Brigham Young and His Economic System.—­In Brigham Young the Mormons had a leader of remarkable power who gave direction to the redemption of the arid soil, the management of property, and the upbuilding of industry.  He promised them to make the desert blossom as the rose, and verily he did it.  He firmly shaped the enterprise of the colony along co-operative lines, holding down the speculator and profiteer with one hand and giving encouragement to the industrious poor with the other.  With the shrewdness befitting a good business man, he knew how to draw the line between public and private interest.  Land was given outright to each family, but great care was exercised in the distribution so that none should have great advantage over another.  The purchase of supplies and the sale of produce were carried on through a cooeperative store, the profits of which went to the common good.  Encountering for the first time in the history of the Anglo-Saxon race the problem of aridity, the Mormons surmounted the most perplexing obstacles with astounding skill.  They built irrigation works by cooeperative labor and granted water rights to all families on equitable terms.

The Growth of Industries.—­Though farming long remained the major interest of the colony, the Mormons, eager to be self-supporting in every possible way, bent their efforts also to manufacturing and later to mining.  Their missionaries, who hunted in the highways and byways of Europe for converts, never failed to stress the economic advantages of the sect.  “We want,” proclaimed President Young to all the earth, “a company of woolen manufacturers to come with machinery and take the wool from the sheep and convert it into the best clothes.  We want a company of potters; we need them; the clay is ready and the dishes wanted....  We want some men to start a furnace forthwith; the iron, coal, and molders are waiting....  We have a printing press and any one who can take good printing and writing paper to the Valley will be a blessing to themselves and the church.”  Roads and bridges were built; millions were spent in experiments in agriculture and manufacturing; missionaries at a huge cost were maintained in the East and in Europe; an army was kept for defense against the Indians; and colonies were planted in the outlying regions.  A historian of Deseret, as the colony was called by the Mormons, estimated in 1895 that by the labor of their hands the people had produced nearly half a billion dollars in wealth since the coming of the vanguard.

Polygamy Forbidden.—­The hope of the Mormons that they might forever remain undisturbed by outsiders was soon dashed to earth, for hundreds of farmers and artisans belonging to other religious sects came to settle among them.  In 1850 the colony was so populous and prosperous that it was organized into a territory of the United States and brought under the supervision of the federal government.  Protests against polygamy were raised in the colony