ure
to effect the reform.

When the Presidency had approved of the flotation of bonds, I went with
my father to New York to aid him in interesting Eastern capitalists
in the investment. We interviewed Judge John F. Dillon and Mr. Winslow
Pierce, of the law firm of Dillon and Pierce, attorneys for some of the
Union Pacific interests; and through them we met Mr. Edward H. Harriman,
Mr. George J. Gould and members of the firm of Kuhn Loeb and Company. It
was interesting to watch the encounters between the Mormon prophet and
some of these astutest of the nation's financiers; for it was as if one
of the ancient patriarchs had stepped down from the days of early Israel
to discuss the financial problems of his people with a modern "captain
of industry." He described a condition of society that was, to Wall
Street, archaic. He spoke with a serene assurance that the order of
affairs in Utah was constituted in the wisdom of the word of God. He
was listened to, with the interest of curiosity, as the chief living
exponent of the Mormon movement, its processes and its aims; and I
was impressed by the fact that these men of the world had a large and
splendid sympathy for any wholesome social effort designed to abolish
poverty and establish a quicker justice in the practical affairs of the
race.

It was of the abolition of poverty and the justice of the social order
among the Mormons, that the First Councillor chiefly spoke. "Your
clients," he said to Judge Dillon, "make their investments frequently in
railroad stocks and bonds. What are the underlying bases of the values
of railroad securities? Largely the industry and stability of the
communities through which the railroad lines shall operate. Then, in
reality, the security is valuable in proportion to the value of the
community in its steadfastness, its prosperity and the safety of its
productive labor. In your railroad investments you are obliged to take
such considerations as a secondary security. In negotiating this Church
loan with your clients, you can offer the same great values as a primary
security. Probably no where else in the world is there a people at once
so industrious and so stable as ours."

It was the boast of the Mormons that there had not been an almshouse or
an almstaker in any of their settlements, up to the time of the escheat
proceedings by the Federal officials; and this was literally true. Every
man had been helped to the employment for which he was best