nt), which is a
part of, and pays dividends to, the national salt trust. He is taught to
go for his merchandise to the Zion's Co-operative Mercantile Institution
(Joseph F. Smith, president), where even whiskey is sold under the
symbol of the All-seeing Eye and the words "Holiness to the Lord" in
gilt letters; and Joseph F. Smith, at the April Conference, of 1898
(according to the Church's official report), scolded those "pretendedly
pious" Mormons who "were shocked and horrified" to find "liquid poison"
sold under these auspices--for, as Smith argued, with characteristic
greed, if the Mormon who wanted whiskey could not get it in the Church
store, "he would not patronize Z.C.M.I. at all, but would go elsewhere
to deal!"

The farmers are "counselled" to buy their vehicles from "the Church's"
firm, the Consolidated Wagon and Machine Company (Joseph F. Smith,
president); to take out their fire insurance with the Church's "Home
Fire Insurance Company" (Joseph F. Smith, controller); and to insure
their lives with the Church's "Beneficial Life Insurance Company"
(Joseph F. Smith, president). The Salt Lake Knitting Company (of which
Joseph F. Smith is president) makes, among other things, the sacred
knitted garments that are prescribed for every Mormon who takes the
"Endowment Oaths," to be worn by him forever after as a shield "against
the Adversary;" and these garments bear the label: "Approved by the
Presidency. No knitted garment approved which does not bear this label."
By which ingenious bit of religious commercialism, the sacred marks
on the garments (accepted as a sort of passport to Heaven) have been
increased by the sacred Smith trademark that admits the wearer to the
Smith Heaven.

The Church's banking institutions, of which Joseph F. Smith is
president, are recommended as safer than others because the money goes
into the hands of "the brethren." Church newspapers must be subscribed
for, because all others are "unreliable"--although the Church's Deseret
News (Joseph F. Smith, president) is one of the most dishonest, unjust
and mendacious organs that ever poisoned the public mind. And so
on, through the whole list of business concerns by which the Church
authorities are to profit. The Mormons, having learned of old the value
of a solid, community support for community enterprises established
in the interests of the community, are still kept solidly supporting
ecclesiastical enterprises administered for the benefit