Abroad at Home: American Ramblings, Observations, and Adventures of Julian StreetStreet, Julian
General
Abroad at Home: American Ramblings, Observations, and Adventures of Julian Street
Street, Julian
United States -- Description and travel; United States -- Social life and customs -- 1865-1918
Of the city's fourteen banks and trust companies, nine are not under
Mormon control; of five department stores, four are non-Mormon; all
skyscrapers except one are owned by "gentiles"; likewise four-fifths of
the best residence property. Furthermore, neither the city government
nor the public utilities are run by Mormons, nor are the Mayor and the
President of the Board of Education members of that church.
This is not to say that Mormon business interests are not enormous, but
only that there has been exaggeration on these points, as on many others
concerning this sect. The heads of the church are big business men, and
President Smith is, among other things, a director of the Union Pacific
Railroad Company.
Among other well-informed men with whom I talked upon this subject was
the city-editor of a leading newspaper.
"I am not a Mormon," he said, "although my wife is one. You may draw
your own conclusions as to the Mormon attitude when I tell you that the
paper on which I work is controlled by them, yet that, as it happens
just now, I haven't a Mormon reporter on my staff. Here and there there
may be some old hard-shell Mormon who won't employ any one that isn't a
member of the church, but cases of that kind are as rare among Mormons
as among other religious sects."
Every business man with whom I talked seemed anxious to impress me with
this fact, that I might pass it on in print.
"For heaven's sake," said one impassioned citizen, "tell people that we
raise something out here besides Mormons and hell!"
One of the most level-headed men I met in Salt Lake City was a Mormon,
though not orthodox. His position with regard to the church was
precisely the same as that of a man who has been brought up in any other
church, but who, as he grows older, cannot accept the creed in its
entirety. His attitude as to the Mormon Bible was one of honest doubt.
In short, he was an agnostic, and as such talked interestingly.
"Of course," he said, "out here we are as used to the Mormon religion
and to the idea that some men have a number of wives, as you are to the
idea that men have only one wife. It doesn't seem strange to us. I can't
adjust my mind to the fact that it is strange, and I only become
conscious of it when I go to other parts of the country and find that,
when people know I'm a Mormon, they become very curious, and want me to
tell them all about the Mormons and polygamy.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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