Letter from Arthur Stayner, 23 April 1894
SALT LAKE CITY,
Presidents Wilford Woodruff, George Q. Cannon and Joseph F Smith
Dear Brethren:
At the last meeting of the Board of Directors of
Z. C. M. I. there was read a communication asking that body to
undertake at an outlay of $1000, with possibe loss of $100, or $200 out of the
amount, a demonstration of the value & qualifications of the Canaigre
root as a tanning agent, with a view to inaugurating its use in
providing the footwear of this people. The Board declined to do this.
Will you kindly permit me to intercede with you, as President and
members of the Board, in behalf of this measure, at all events to some
degree of demonstration if not to the extent I first mentioned.
In the first place I wish to say that I am asking nothing in it for
myself, not a cent, neither am I asking or expecting that it will cost
the Church a single dollar; this is, as I understand it, a movement
for the benefit of the people solely and entirely, except wherein those
who may carry the business may be financially benefitted by it.
I have read with peculiar interest and preserved with care the
remarks made by the Presidency at the last October Conference, and
I gather from them a strong an earnest desire on your part to have
developed the natural resources of our Territory in a manner which
shall provide employment for our people and save the money at
home and in fact make, as far as possible, this people self sustaining.
Some of your remarks, President Woodruff, read like this "I still
