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Show 5 Because of the razor thin survival margin in the pioneers' new surroundings, effective use of all the resources available was important to the success of the settlement experiment. In order to minimize contention and to channel efforts towards the common goal of establishing communities, the leaders of the church applied firm discipline in establishing Mormon colonies. From the beginning scattered settlement was denounced. Leaders called for group settlement and cautioned against the pioneers' dispersing their labor's efforts. 7 The goal was community development. To facilitate this approach, Brigham Young, the church president, early on denounced speculation in land and declared there would be no private ownership of the timber or water resources. 8 It was hoped that by establishing the institution of common ownership ( or noncapitalistic ownership) of the water the settlers would use it in ways that would protect the interest of the overall community. 9 The early church leaders believed that by promoting cooperative institutions the beneficial use of water and other resources would be generally promoted and joint or community projects would be encouraged. The benefits ( and also the risks) would be spread among the entire community rather than to a few individual. 10 The Pioneer Institution Within a few months after the 1847 arrival of the Mormons, an embryonic system of water resource development took form. Among its characteristics were appropriation, irrigation, full development, attachment to the land, ownership in common, and a large degree of central church Ibid., p 45. Arlington partially quotes Heber C. Kimball, speaking on August 22,1847, as recorded in Howard Egan, Pioneering the West 1846 - 1878 ( Richmond, Utah: Howard R. Egan Estate, 1917), p 127. That this pattern of central planning and collective labor was ideally designed for the geography and conditions of settlement in the Great Basin was something which came to be appreciated later: It confirmed to die Mormons that their way was God's way. But before this was recognized - indeed, in the first camp meeting held in the Salt Lake Valley - leaders and followers reached a consensus mat they would not ' scatter' their labors - that they would combine and concentrate their efforts and work cooperatively - that a Kingdom built in any other way was a fraud - a ' Kingdom of the world.' * Ibid., p 52. To understand the contrast of the Utah cooperative system to the private profit oriented system in other areas refer to Douglas R. Littlefield, " Water Rights during the California Gold Rush: Conflicts over Economic Points of View," Western Historical Quarterly 14 ( October 1983), pp 415- 434. Leonard J. Arlington, Great Basin Kingdom, p 62. In commenting on the unique aspects of Mormon cooperation Arlington states: Yet, Mormon economic institutions were unique in the contemporary American West. To be sure, there was die same hunger, the same improvisation, the same struggle for success, as in all Western settlements. But the unity, homogeneity, joint action, and group planning all stamped the Mormon frontier as unique - as a contrast widi the scattered, specialized, exploitative, ' wide open' mining, cattle, lumber, and homestead frontiers with which historians have familiarized us. George Thomas, Institutions Under Irrigation, p 19. In describing die canal building practices of early Utah settlers Thomas states: The fundamental diing to understand is mat die canal in early Utah was, as a rule, a community or cooperative undertaking because not only die welfare but the very existence of die community depended upon its success. Arthur Maass and Raymond L. Anderson, .. xmd the Desert Shall Rejoice: Conflict, Growth, and Justice in Arid Environments ( Cambridge, Massachusetts, and London, England: The MTT Press, 1978), p 334. Irrigation companies in Utah are organized typically as mutual irrigation companies. Originally die irrigation systems were voluntary cooperative ventures run principally by village officials, who were almost always functionaries in die local ward of die Mormon church. |
