ordinance that belongs to a dispensa-
tion. Without it the church cannot progress. The leading men of Israel who
are presiding over stakes will have to obey the law of Abraham or they will have
to resign.1

President Taylor said: "If we do not embrace that principle soon, the
keys will be turned against us. If we do not keep the same law that our
Heavenly Father has kept we cannot go with him." And (4) finally
it was polygamy for which they had for nearly half a century endured
persecutions. The very fact that it had required sacrifice magnified
the importance of the institution in their minds. It had become the
one phase of their religion which created discussion when all other points
of doctrine passed into oblivion. It absorbed the attention and thus
became the most sacred institution in the Mormon religion.

But there are also forces at work which tend in the opposite direction.
The strong emphasis which is now being placed upon evolution in the
high-school and college courses of the state is causing the young people
to realize that the doctrines of their religion are in process of change.
The orthodox class claim that the social institution is absolute and
eternal. This does not appeal to the young people, who are interpreting
the notions and institutions of the past as products of social conditions
then prevailing. Polygamy might have been the most desirable form
of marriage among the patriarchs of ancient Israel when the ideals and
mode of life were quite different from those which now prevail, but
to reintroduce the old institution is too radical a departure from the
present standard to be uncritically accepted by the educated young
people of the church.

Again, the ideal of a large family does not appeal to the younger
Mormon generation with the force that it did to the pioneer fathers.

1 Cowley, Life of Wilford Woodruff, p. 542.

OF MORMON GROUP LIFE 79

The economic conditions are such that parents cannot now raise a
large family and maintain the standard of living which present society
demands. It is a greater tax on human energy to raise a family of three
children under present conditions than it was to raise a family of six
children in early Utah days. Again the great variety of opportunities
open to those who have a sufficient income along all lines of education
attract the attention of the young people away from the old family ideal.

There is also at the present time a tendency toward free social inter-
course between the children of Mormon and gentile parents. The old
prejudices are breaking down and the non-Mormon influence is being
more directly felt. In fact there is an increasing number of marriages
between Mormons and Gentiles and a relatively decreasing number who
are each year married in the temples of the church. This situation is
keenly felt by the older members of the church. Parents who have
sincerely believed all their lives that marriages within the church and in
the temples are the only marriages which God recognizes find it extremely
disappointing to see their children treat this sacred matter with indif-
ference.

And finally, the independent attitude of the young women in Utah
would prevent the continuance of polygamy even though the government
and the church favored its practice. Due to economic and social condi-
tions, women in Utah, in common with their sisters everywhere in the
civilized world, have developed an independence of life which would make
such an institution today impossible. While the Mormon people have
generally given woman as much freedom as she has enjoyed elsewhere in
the country, the philosophy of polygamy has in many cases led the men
to regard her as little more than a means of bringing children into the
world. When man's glory is stated in terms of posterity, the value of
woman to him lies in her power to thus contribute to his glory. The
sentiment of women today is such that she will not thus sacrifice her
personality and especially does she object to the sharing of her husband 's
affection with another woman.

The very institution which caused strong prejudice and persecution
from without in early Mormon history is now causing dissension within;
the same force that created group solidarity is now destroying it. The
institution of polygamy maintained itself so long as it met with strong
opposition outside of the Mormon group and so long as the native in-
stincts and Mormon institutions controlled the individual within the
group, but when the external pressure was removed and educational
opportunities developed a variety of values and interests within the com-
munity, the institution of polygamy began to crumble; and before long
it will cease to be a problem in Utah.

8o PSYCHOLOGICAL AND ETHICAL ASPECTS

CHAPTER XI
THE ETHICS OF MORMONISM

The laboratory for ethical study is the field of human history in all
of its aspects — political, economic, and religious. The unit is the social
group in the process of its evolution. All forms of social control, whether
in the nature of sentiments, customs, laws, or divine commandments,
have their origin in active social life. In the development of moral
standards every human instinct, every interest, every problem which has
concerned the community, whether inherited from the past or imposed
by the environment, has had its effect. The meaning and significance
of moral standards can be ascertained only by a study of their origin and
function in a concrete, active social process.

The life-history of the Mormon group furnishes suitable material for
such a study. In the first place the group has developed in almost com-
plete isolation. This makes the task of singling out the factors which
have determined its moral standards relatively easy. In the second
place the Mormon group has been subjected to very frequent and radical
changes in its environment. These conditions have occasioned read-
justments which are significant not only from the social and psychological
but from the ethical point of view. A transition from one social stage
to another reveals certain aspects and principles in human life which
would not be noticed under less active social conditions. And, thirdly,
we have here the complete life-history of a group. We are thus able
to view the moral standards in relation to their origin, their function,
and their termination.

The moral concepts in Mormonism have developed out of vital
group experiences. Thus to give a satisfactory account of them we must
consider them in relation to the three great Mormon crises. Our dis-
cussion thus divides itself into three parts: (i) The group morality of
the Mormons as the result of their conflicts with the non-Mormons of
Illinois and Missouri. (2) The practical and materialistic ethical concep-
tions which developed out of the economic struggle in the Great Basin.
(3) The present theological ethics considered as the crystallization of
older group sentiments and ideals. These three stages in Mormon ethics
correspond, to a certain degree, with three common ethical points of
view. The attitude in the first stage resembles that of the sentimentalist,

OF MORMON GROUP LIFE 81

conceiving morality as a feeling attitude. The second stage is essentially
the utilitarian attitude. The material welfare of the community seems
to be the ethical criterion. In the third stage we have a sort of casuistic
attitude. Morality is here regarded as a matter of adhering to a code of
rules or commandments.

Although the concrete material presented in this chapter is selected
to illustrate what is essentially peculiar to the Mormon ethical life and
to each of the three stages in their ethical development, it should not be
inferred from this that the general moral standards and ethical notions
of the Mormon people are essentially different from those of other
people or that there is an absolute difference between the moral attitudes
of the three levels in Mormon moral evolution. There are more simi-
larities between the Mormon and non-Mormon ethics than there are
differences; and so also there are more similarities between the three
stages than there are differences. However, the fact that there are dif-
ferences, whatever the degree may be, is still significant and presents a
real problem. Our effort is to make clear these distinctions and give an
explanation for them. The material selected and the method employed
should do this without at the same time conveying the false impression
of absolute distinctions. While there are variations in the moral stand-
ards of different groups and within social groups there is also unity and
continuity without which differences would have no meaning.

