greed of the present hierarchy satisfied with one-tenth of a
Mormon's income. Said Joseph F. Smith, at the April Conference of 1899
(according to the Church's official report): "If a farmer raises two
thousand bushels of wheat, as the result of his year's labor, how
many bushels should he pay for tithing? Well, some go straightway to
dickering with the Lord. They will say that they hired a man so and
so, and his wages must be taken out; that they had to pay such and such
expenses, and this cost and that cost; and they reckon out all their
expenses and tithe the balance." To Smith's inspired financial genius
this was "dickering with the Lord." He wished to collect ten per cent of
the farmer's entire yield--a tithe that would have bankrupted the farmer
in three years!

Nor is the tithe any longer the only exaction demanded by the Prophet.
A score of "donations" have been added. There is the Stake Tabernacle
Donation, which is a fund collected from the Mormons of each "Stake"
(corresponding usually to a county) for the building of a house in which
to hold Stake Conferences. There is the Ward Meeting-House Donation,
which is a fund collected from the Mormons of every "ward" for the
erection of a local chapel. There is the Fast Day Donation, made up
of contributions gathered on the afternoon of the first Sunday of each
month, at what is called "a fast meeting," for the support of the local
poor; and this is supplemented by the Relief Society Donation, solicited
by the members of the Ladies Relief Society, in a house-to-house
canvass, from Mormons and Gentiles alike. A Light and Heat Donation is
collected by the deacons of the ward, under direction of the bishop, to
pay for the lighting and heating of the ward meeting house; a Missionary
Donation is collected at a "Missionary benefit entertainment," to help
defray the expenses of a member of a ward sent on a mission; and since a
missionary must necessarily be an elder, a Quorum Missionary Donation is
also taken from his fellow members of the quorum, to assist him. So
far as the Church is concerned, he travels "without purse or scrip," by
order of "revelation;" but this inhibition does not extend to the use of
his own money--if he has any left after paying the other exaction's--nor
does it prevent him either from receiving contributions from his
impoverished fellows or accepting charity from "the enemies of God's
people," whom he labors to redeem. And on these terms about ninet