Heber Jedediah Grant, seventh president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
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Mormon wisdom is variously apparent. It was manifestly wise, for instance, to abolish polygamy (1890) after the U. S. Government had begun an antipolygamy campaign, imprisoning hundreds of offenders, disincorporating the Mormon Church, confiscating property, refusing to naturalize Mormons. To the Mormons, however, polygamy was a heaven-ordained adjustment. What to do? Prophet Wilford Woodruff, then head of the Church, announced that after due meditation it had been revealed to him that heaven thereafter forbade polygamous practice. Many were the individual violations of this manifesto ; robust, marrying Mormons still professed their old belief that millions of disembodied souls needed to be born, to escape the eternal darkness which would befall the unborn at the millennium. But gradually the wisdom of the Prophet pervaded his followers, and Mormonism individually as well as officially abandoned a custom which had been its chief impediment to material development.
Mormon wealth, though impossible to calculate, is apparent to anyone who studies Salt Lake City commercially. The Church owns The Deseret News, two hotels, two office buildings, the Beneficial Life Insurance Co., and Zion's Cooperative Mercantile Institution (first U. S. department store, 1868). Through the Utah-Idaho Sugar Co., the Church owns 24,539 acres of farm lands and operates numerous beet sugar factories in Utah, Idaho, Washington, Montana, South Dakota. Board chairman of this company is Heber Jedediah Grant, now President of the Mormon Church. But though net current assets are listed at $3,466,860, worldwide oversupply of sugar following upon Wartime excess production has gravely injured this industry, and President Grant says the Church would gladly quit the business, if possible, at a 50% loss. But if it be true that the Mormon Tabernacle rests, among other things, on sugar beets, it is likewise true that the Church's beet-backing has been primarily for the benefit of the farmer. And the Church is not likely to forsake him in his lean years.
President Grant also heads a company which owns the Hotel Utah, largest in the State. He is head of the Utah State National Bank, the Zion Savings Bank & Trust Co., of both of which the Church apparently holds majority stock. He is president of the Utah Home Fire Insurance Co. The Church is reputed to be a minority stockholder in the Deseret National Bank, the Deseret Savings Bank.