Before entering upon the main problem of this chapter it is necessary
to state briefly the psychological premises of our discussion. It is here
maintained that the moral self is essentially social and that the individual
becomes conscious of moral values just as he does of every other class
of interests through a process of action and reaction with the other mem-
bers of his group. Our second proposition is that the moral sentiments
of Mormonism are mainly group sentiments, simple and intense in the
first stage but developing through the problems of the second and third
stages into a more complex system of group control. These group senti-
ments are personified in the God of Israel. He is the embodiment of the
moral concepts of the group. Although these principles have been suffi-
ciently demonstrated in previous chapters and may here be regarded as
premises of our discussion, yet their direct application in this connection
will more fully establish their validity.

The first period in Mormon history, the period in which Joseph Smith
was prophet to the group, we have already characterized as that of great

82 PSYCHOLOGICAL AND ETHICAL ASPECTS

excitement and intense emotional experiences. It was the period of
visions and revelations. Practically all the revelations that were ever
given to the church came at this time. It was the time of miracles, or
prophecies, of signs and wonders. It was the time when " whole villages "
were converted in a day and hundreds apostatized at the same time.1 It
was the period of uncertainty, of instability. Psychologically, it was
the stage of alternate joy and sorrow, of great love and intense hatred.
It was the initial stage of Mormonism, when the group was being formed
and its attitudes established.

We have pointed out in previous chapters how the Mormons appro-
priated both the name and the traditions of ancient Israel; and how this
imitation of ancient ceremonies and of Bible language, and the claims to
revelation and divine authority, tended to create prejudice and perse-
cution against Joseph Smith and his followers. Out of this conflict
developed, as we have observed, the Mormon group spirit. We shall
now see how this group spirit affected the moral attitude of the people.
The revelations and sermons and literature of this period clearly reflect
the moral sentiments.

We have here the characteristic traits of group morality. All people
outside of the group were enemies and all within the group were brethren.
The God of Israel was the God of Mormonism and the devil ruled over
the Gentiles. "The devil shall have power over his own dominion,"
says the revelation, "and the Lord shall have power over his Saints
and shall reign in their midst and shall come down in judgment upon. . . .
the world."2 And again, "Let all the Saints rejoice, therefore, and be
exceeding glad, for Israel's God is their God and He will mete out a just
recompense of reward upon the heads of all their oppressors."3 These
were not simply the expressions of Joseph Smith. They were the senti-
ments of the group. They expressed the spirit which transcended the life
and spirit of any one individual. The God of Israel, the spirit of the
group, was speaking.

God was on the side of the Mormon group and would punish all who
rebelled against the chosen people. "And the rebellious shall be pierced
with much sorrow" and he who will not hear the voice of the servants of
God " shall be cut off from among the people " and " shall perish in Baby-
lon, even Babylon the great shall fall."4 But, on the other hand, observe

1 O. F. Whitney, Life of Heber C. Kimball, pp. 181-93, I94~99-
1 Joseph Smith, Doctrine and Covenants, Section 1 : 35-36.
» Doctrine and Covenants, Section 127:3.
* Ibid., Section 1:3, 14, 16.

OF MORMON GROUP LIFE 83

the sentiment toward the Mormon group. "Therefore, fear not, little
flock, do good, let earth and hell combine against you, for if ye are built
upon my Rock, they cannot prevail."1 And again, "Awake! O Kings of
the earth! come ye with your gold and your silver, to the help of my
people, to the home of the daughters of Zion."2

These expressions, while imitative of Old Testament prophets, did
reflect the Mormon group spirit. In fact the Mormons regarded them-
selves as belonging to the Israelitish group and of the same blood. And
all who are of the blood of Israel are favored of God but the "rebellious
are not of the blood of Ephraim, wherefore they shall be plucked out."3
This enlargement of the group to include ancient Israel gave strength to
the group sentiments. The tribal God of ancient Israel and the ani-
mosity which Israel held toward other tribes seemed to correspond to
the spirit of Mormonism at that time and was easily taken over into its
own group life.

Group morality was also shown in dealing with the members of the
group. The great sin was disloyalty. This was a sufficient cause for ex-
communication. The following cases are illustrative: W. W. Phelps
and John Whitmer were severed from the church for "selling their lands
in Jackson County" and thereby setting "an example which all the
Saints were liable to follow." To sell their inheritance in Zion "was a
hellish principle, and. . . . they had flatly denied the faith in so doing."4
David Whitmer was excommunicated for "leaving or forsaking the cause
of God, and returning to the beggarly elements of the world, and neglect-
ing the high and holy calling according to his profession."5

It was this bitter group antagonism which gave birth to the sentiment
of fellow-feeling and brotherly love which is so characteristic of the
Mormons, especially during their early history. It was a despised enemy
which made them conscious of their beloved brethren. The fact that
the entire group focused its attention upon the enemy was the essential
condition for sympathy within the group. It was the common object of
hate which conditioned the common object of love. The individual
becoming so completely merged into the activity of the group lost con-
sciousness of personal interests. His entire life became identified with
his group. The self was a group self; it was made up of the combined
interests of all the brethren. When they suffered he suffered in a very

1 Ibid., Section 6: 34.

2 Ibid., Section 124: 11.

3 Ibid., Section 64: 35-36.

< Whitney, Life of Hcber C. Kimball, pp. 196-97. 5 Ibid., p. 198.

84 PSYCHOLOGICAL AND ETHICAL ASPECTS

real sense. Nor did he imagine himself in their position as Adam Smith
would say. The individual immediately and directly felt the sufferings
of his brother. And he did it because he found himself within the life
of his brother. Regarded from the point of view of group consciousness,
Bulter is quite right when he says " that we were made for society" and
"that the principle of benevolence is as natural in man as is self-love."

