To the President, Vice Presidents and Board of Directors
of the United Order at St. George:
Dear Brethren:
Your letter of the 2nd inst sent by the hands of Bishops Gardner and Bunker, has reached me, and we are much pleased to learn from it and from the statements of these Bishops, of your general prosperity and the success which has attended your labors under the United Order.
You say that those who have entered the Order with their time and all their substance fully controlled, move along with little trouble; while those who have interests seperate from the Order have to use part of their time to see to those interests.
These are the results which we should expect to see follow where people have divided interests. If a man presented himself to you for baptism, and requested that only a portion of his body should be baptized, you would reject his application and say to him that he must have his entire person immersed or he could not become a member of the Church. So with the Order. we do not wish to accept a portion of a man's person and a portion of his substance; therefore, until he is ready to enter himself and with all that he has he should not be a member of the Order, and this is our instructions to all the Branches of the Order. This alludes particularly to persons who are not in debt so but that they can settle up and come into the Order if they so choose. There are many points, however, which need explanations, and as Brothers Erastus Snow and Geo. Q. Cannon will visit you before long they will be able to make them.
You say that your Monthly Board Meetings are not attended by a quorum of the Board from settlements outside of St George, and that this arises from a feeling that each settlement organization considers it self empowered to do its own business to suit its own convenience.
Each settlement organization is thus empowered; but where there is business of a general nature in which the Stake is interested, each should report to and be governed by the action of the central organization in council with the other officers of the Order, and when it is desirable to arrange the prices of labor, of products and of manufactures, delegates should be sent from the Settlement organizations to meet for that purpose with the Board of Directors at St George
As you will see by the Articles of Incorporation, copies of which we have sent to you, we are organizing the Order under the Statutes of the Territory. This is not for the purpose of "perpetuating individual interests"; but to protect ourselves by law and that it may be a shield to us. If the law is not as perfect as we wish it was, it answers an excellent purpose and we can operate under it, if we are so disposed, to great advantage. It is the use of the words "stock" and "dividend" which has created the impressions of which you speak; but these phrases are neccessary to carry out the law.
The question is asked: if a man turn his mule teams into the Order, and they are put in his charge to go a teaming with, and he should earn, say five hundred dollars in goods, money, &c. when he returns what must he do with this means?
He should pay the amount earned by the teams into the treasury; then should he want some portion of those earnings for his own and his family's use, it should be given to him by the Board or the Superintendent, and be charged to him as a portion of his dividend. These teams being an active trust, the owner, when he turns them into the Order, received stock therefor, which stock will be entitled to dividends. This explains also the other question respecting a member who turns in all his substance and receives credit for it, but only draws pay for his time, and this pay proving insufficient, even with strict economy, to support his family, it is asked "will he not be compelled to draw from his original capital and, finally, consume it altogether?"
If the man's substance is active, he will draw a dividend upon it in addition to his labor; if the Order, however, cannot make it produce as he can, let him return it as a stewardship under the direction of the Board. If a man can support himself before entering into the Order, he can certainly sustain himself after entering into it; for one grand feature of the Order is retrenchment. A man who cannot sustain himself before or after entering into the Order will live as the rest of us, and probably this account will be more than his wages, still it is not a debt against him.
You ask, "can the United Order be conducted on the system of a well regulated family? &c"
Yes, certainly; but we are scarcely in a position to carry this out now, though this system of living will eventually be reached. Should this be adopted however, in any of the Branches of the Order at the present time, care must be taken in the keeping of books to have every member of the family charged with the amount he or she may draw. This is not for the purpose of creating a debt against each, but that an account of the expenses may be kept and that it may be known how the means has been expended. Jealousies are apt to arise and people think they have not drawn as much as they have; by keeping books this will explain all so that everyone should be perfectly satisfied.
The proceeds of the labor of the respective organizations of Farming, Mechanical, Manufacturing and Stock raising Departments should be controlled and disbursed through one treasury, under the Board of Management, and that Board, with the delegates from the other organizations, should regulate the prices.
We do not wish to say anything upon the subject of wages. Each Stake, where there is an organization, must appraise their own produce and labor. Men can be selected as appraisers, in whom the people have confidence and whose decision they will abide to place value upon the labor of each class.
The Order will pay its Tithing in bulk, and perhaps do a great deal more, and those who do not join the Order should pay their tithing promptly.
With kind love to yourselves and all the Saints and praying for your continued prosperity
We remain Your Brethren (signed)
Brigham Young
Geo A. Smith
Daniel H, Wells