Brigham Young, an American Moses

For Brigham Young, building the kingdom of God in a semi-arid region was a matter of cooperation, not competition. Brigham wanted self-sufficient communities occupied by self-reliant families. Sharing scarce provisions and resources, Brigham organized cooperative efforts to dig canals, construct roads, build telegraph lines, gristmills and tanneries. The Saints similarly established new industries: cotton and woolen mills, iron foundries, a sugar beet factory, and eventually the railroad. Historian and biographer Leonard Arrington notes: "All such enterprises were financed by voluntary tithes, which meant that each man and his team labored for the Church one day in ten and contributed one-tenth of his crops, one-tenth of the increase in livestock, and one-tenth of the produce and other home productions . . . to support laborers on public works."

Click on Headline Above for Complete Story...