The mistake which Adam Smith made (and which was also made by
the moral sense school) is in treating the individual 's life as distinct from
that of his brother. The brother is regarded too much as the other
person. Fellow-feeling is impossible toward individuals considered as
others. No power of imagination could have created a sympathetic
feeling between the Mormons and Gentiles. This was because the
behavior of the two groups toward each other had placed them in entirely
different spheres. Sympathy is had only among individuals who live
the same life, follow common interests, experience common joys and sor-
rows.

But Adam Smith recognizes the dependence of sentiments upon social
relations. He says:

Were it possible that a human creature could grow up to manhood in some
solitary place, without any communication with his own species, he could no
more think of his own character, of the propriety or demerit of his own senti-
ments and conduct, of the beauty or deformity of his own mind, than of the
beauty or deformity of his own face. All these are objects which he cannot
easily see, .... and with regard to which he is provided with no mirror
which can present them to his view. Bring him into society, and he is immedi-
ately provided with the mirror which he wanted before. It is placed in the
countenance and behavior of those he lives with, which always mark when they
enter into, and when they disapprove of his sentiments, and it is here that he
first sees the propriety of his own passions, and the impropriety, the beauty
and deformity of his own mind.1

But Adam Smith did not carry his point far enough. Society is the
mirror through which we see ourselves but it is more than that: it is in
society that we actually find ourselves. We actually grow up in the mir-
ror, and are nothing apart from it. All human sentiments originate in
society, and by it are maintained and given direction.

The sympathetic feelings are highly relative. They depend upon
social affiliation. An individual may have a kindly feeling toward the
members of his own group and the greatest animosity toward the mem-
bers of another group. In fact the moral sentiments are largely depend-
ent upon group consciousness. Altruism, charity, benevolence, pity,

1 Rand, The Classical Moralists, p. 456.

OF MORMON GROUP LIFE 85

and all forms of fellow-feeling are, according to our observation of Mor-
mon group life, essentially a matter of group consciousness.

The conclusions of our investigation of the early period in Mormon
history may thus be briefly summarized. In the first place we have
observed that the moral sentiments of the Mormons have developed out
of group life. These sentiments were reflected through the God of the
group, who took sides with the oppressed against the oppressors. Sym-
pathy toward the members of the group and animosity toward the mem-
bers of the other group grew side by side, tending to show that these
sentiments mutually support each other. The morality of this period
we thus found to be essentially on the level of group morality. The
individual's life was almost completely immerged in that of his group.
The great virtue was loyalty and the great sin apostasy. The moral self,
being so completely identified with the group, is impulsive, imitative, and
sentimental.

II

The ethics of the second period is made up of the group sentiments
of the first period and the new moral values which grew out of the coloniz-
ing problem of the second period. The moral standards are now tending
to become more materialistic and more practical. The sermons are not
now so much concerned with the war between God and the devil, between
Israel and Babylon as they are with such subjects as obedience to author-
ity, the strength of union, the sacredness of marriage, and the glory of a
large posterity, the blessings of industry and the curse of idleness. The
good man is now not only loyal to the group but efficient in its service.

The closing days of the life of Heber C. Kimball were spent in
pioneering the new country. His activities were typical of the Mormon
leaders at that time. It is interesting to compare his life in Utah with
that of Joseph Smith and other Mormon leaders of the first period. In
reference to his activity Apostle Whitney writes:

Preaching, colonizing, traveling through the settlements, encouraging the
Saints in their toils and sacrifices, sitting in council among the leaders in Israel,
ministering in sacred and holy places, and otherwise laboring for and blessing
the Lord's people— so wore away the remaining years of President Kimball.
.... His name was literally a "household word "in Israel. "Brother Heber"
was everywhere honored and beloved.1

Thus, in the first period the Mormon prophets led the "hosts of Israel"
against Babylon ; they were at constant war with the enemies of God and
his people. In the second period the prophets of " Israel" were laboring

1 Life of Heber C. Kimball, p. 441.

86 PSYCHOLOGICAL AND ETHICAL ASPECTS

for and blessing the Saints and sitting in council among their brethren.
The new problems had created new demands, another class of virtue, a
new type of prophets.

The new social and economic demands required something more than
implicit faith in the divinity of Joseph Smith's mission and more
than mere loyalty to the group; it required foresight, direction, rational
leadership, system, and organization. The leaders of the people must
now prove their right to lead by their ability to serve their brethren. The
institutions of Mormonism must prove their divinity by their capacity
to function. Thus, utility and efficiency were added to the group senti-
ments already established. The social self is not now merely the Mor-
mon group fighting the gentile group ; it is the self engaged in building up
a great kingdom and one that is fully conscious of its detailed demands
such as the constructing of roads, canals, forts, planting colonies, raising
large families and going on missions. The moral individual is one who is
willing to join in these many enterprises, who is industrious, unselfish,
and possesses the ability to serve the community in realizing its aims.

The moral ideals and principles of social control, we shall see, were
influenced by the problem then confronting the group. The great prob-
lem was to establish Zion in the mountains, to build up the Kingdom of
God. And this, as we have observed in Part II, was more than a mere
spiritual ideal, it was a very real task which the new condition had
imposed upon the people. To realize it, meant life to the community
and to fail, meant death and destruction. There were three ways in
which the individual might serve his community in realizing this end:
(i) as a colonizer, i.e., one who was efficient in any sort of economic com-
munity enterprise; (2) as a missionary to carry on the great proselyting
program so essential in developing a strong population; and (3) as a
patriarch, the head of a large family.

1. The colonization program embraced every line of economic activ-
ity and consequently every man, woman, and child capable of doing
any kind of labor was actively engaged in this enterprise. The whole
undertaking being essentially a community affair was conducted under
the supervision of the priesthood. Thus, besides being industrious and
socially efficient, the individual must obey the authority of the priest-
hood. This relationship is clearly revealed in an extract from a letter
written by President Heber C. Kimball, to his son then on a mission
to England. The letter was dated February, 1856.

