PRESENT CONDITION.
The results of the industry, integrity and thrift of the Saints, as shown by their present condition, are a complete refutation of the accusations of evil made against them. A corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit. Utah, the chief centre of their gathering place, has a population of 270,000, seventy-five per cent, being "Mormons." Ninety percent of the heads of families live in their own houses and on their own lands. The fruitful orchards, rich fields and farms, successful industries and beautiful cities, towns and villages, present to the view a paradise upon earth; while the vigor and cheerfulness of old and middle-aged and young betoken the health, prosperity and happiness which are God's own gifts to this people, in whose hearts dwells more abundantly than in those of any other community that love of God and of their fellow men which is the fruit of a pure and noble life in the service of the great Creator.
Not alone in Utah do the Latter-day Saints find a home. Their hundreds of settlements bedeck the mountain valleys from the province of Alberta, in Canada, through Montana, Oregon, Idaho, Nevada, Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico, in the United States, to Chihuahua, in Old Mexico, on either side of a line which reaches fifteen hundred miles along the backbone of the American continent.
As an ecclesiastical organization, the first officers in the Church are divinely commissioned Apostles of the Lord Jesus, and divine authority is possessed by the whole body of Priesthood, down to the office of Deacon. Almost the entire male membership of the Church is included in this classification; while there are organizations for the women and children. Over four hundred districts, or wards, are united in larger organizations called Stakes of Zion, all combining in a perfect system.