Letter from Arthur Stayner, 10 March 1888
Salt Lake City: .
Prest Woodruff and Brethren of the Presidency.
Dear Brethren:
The difficulties which now beset the
inauguration of the business I represent vary very considera-
bly from the physical difficulties which have been met and
overcome, and for help to overcome them I now earnestly appeal
to you. I readily recognize, and I feel keenly, the difference in
the circumstances of the true friends of the people before and
after the commencement of the "Grand Steal". Heretofore
the establishment of an industrial enterprise for the benefit of
our people has been much more easily reached than it can
possibly be at the present time, because, with the will the
people's best friends had the means to assist with the
lubricating element of money as well as influence and friendship.
Now money is out of the question but influence and friendship
and the power to use them remain.
The element which has brought about this important change
has dammed up the source and turned the channels and cur-
rents of fertilizing means from where they could be used for prac-
tical benefits, into courses barren of good results, and have thus
partially paralysed the hand of material assistance, and now to
keep as much as possible absolute control out of the hands of
iminical and paralysing power seems to be the great desideratum;
to do this I appeal to you for your help and counsel.