There has been court in session here for weeks and weeks and I suppose
that one hundred and fifty or two hundred of the brethren have been hanging

OF MORMON GROUP LIFE 87

around, with the council house filled to the brim. This scenery continuing for
a long time, one day Brother Brigham sent Thomas Bullock to take their names,
for the purpose of giving them missions, if they had not anything to do of any
more importance. So Brother Brigham counseled me to make a selection —
for Los Vegas, some thirty, who are ordered to sell their possessions and go
with their families as soon as the weather will permit, for the purpose of going
down on to the Rio Virgin to raise cotton; another company of forty-eight to
go to Green River to strengthen up that settlement, make farms, build mills,
etc., and some thirty -five or forty to go north to Salmon River, .... some
thirty to go to Carson Valley, .... some thirty to go into the lead business
near the Los Vegas; and eight to go to the East Indies. There are eighteen
called to Europe, and seven to Australia.1

This right which the ecclesiastical authorities held over those of lower
rank in all matters of community concern is very significant. Although
a strong group spirit had been created long before this and although
people had been disciplined in obedience to group authority before they
undertook colonization in the mountain valleys, yet the unity of action
prior to this time was that of direct group control. A strong group
spirit was felt by every individual. The constant pressure from an oppos-
ing group made the members within the Mormon group very sensitive
to social suggestions. But this warm, first-hand spiritual control was not
possible in the new situation where the external social pressure had been
practically removed and where the communities were scattered among
the valleys of the great mountainous country. The control must now
become more a matter of personal authority.

But although the control now became centered in individuals who
held the priesthood there was still a recognition of the group back of this
priestly authority. The priesthood is the authority of God and sym-
bolizes the authority and power of the group. By means of this symbol
and the recognition which it received, the colonizing enterprises could
be systematically carried on. But for the leader in this period priest-
hood alone was not sufficient; the situation, without minimizing the
importance of the former, demanded ability also. And in this respect
the demand is greater than that of both the first and third periods. The
economic situation was too grave for a man who was not efficient and
useful to the people to remain long at the head of a colony. The people
were now conscious of the purpose of leadership, and the successful
pioneer could command obedience because he actually became a hero in
the great struggle.

1 Life of Heber C. Kimball, pp. 420-21.

88 PSYCHOLOGICAL AND ETHICAL ASPECTS

But not only did the colonizing problem create a new relation between
the people and the priesthood, it created a new attitude within the group,
of the individuals toward one another. The brotherly feeling was now
developed on a utilitarian basis. The brother was needed in the building
of canals, roads, and forts. The manufacturing and commercial activi-
ties demanded united effort. On every hand the individual found him-
self compelled to co-operate with his brethren. This co-operative effort
was felt to be so important that many of the colonizing enterprises were
preceded by a rebaptism for the purpose of bringing "the new colony
under perfect organization, socially as well as ecclesiastically."1 Out
of this practical co-operative relationship, this common struggle to build
up their Zion, we have a moral relation of a higher order than that which
maintained in early Mormon history. The moral sentiments developed
out of a more practical and more normal social relation. The self en-
larged to include others in a more complex system of values. John
Stuart Mill's explanation of moral sympathy is quite adequate here:

Not only does strengthening of social ties, and all healthy growth of society ,
give to each individual a stronger personal interest in practically consulting the
welfare of others, it also leads him to identify his feelings more and more with
their good He comes, as though instinctively, to be conscious of him-
self as a being who of course pays regard to others. The good of others becomes
to him a thing naturally and necessarily to be attended to. like any of the
physical conditions of our existence.-'

2. Just as every good man in Israel was an active colonizer at that
time, so every man was expected to fulfil a foreign mission. In fact
proselyting was a part of the colonizing scheme. The following taken
from the official organ of the church (1851) illustrates how the colonizing
and the proselyting work of the church went hand in hand.

The estimated fifteen thousand inhabitants in Deseret, the past year, have
raised grain sufficient to sustain the thirty thousand for the coming year, inspire
us confidently to believe that the thirty thousand the coming year can raise
sufficient for sixty thousand the succeeding year and to this great object and
end our energies will be exerted to double our population annually 3

Thus we may note, besides the hopeful spirit which is here revealed con-
cerning the growth of Zion, the unity of purpose which underlies both
the colonizing and the missionary work. It was regarded as a matter of
course that the Saints at home should prepare to feed and care for the
thousands who were to immigrate every year. Brigham Young said:

1 Tullidge's Magazine, III (July, 1884), 233.

2 Quoted by Rand, The Classical Moralists, pp. 666-67.
J Millenial Star, XIII (1851), 51.

OF MORMON GROUP LIFE 89

It is also a true principle that a man should keep not only his property
but himself upon the altar, ready for sacrifice at any moment; to do with all
his might the will of his maker regardless of the consequences to his property or
himself or any thing that pertains to him.1

But not only were the missionaries expected to increase the Mormon
population but they were to furnish the community with skilled mechanics.
In a later volume of the same paper we read the following instructions
from the mission president to the conference presidents:

The first presidency of the church at the Valley has sent express instruction

in relation to all kinds of mechanics and manufacturers And now is the

time that they are wanted, for they are situated at a vast distance from all

civilized nations of the earth In order that we may become great and

flourish as a people, it is highly necessary that we have manufacturers in our
own midst 2

Thus in regard to this stage of Mormon ethics Hume is right when
he says: "The social virtues are never regarded without their beneficial
tendencies, nor viewed as barren and unfruitful" and that "utility . . . .
forms, at least, a part of their merit, and is one source of that approba-
tion and regard so universally paid to them."-' The sentiments created
by the group struggle of the first period were not weakened by the con-
ception of utility which the second period in Mormon history tended to
develop. The brotherly feeling now received meaning. It was now
consciously desired. It becomes a real standard which the individual
endeavors to attain himself and which he requires of his associates.

3. The control of sex relationship has always constituted one of the
most important moral problems of the race. Social customs have always
served as the strongest factor in this as in every other vital social moral
relation. Monogamy has, through ages of social evolution, come to be
the form of sex relation generally adhered to among different peoples.
While individuals among civilized as well as among primitive peoples, at
times, violate the social customs it is very extraordinary for an entire
people to depart arbitrarily from the established form of marriage rela-
tions. Especially is it surprising for a church to assume the responsi-
bility in the Christian era when sex purity and celibacy were regarded
as among the greatest virtues. Our problem here is to explain how the
Mormon mind could be brought to justify morally the institution of
polygamy or the patriarchal form of marriage.

