History of Utah, 1540-1886 - Brigham Young University

A COMMERCIAL STRUGGLE.
$1,000 a day for ten years, and have given employment
to many hundreds of people." 16
The struggle for the commercial control of Utah
began at an early date in its history. Among the
Mormons there were few men of business training,
and until the advent of the overland railroad made
it certain that Salt Lake City would become a commercial
centre, the policy of Brigham was to discourage
commerce and commercial intercourse. Nevertheless,
gentile merchants, by whom traffic was mainly
conducted, as late as 1860 were subject to a running
fire of ridicule and condemnation directed against
them from the tabernacle. The objection to them
was twofold : first, the dislike to the presence of gentiles,
in whatever capacity; and second, the fact that
they absorbed the small amount of floating capital
that the brethren possessed. He who should hold
traffic with a gentile was considered weak in the faith,
but as goods could be purchased from gentile mer-
16 Godbe's Statement, MS., 29. For further mention of the Godbe schism
and incidents connected with it, see Tullidge'sMag., i. 14-55; S teahouse'
Expose of Polygamy, 132-45; Dixon's White Conquest, i. 20S-12.
William S. Godbe, an Englishman by birth, began his career as a sailor;
but after being twice shipwrecked, tired of seafaring life, and while yet a
lad, betook himself to America. Having made the acquaintance of several
Mormons, and being charmed with the story of their adventures, he decided
to cast in his lot with them, and journeyed nearly the whole distance on foot
between New York and Salt Lake City, where he arrived in 1851, and found
employment with a merchant named Thomas Williams, in a few years becoming
himself a leading merchant. Between 1857 and 18S4 Mr Godbe
crossed the Atlantic 21 times, and the plains over 50 times. After his excommunication
from the church, and the consequent loss of his business, finding
himself, as he says, $100,000 in debt, whereas a year before he had been
worth $100,000, he followed mining as an occupation, and in 1S73 organized
in London the Chicago Silver Mining Co., one of the few English companies
that have proved successful in Utah. Of his ventures in mining, mention
will be made later. Of Mr Harrison, he remarks that he is 'a man of unusual
mental qualities, of earnest nature, and has an overruling love of truth, honesty,
and straightforwardness.'
The Statement of William Godbe, MS., contains, in addition to matter relating
to the Godbeite movement and personal memoirs, some valuable information
on mining, together with much adverse comment on the Mormon
hierarchy, terse and well put, though hurriedly written. 'They don't make
many converts in the United States,' he remarks; 'they don't look for them.
They make a few in the south, where the condition of things is analagous,
more or less, with that which exists in Europe; but they make most of their
converts in the latter country.'
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