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ment of their students, use on the intellectual side the same text books as are used in the best public high schools. Their curriculum contains the same courses of study. The teachers are certificated with the same requirements as those of the public schools. Their libraries, laboratories, and other equipment are equal, and in many cases superior, to those of the public schools, and every effort is made to insure that the training of the students of our schools shall not fall below that of the best standard high schools.

Industrial education was provided for even before Dr. Woodward started, in St. Louis, the first manual training school of the United States. We have been leaders in this work. The products of our industrial departments are always of a high order, except in the smaller schools, where efficiency can not always be obtained.

The following will give an idea of the number, and distribution of our schools, and interesting statistical information concerning them:

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The statistics from the schools in Mexico are taken from reports two years ago, as the war down there has closed all of them during 1912-13, and some suspended during

1911-12.

The regular courses in theology consist of the careful study of the Book of Mormon, New Testament, Old Testament, and

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Church History. Besides this, a domestic organization is maintained. Pupils are responsible to the schools for their conduct at all times. The regulations of the school prohibit the use of tea, coffee, liquor, tobacco, profanity and late hours. Students are also impressed with the necessity of attending to their various religious duties conscientiously. Great care is used to make the atmosphere of the school harmonize with the ideals of the Church. Most of the schools have missionary classes in which young men who take this course become acquainted with the doctrines of the Church, and so far as possible they are given practice to prepare them for their actual labors in the mission. In teaching the other branches -science, history, literature, etc.-care is taken to establish a natural correlation with theological work and forestall an unbelief in the gospel. In fact, the course of training in the Church schools is so devised as to call into frequent action the mental, spiritual, and physical attributes of the students, and to develop them as best we can into well-balanced, consistent manhood and womanhood.

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The "Mormon" Finance System

BY CHARLES W. NIBLEY, PRESIDING BISHOP OF THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS

The system of revenue of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is of itself something remarkable. It is a free will offering (one-tenth of

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each member's income) by which the activities of the Church are maintained. It is of divine origin, practiced by the people of God in ancient days, and revealed in our generation through the Prophet Joseph Smith.

The Prophet enquired of the Lord concerning this law in July, 1838, while the Church was yet in its infancy. The answer to the Saints was that the Lord required one-tenth of all their interest annually, and this was to be a standing law forever. This revelation is recorded in Section 119 of the Book of Doc

trine and Covenants. In it PRESIDING BISHOP CHARLES W. NIBLEY blessings are promised to

those who observe the law; and to those who do not observe it the Lord said: "If my people observe not this law, to keep it holy, and by this law sanctify the land of Zion unto me, that my statutes and my judgments may be kept thereon, that it may be most holy, behold, verily I say unto you, it shall not be a land of Zion unto you."

Throughout the Church the tithes are collected by the bishops of the wards. A bishop acts as a father to the community over which he presides, and looks after the spiritual and temporal affairs of the ward members. With his two counselors, he visits all the people, enquires into their welfare, labors with them, encourages them to live their religion, assists in finding employment for new members moving into the ward, visits the sick, cares for

the poor, presides over all Church meetings, collects the tithes, etc. The tithes are brought to the bishops in various forms. Hay, grain, butter, eggs, livestock, and a part of whatever the people produce is given for the maintenance of the Church. If there are poor, the bishop sees they are properly taken care of out of these tithes. Maintenance of ward buildings and places of worship are also paid by the bishop from the tithing fund.

At the close of each year there is what is known as "tithing settlement," when at a given place the ward members meet with their bishopric, settle their accounts and see that a proper record of their payments has been made. Thereupon the bishop makes up his annual report, which is submitted to and audited by the presidency of the stake. This "auditing committee” visits each ward, examines the records showing the receipts and disbursements of tithes, and passes upon all payments from the tithing funds. Let it be said to the credit of more than seven hundred men who hold the office of bishop, and who receive and handle the tithing of the Latter-day Saints, that shortages are very rare indeed.

For the labor he performs the bishop receives no salary, although a small allowance is made him for the work incidental to receiving, handling, and accounting for tithes. Indeed there is no salaried system in the Church. Those who give their entire time to the ministry must of necessity be furnished with sufficient means to live on, but it is expected that men will take pleasure in working for the Lord, without money and without price. The unselfish labor of a ward bishop and his counselors and the sacrifices they make for the good of others affords a splendid example of the faith these men have in their religion.

The tithes received by ward bishoprics, after allowances have been made for ward and stake expenses, are forwarded to the Presiding Bishop's Office, where they are disbursed under the direction of the First Presidency of the Church and the Presiding Bishopric. Here the funds are widely distributed as the activities of the Church are many. Temples and other Church buildings are erected and maintained, including a first class hospital, Church schools are operated, colonists locating in different parts of the country are assisted, home industries established, and the poor cared for. Indeed it would be difficult in this short article to enumerate all the channels through which the Church funds are distributed.

The education of the children of the Latter-day Saints receives the greatest consideration of the Church. The largest single item of expense from the tithes is for maintaining and operating Church schools. At present, there are thirty-one Church schools, which under ordinary conditions have an enrollment of about 8,000 pupils. Even in far away New Zealand, Samoa and Hawaii,

where there are considerable numbers of native converts to our faith, agricultural schools have been established for the purpose of teaching the natives how to obtain a livelihood from the soil.

Foreign Missions and missionary activities receive considerable support from the tithing funds. Places of worship are erected. The fares of all elders returning from their fields of labor are paid. This latter item amounts to many thousands of dollars as approximately one thousand elders return from missionary labors each year.

Since the organization of the Church much attention has been given to the native tribes of Indians, known to us as "Lamanites." There are at present, in the organized stakes of Zion, colonies of these people who draw assistance from Church funds, notably those at Washakie, Skull Valley and Kanosh, in Utah, and the Papago Indians near Pheonix, Arizona.

For the benefit of our immigrants who arrive in Salt Lake City without friends or relatives, a free Employment Bureau has been established at the Presiding Bishop's Office. This bureau is maintained out of the tithing fund. Many people apply here daily and a personal representative sees that they are all taken care of.

Home industries are fostered by the Church as they provide employment for the people and tend to develop the country generally. In the early days of Utah the beet sugar industry was established here, by great effort and expense, and when it was considered hardly more than an experiment.

From the beginning the "Mormon” people have been builders. Temples and other places of worship have been erected wherever they have made their homes. With the growth of the Church, this process of building has gone on continually, and each year now a considerable amount is appropriated from the tithing fund for this purpose. At the present time a temple is being erected in Canada.

At the close of each year all the general expenditures of the Church are audited by a committee of five prominent business men who are sustained by the vote of the general conference of the Church. This committee examines carefully the records and accounts as they are centralized in the offices of the First Presidency and Presiding Bishopric. When the work is completed they render a written annual report which is submitted to the Church at its April conference.

The system of tithing as practiced by the Latter-day Saints is ordained of God. What is given by the people is largely returned to the people for their use and benefit. There exists but one object before the leaders of the Church in the disbursement of these funds, and that is the promulgation of righteousness and the establishment of the Church and Kingdom of God upon earth.

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