1 Brigham Young, ibid., XIV, 214.

2 Ibid., XVI, 362.

3 Quoted by Rand, The Classical Moralists, p. 431.

90 PSYCHOLOGICAL AND ETHICAL ASPECTS

If moral values existed apart from the life of the social group or if
they were the outcome of pure reflective processes it would be a difficult
task indeed to account for this radical departure from general social
sanction. But when we apply our principle that moral values are really
group sentiments and that they depend on the one hand upon group tra-
dition and on the other hand upon the immediate vital problems of the
group the explanation is not difficult.

The Mormons, we have seen, had identified themselves with ancient
Israel. The sentiments and traditions of that ancient people became
the sentiments and traditions of Mormonism. On the other hand, the
Mormons had almost completely isolated themselves both socially and
physically from all civilized peoples. They lived in a different atmos-
sphere from that of the peoples of the world. The sentiments of " Baby-
lon" were not to control their lives. They hated Babylon and any
departure from its ways was regarded by them as righteousness. But
they loved Israel and longed to imitate its institutions. Thus they con-
sidered polygamy, which was of Israel, more sacred than monogamv
which was the common practice of the rebellious world.

But polygamy was also justified on the basis of utility. The patriar-
chal order tended to increase the Mormon population and thus added
strength to the kingdom. Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, Orson
Pratt, Lorin Farr, and scores of other patriarchs1 who had no fewer than
forty and some even more than sixty children were the great men of Israel.
Should this system have continued and should the members of the church
have followed generally the example of their leaders, Zion would soon
have felt its strength through its growing population. This was no doubt
the motive which led President Woodruff to remark that the "church
and Kingdom could not advance without it" and that "the leading men
of Israel who are presiding over stakes will have to obey the law of
Abraham" or resign.2

The moral self thus became identified with the new and more complex
aims of the group. Sentiments grew up about these interests until they
became sacred and, as we shall see in our next division, fixed attitudes of
mind. Thus, to the old group sentiments of the first period which formed
the subconscious basis of the Mormon ethical life, we have added utili-
tarian ideals and standards, all of which are transmitted to the third
period.

1 Whitney, History of Utah, Vol. IV.

2 Cowley's Life of Wilford Woodruff, p. 542.

OF MORMON GROUP LIFE 91

III

The transition from the second to the third stage of Mormonism is
marked by two important conditions, the coming to a close of the great
colonization movement and the abandonment of the patriarchal order of
marriage. In consequence of this, the Kingdom of God was deprived of
its real, concrete, and material content and began to be defined more in
terms of a church organization and spiritual authority. The New Jeru-
salem was still the sochl ideal but no longer a city to be built immediately
in this world but one which Christ will build when he returns to earth.
The material aims tended to become spiritual ideals.

Heretofore very slight distinction was made between the spiritual
and the temporal affairs of the church. They all belonged to the King-
dom of God and the church claimed the right to exercise its authority in
any direction. But when sufficient private capital had accumulated and
the individuals began to feel their own strength and could undertake
business enterprises without the aid of the church its influence in eco-
nomic matters began to decline. The state began to assume greater
responsibility and was becoming stronger in all lines of general com-
munity interest. The individuals were beginning to assert themselves
through the institutions of the state. The church was forced to confine
its activities to that sphere in which the older group sentiments still hold
sway. Its sphere was becoming less temporal and more spiritual. Its
attention was being turned to its traditions, and its function was becom-
ing more and more that of conserving its institutions and group senti-
ments.

This new situation has put the church on the defensive. Its problem
now is to protect its own sentiments and institutions and to defend the
faith. The good man now is a staunch defender of the institutions and
true to the faith. The following hymn reveals the sentiments which
the orthodox members are struggling to establish among the youth :

Shall the youth of Zion falter,

In defending truth and right ?
While the enemy assaileth,

Shall we shrink, or shun the fight ? No!

True to the faith that our parents have cherished;

True to the truth for which martyrs have perished ;
To God's command, soul, heart, and hand,

Faithful and true we will ever stand.1

1 Songs of Zion, No. 179.

92 PSYCHOLOGICAL AND ETHICAL ASPECTS

Just as the foregoing hymn illustrates the stress that is placed on old
sentiments so the following statement from a recent sermon illustrates
the attention that is now given to laws, form, and institutions.

God has given unto his children a code of laws: faith, repentance, and
baptism by immersion for the remission of sins, by those who have authority,
to administer in the ordinances of his kingdom, the laying on of hands for the
gift of the Holy Ghost, the law of tithing, the law of consecration, the law of
sealing ordinances in the house wherein man and woman are sealed for time
and all eternity, and all the various cardinal principles of the gospel. These
are the laws of our being, unto which we must subscribe if we would inherit
the earth when it has lived its laws, that we may live upon it many, many years.1

Of these "cardinal principles" faith is the most basic. It is the
sacred duty of every member of the church to believe implicitly in the
divinity of Jesus Christ, in the revelations of Joseph Smith, in the
authenticity of the Book of Mormon, in miracles and spiritual gifts. He
must believe in the divinity of the priesthood and in the idea that all
the organizations of the church are sacred institutions established by God.
He must accept the literal interpretation of the Bible. The man who
does not have this state of mind is not a good man in a positive sense.
Morality without faith is negative and does not lead to the highest
spiritual life. Faith means spirituality "and without spirituality there
can be no vital living morality."

The following brief statements made by church authorities in the
recent general conferences illustrate the importance that is now attached
to faith. According to C. W. Nibley the mission of Mormonism is to
protect the faith.

Now here is the mission of Mormonism. Here is the great need of this
church, that faith shall not be abolished from the earth, from the hearts of the

children of men We believe in education, but some of us send our

children away from home to be educated, and many of them come back seem-
ingly determined to claim relationship with the apes rather than with angels.2

According to Reed Smoot, Christianity is endangered by heresy.

