ms three
fulness requires the tenth of the surplus property of
members corning to Zion to be paid into the church as
a consecration, and after that one tenth of increase or
earnings annually. This is to be used for the poor, for
days from him, on the grounds that he may do as he pleases with twenty-seven days, but he has no right to idle away three days belonging to the Lord. Vedette, in San Jose Mercunj, Mar. 14, 1867. Says Richards: 'If they do not pay their tithes, nothing is done to compel them to do it; they are only re- minded of the case, as with neglect to attend meeting, or of any other duty.' Nan:, MS., GO-1. At the conference held at Salt Lake City on April 6, 1880, it was reported that the total tithing receipts for the year ending Dec. 31, 1870, were $458,333; which amount it had cost $lS,9:)G.7o— paid the bishops — to collect. S. L. C. Tribune, April 7, 1880. This report includes only the branches of the church in Utah. Coyner, in a letter to the Boston Educational. Journal, dated S. L. City, Nov. 20, 1878, states that the church has an income of about $1,000,000 from tithing. Numerous complaints are made from the clmrch's pulpits against delinquents who have failed to pay. In a book of travels, entitled 31]/ First Holiday, Boston, 1881, Caroline H. Dall wrongly asserts that tiie Scandinavian Mormons refuse to pay tithes. In almost any number of the Deserct News the reader may find a notice calling upon delinquents to pay their tithing. In the issue of May 14, 1833, the bishop within whose jurisdiction a saw-mill is in operation is reminded that lumber is wanted at the public yard; and in the number of July 20, lo54, the first presidency calls on every bishop throughout the territory to furnish at once lists showing who have paid and who still owe. In a speech by Brigham, April 7, 1873, he said: 'When I reached here I could not pay one tenth, I could not pay my surplus, I could not give myall, for I had nothing.' Dfseret News, April 23, 1873. Finally, at the jubilee conference, held in celebration of the semi-centennial of the church's organization, one half of the delinquent tithes throughout the whole church, the amount being about $75, 900, was re- mitted. The deserving poor of the church were further assisted on this occa- sion by the gift of 6,000 head of milch-cows and sheep, and a loan of about 34,000 l)ushels of wheat until after harvest, without interest. Circulars from the Twelve Apostles, S. L. City, Apr. 16, 1880.
If tithing dues are satisfied by manual labor, the workman is paid from the public stores at rates which, though fixed from time to time, are proba- bly never so low as those paid in ready money elsewhere. Ca itain Burton copies a price-current list for 1860, too long for me to repeat here, but which will be referred to again elsewhere, and remarks that wheat is quoted at $1.50 per bushel, more than double its current value at the time in the valley of the Mississippi. City of the Saints, 389. Mrs Waite states that when the poor clamored, in 1862-3, because the tithing-ofiice price of flour was $6 per hundred, they were assured that though flour would undoubtedly still advance in price, the cost to them would be no greater. But the fol- lowing winter, when, owing to the demand from the mining rej:;ion3 of Idaho and elsewhere, flour rose rapidly in price, the tithing-ofSce charged $12 i^er hundred. This caused so great an excitement that Brigham deemed it neces- sary to interfere, and the price was reduced to $6 again. It is complained in the Deseret News of Jan. 10, 1852, that merchants are paying 33 per cent more for butter than tithing-house rates, and that this action had drawn the saints away from the tithing-house, and thus forced the laborers on the tem- ple to eat their bread without butter. This was in the midst of winter, when such action might not be altogether unexpected; but we find six months later another complaint, reporting that from March 29th to July 11th there had onlj' been received 5,115^ pounds of butter, 2,534i of cheese, and 1,182,2 dozens of eggs, and inquiring how fast the work would proceed at this rate of supply. Id., July 24, 1852. The revelation establishing tithing was followed
