Letter from Arthur Stayner, 31 July 1888
Salt Lake City, Utah, .
President Wilford Woodruff,
Dear Brother:
Your very kind and prompt reply to my
question was duly received on Friday afternoon, and I thank you
gratefully, for the kind expressions of concern which your letter
conveys. In the presence of so many implied doubts on the part of
my friends, it would appear self-willed and, perhaps, foolishly head-
strong, on my part, to persist in an undertaking of so great conse-
quence and magnitude, as the one concerning which I have written
you. May I not intrude upon your time to lay before you, in brief,
some of the palpable reasons which have induced me to undertake
so great a labor?
I commenced, nearly eight years ago, to search for some business
of production that would relieve the over-burdened ranks of the
Farmers, and occupy their attention in some direction wherein they
would cease to compete against each other in the production of
Wheat. I saw that ranks of the farmers were over-burdened with the
number of persons who did not legitimately belong there. Many
thousands of Tradesmen of various kinds had come here to live. They
could not find the employment which had hbeen their means of support
up to the time of leaving the Old Countries; and, rather than accept