I care not for the cranks that may arise from time to time, for their lives
are short; but it seems to me that when a man like Dr. Charles Eliot .... comes
out and announces as a new doctrine a faith that denies the divinity of Jesus
Christ, that denies that man is made in God 's image, that denies the authen-
ticity of all biblical miracles, the efficacy of prayer, the supernatural value of
sacrament, the merit of self-sacrifice, and even denies the immortality of the
soul, it strikes me .... that there is danger for Christianity among the people.3

1 W. H. Smart, Eighty-seventh Annual Conference Report, pp. Q5-96.

2 Eighty- first Annual Conference Report, pp. 54-55.

3 General Conference Report for iqoq.

OF MORMON GROUP LIFE 93

Faith is worth more than life according to Joseph F. Smith:

Every device possible to the understanding and ingenuity of cunning men
is being used for the purpose of diverting our children from the faith of the
gospel and from the love of truth I would rather take one of my chil-
dren to the grave than I would see him turn away from this gospel.1

This defensive attitude of the orthodox Mormons reflects the present
conflict. Faith in church dogma has become a moral value which has
grown out of the present social situation. It is the great virtue of today
just as loyalty was the great virtue in the first period, or efficiency and
industry in the second period of Mormon history.

To honor the priesthood in the pioneer days meant to obey those who
were endowed with its authority. But high priestly authority and capa-
city for leadship usually went together. In fact the priesthood in-
creased its power and sanctity through the social service which it rendered.
It possessed utility and could command obedience because of it. To
honor the priesthood in recent years is not so much a matter of obeying it
for the purpose of realizing a material benefit as it is to recognize its
divinity and refrain from criticizing and speaking ill against the "Lord's
Anointed." This attitude toward the ecclesiastical authorities, like
the attitude toward faith has grown out of internal conditions. It
results from the growing critical spirit among the younger members of
the church. The orthodox element feels a need for putting itself on the
defense. Thus says Joseph F. Smith:

Fathers and mothers in Israel, will you try to teach your children ....
that the Prophet Joseph Smith restored again to the earth the priesthood which
was held by Peter, James, and John. Teach your children to respect their

bishops and the teachers that come to their homes to teach them teach

them to honor the priesthood which you hold.2

As the controlling power of the group weakens, the priestly authority
becomes less positive. Thus Brigham Young could command when the
prophet of today may only advise and counsel. Brigham Young could
exercise the authority of the priesthood in nearly every line of com-
munity or individual interests. The present leader must confine the
exercise of his priestly influence within certain limits. These limits are
fixed by group sentiments. When he extends his activity into political
and industrial affairs he meets with opposition from those who do not
feel the old group sentiments. Only the older members of the church

1 General Conference, 1909, pp. 2-8.

1 Eighty-seventh Annual Conference Report, p. 5.

94 PSYCHOLOGICAL AND ETHICAL ASPECTS

recognize the voice of a prophet in these matters. The following remark
of Apostle Talmage illustrates the situation and the struggle which the
church leaders are having to maintain the desired attitude toward the
prophet:

I have met here and there a disgruntled one, one who is saying," Why don 't
we receive further revelation from God today ? " We are receiving it day by
day If ever the church of Christ was led by a prophet enjoying com-
munion with God .... and none of us can doubt such leadership in the past
— this day witnesses that condition. I testify unto you that the man who
stands at the head of this church is the mouth piece of God unto his people, and
if we fail to heed his words, his admonitions, his instruction given unto us as they
have been, and are, in love and nevertheless with firmness and with no uncer-
tainty of tone, we bring ourselves under condemnation.1

Again, since the priesthood represents the authority of the group and
since the power of this authority depends upon the traditional attitudes
and old group sentiments, the field of its activity tends to be limited
largely to the preservation of forms and sentiments already established.
Thus, unlike conditions in the colonizing period when the initiative was
taken by the higher church authorities, today the social reform move-
ments in Mormon communities are undertaken by the younger men and
women, who hold subordinate positions in the church.

Thus, out of active, enthusiastic, and practical group sentiments has
emerged a system of formal laws or duties. What were once means to
an end have now become ends in themselves. Tithing was once a means
to the building up of God 's kingdom but now it is a duty to pay tithing
whether the church needs the money or not. It is a duty for a man to go
on a mission when called by the divine authority although he may ques-
tion his qualifications to preach the gospel. It is his duty to have faith
in all the doctrines of Mormonism although his experience may lead him
to doubt the validity of some of them.

In conclusion, let us review the evolution of Mormon ethics with
reference to our three basic psychological principles. In the first place
we have observed that the moral self was identical with the social or
group self. In the first stage the self was completely merged in the group.
The moral life was therefore relatively simple, to be loyal to "Israel"
and remain responsive to the suggestions of the group. In the second
period, the group developed more complex aims. The moral self became
more reflective and less impulsive. The individual was now able to
distinguish between his social self and his egoistic self. In the third
stage the social self is identified with the traditional and customary atti-

1 Eighty-eighth Annual Conference Report, p. 161.

OF MORMON GROUP LIFE 95

tudes of the group. The moral self is now one who keeps the faith and
observes the laws and forms of the church.

Altruism and egotism are thus found to be relative matters. In the
early group conflict the Mormon people were egotistic in their relations
with the opposite group but very altruistic in dealing with one another.
However, not until the economic problems of the second period presented
themselves did the people become fully conscious of this as a moral prin-
ciple. It was the removal of the external social pressure and the con-
centration of attention upon the group 's own welfare which made it pos-
sible for the individuals to recognize a moral obligation as such. But
even in the second period moral obligation did not often extend beyond
the members of the group. However, in the third stage, the growing
commercial, political, and educational intercourse with the outside
world is having the effect of extending sympathetic relations and a sense
of obligation to people outside of the group.

As to our second proposition, we have observed that the moral evolu-
tion was essentially an evolution of sentiments. The early group life was
impulsive and emotional and out of this developed the most basic and
permanent Mormon sentiments. These sentiments became definitely
attached to certain persons, institutions, and events. In the second
period other sentiments developed, peculiar to the pioneer life. All these
sentiments have accumulated and represent in the third period very
definite and fixed attitudes. The orthodox Mormon has always found
morality on the side of these sentiments, and associated immorality with
the spirit and life which has opposed them.

But these group sentiments, as we have observed, are well personified
in the God of Israel. This personification has made the transition from
one stage of Mormon moral standards to another more obvious. Thus,
in the first stage, God was engaged in protecting his "chosen people"
and punishing the "rebellious." Under His special direction the Saints
were led in battle against the devil and his followers. The true servant
of God at that time was one who was loyal and submissive to the will of
God. In the second period, God became the deliverer of Israel from
the persecution of the enemy. He led his people to a land of refuge.
He made their land productive and increased their storehouses. He
assigned his people a practical task, to build up his kingdom. An effi-
cient servant was rewarded with a home in Zion, with a large family and
with flocks and herds. In the third period, God has become a law giver
to his people and a defender of his priesthood and the sacred institutions
of the group. The reward for righteousness is now spiritual ; it is salva-
tion in the Kingdom of Heaven.

96 PSYCHOLOGICAL AND ETHICAL ASPECTS

CHAPTER XII
THE POSSIBILITIES FOR ADJUSTMENT

From the practical point of view the outcome of the present internal
conflict is a most vital question. The maladjustment which existed
between the Mormons and the Gentiles is practically overcome, and so
is that between the Mormons and the arid country. We have observed
the strife between science and Mormon theology, the contradiction
between the business interest of the priesthood and the spirit of industrial
democracy, we have observed the contentions occasioned by the Mormon
marriage institutions and finally traced the development of Mormon
ethical ideals and standards. In treating these problems we have been
concerned more with the interpretation of the different factors involved
in the conflict than with the social value of the process itself. What will
these tendencies lead to, and of what practical value are they to the
group? These are questions deserving attention.

The dogmatic opponent of Mormonism regards all of its institutions
as positively bad and as directly hindering progress. To him the solution
of the problem is the elimination of all that is Mormon. The orthodox
Mormon, on the other hand, believes that all the institutions of his
church are divine and essential to the great plan of human salvation. His
solution of the problem is the silencing of critics and heretics. The ideal
situation, in his mind, is for every member of the church to accept with
implicit faith every word that falls from the lips of the prophet and obey
unhesitatingly the authority of the priesthood. Or as one of the apostles
of the church expressed it: "I would that the faith of all Israel increased
to the point that every man, woman, and child would say, ' I know not
save the Lord commandeth. ' " To the unprejudiced mind neither of
these attitudes points the way to progress.

Conflict is neither bad nor good in itself. It may result in destruc-
tion or it may be the condition for progressive reconstruction. The
internal conflict simply reveals the fact that a crisis has come and a change
is about to take place. This change may destroy the group life or it may
strengthen it. The crisis is a warning of approaching danger and an
opportunity for progress. Without it Mormon religious life would be
reduced to a dead level. Such is the case in some of the rural communi-
ties where the new critical spirit has not yet expressed itself. In such

OF MORMON GROUP LIFE 97

places religious discussion consists largely of repeating religious dogma,
retelling the old Mormon and gentile struggles and relating the experi-
ences of the pioneers. Even in some of the general conferences of the
church in Salt Lake City, the sameness of thought and expression becomes
so monotonous that the most sympathetic member indicates weariness.
But the majority of the people favor harmony rather than discord for
the former is the true spirit of the gospel, but confusion is prompted by
the devil.

The proper adjustment is not to be brought about by prohibiting
criticism nor can it be made by eliminating wholly the old institutions
and traditions. Criticism provides the occasion for readjustment and
progress. On the other hand institutions and traditions tend to retain
the social standards already established and give stability to the life
of the community. They function in the life of the community just as
habits do in the individual. They form the automatic side of conduct,
maintain unity and order among the basic relations of life, and thus set
free the voluntary elements of consciousness to work out new modes of
behavior. They constitute fundamental factors in the control of the
individual life as well as in that of the social group. Progress may build
more certain attainments by utilizing these historical accumulations than
by ignoring them. The reason why many social revolutions have failed
to realize very valuable aims is because the basic factors of social control
were disregarded. No effective reconstruction in Mormonism will be
had unless its sentiments and institutions are turned to good account.
Real progress presupposes proper social continuity.

To overcome the present maladjustment two concessions must be
made. On the one hand every institution of Mormonism must be sub-
jected to the searchlight of science, and scientific truths, in so far as they
provide human welfare, must be considered as sacred as religious truths.
On the other hand the educators of Utah must be willing to analyze the
Mormon institutions with the true impartial attitude and recognize the
desirable as well as the undesirable qualities. In short, prejudice must
be removed from both sides before real progress can be attained. The
ideal situation will be more fully realized when the church will make more
frequent use of scientific experts to aid in its many educational enter-
prises, and when the college graduate will regard the church, of which he is
a member, as an organization through which he can render social and
moral service.

We have already discussed in different connections the importance
of attention in determining the various aspects of the spiritual life of

98 PSYCHOLOGICAL AND ETHICAL ASPECTS

Mormonism. We have observed how the strong concentration of group
attention added divinity to the leaders, magnified the importance of his-
torical events and places and how, through this factor, institutions became
sacred. A long history of such centralized group consciousness accom-
panied by great emotional excitement has created strong Mormon
sentiments toward the past and its accumulations of institutions so that
it is difficult to direct attention upon present-day problems. Many of
the Mormons seem to live by themselves in a world constructed out of
their past group life, a distinct world of discourse.

In addition to this group sentiment which directs attention toward
the past there is a sort of Mormon scholasticism which has, in recent
years, engaged the attention of some of the educated members of the
church. It has one purpose — that of justifying the Mormon dogmas.
This peculiar rationalizing tendency has developed side by side with
heresy which it is constantly endeavoring to silence by argument.
Besides a large number of books written with this aim, the church theo-
logical classes are making use of this line of reasoning. The old institu-
tions and traditions are thus fortified on the one hand by sentiment and
on the other by a well-developed system of theology.

Opposed to these conservative Mormon theologians stand those
who are effectively bringing about a readjustment in both thought and
sentiment. These people do not present direct opposition. They tend
to shift the attention to the more vital problems of the day. They
emphasize the present rather than the past, the immediate rather than the
remote, the concrete rather than the abstract.

Among the most important of the conditions that tend to bring about
readjustment is the rapid growth of colleges and high schools in the state
as well as a tendency for a large number of young people to seek education
outside of the state. Between four and five thousand young people of
Mormon parentage are attending college every year and many times that
number are in high schools. They are thus coming in contact with the
educational spirit and developing a great many new ideals and values.
The many possibilities of the larger life, social and scientific, are being
forced upon them. These new interests are not regarded as antagonistic
to the Mormon ideals, but little by little they detract the attention from
creed and abstract theology.

The lines of educational interest which most directly influence this
reconstruction are those of the social sciences. Courses in sociology,
economics, political science, ethics of citizenship, social psychology, the
psychology of religion and the scientific study of the Bible are all related

OF MORMON GROUP LIFE 99

directly to the local problem. Unlike some other scientific courses these
not only raise the problems of interest and detract attention from the non-
essentials, but they raise the main questions of conflict and point the way
of adjustment. Thus young people are beginning to view the church in
an objective manner and judge its institutions upon their merits. This
free discussion of institutions is an "admission" that questions of author-
ity and of dogma are not absolutely settled. When a sacred subject is
once admitted to discussion it tends to lose its divinity and sometimes
its vitality as a factor in control.

But while it is important that the institutions of a social group should
be subject to criticism, this examination and introspection may, like the
institutions, become an end itself. Institutions are not made by the
power of reason altogether nor are they reformed for practical use by
such a conscious effort. They are made and reshaped to a large extent
while the group is in action. The more or less blind, forward movement
plays also its part in selection, creation, and readaptation of both the
conscious life and the social institutions. Analysis and criticism inhibits
natural expression of impulses in the group as well as in the individual.
It creates friction and results in the loss of energy. The Mormon group
was most active when it centered its attention upon some thing outside of
itself, upon an opposing group or upon some obstacle of its environment.
Then thought looked outward rather than inward, and seemed to possess
wonderful vitality. The group built cities, as it were, in a day; it en-
dured great privation; it met and surmounted a variety of obstacles.
But it is with a social group as with an individual, it tends to lose its
vigor as soon as it becomes self-conscious. Its spirit weakens as soon as
it begins to think about itself.

If the youth of Mormonism remain content with the mere rationali-
zation and criticism of their inherited institutions, nothing worth while
will be accomplished; they will end where they began, in mere reflection.
What Mormonism needs today is the vitalization of its institutions,
which need to be put into use rather than merely contemplated. They
should function as means rather than be analyzed as ends. When Mor-
monism finds more glory in working out new social ideals than in the
contemplating of past achievements or the beauty of its own theological
system, it will begin to feel its old-time strength. The group spirit will
reappear in a new form.

Mormonism of today needs to emphasize its social problems, those
which are felt to be vital by all its classes, its sentimentalists, its rational-
ists, its critics. It needs to emphasize problems which will engage the

ioo PSYCHOLOGICAL AND ETHICAL ASPECTS

attention of all of these; one which will unify the varied interests and at
the same time force the attention away from itself. They must be prob-
lems to which every member of the church will respond. They should
stimulate feeling and thought, and above all, they must stimulate action.
There is a demand for a leadership which not only possesses the
sentiments of the group but which is responsive to the social and moral
impulses of the times. The men who feel the spirit and needs of the hour,
who are in direct contact with all the new relations of life, may be able to
unite the contending factions and become the leaders of the present and
future generations of Mormonism.

INDEX

Abraham, received concubines, 16, 75
Abram, Lord said to, 15, 16
Ames, E. S., quoted, 35, 73

Bishop, the temporal officer, 5

Brigham Young University, instruction

and conflict, 64, 63
Brimhall, G. H., quoted, 66

Caldwell County, 22

Clay County, 21

Colonization: three problems of, 40;
methods of, 42, 43, 44, 45 ; prose-
lyting as a means of, 43, 44

Communistic ideal, origin of, 17

Conflict: causes of, 29, 30; significance
of, 97, stages of, 8

Co-operation: commercial, 52, 53, 54, 55;
in manufacturing, 50, 51, 52

Criticism: institutions subject to, 99;
spirit of, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65

Doctrine and Covenants, defined, 6

Faith, as an ideal, 92
Families, large, 46, 90

God, as Spirit of group, 24, 95
Godbeite Movement, 60, 61
Group consciousness, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23,
24; stages in development of, 59

Hume, theory of, 89

Immigration, 43, 44, 45, 46

Institutions: business, 69, 70; as prod-
ucts of past experience, 67

Irrigation: co-operative origin of, 41, 42;
necessity of, 40, 41; practices in Egypt
and by Indian tribes, 40, 41

Jackson County, sacred land, 18, 24
James, William, quoted, 13

Marriage: patriarchal order of, 16;

spiritual covenant of, 73
Migration, organization for, 37, 38, 39
Mill, John Stuart, ethical theory of, 8S
Missouri, expulsion from, 21, 22, 23
Morality, group, 82, 83

Mormonism: and Christianity, 17; em-
braces temporal interests, 4; as a
process of adjustment, 9; origin of, 14;
moral stages in, 80

Nauvoo, an independent city, 26
Nibley, C. W., quoted, 92

Penrose, C. W., quoted, 64

Persecution, cause of, 19

Polygamy: as cause of conflict, 76;

origin of, 75
President, power of, 6
Priesthood, authority and responsibility

of, 5, 94
Psychology, functional, 3

Revenue system, 6, 7
Rigdon, Sidney, associated with Joseph
Smith, 17; quoted, 23

Scholasticism in Mormonism, 98

Secret Constitution, 19

Smith, Adam, theory of, 84

Smith, Joseph: character of, 27, 28;
inspired by group, 27, 28; sentiment
of group toward, 29; religious genius,
14; use of Bible language and Israelit-
ish ideals, 15

Smith, Joseph F., quoted, 4, 5, 67, 71, 72

Smoot, Reed, quoted, 92

Taylor, John, quoted, 54
Thomas, W. I., quoted, 74
Tithing, 6, 66, 67, 68, 92
Tulledge, T. W., quoted, 51

Union Pacific Railroad, commercial sig-
nificance of, 49, 52

United Order: argument for, 51; nature
of, 5

Veblin, quoted, 66

Woodruff, Wilford, quoted, 76, 78

Young, Brigham: inspired by group, 47;
leadership, 36; quoted, 45

Zion Co-operative Mercantile Institu-
tion, S3, 54, 55
Zion, Land of, 15, 18

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