The published object and design of this fund is to emigrate the poor saints from Europe and other foreign countries to Utah, the Zion of the church. In those foreign countries there is a continual weekly subscription paid in for that purpose.
Every emigration season, each Conference is permitted to send persons at the rate of one for every £10 sterling so subscribed. Each one so emigrating, is required to enter into obligations, before leaving Liverpool, for the repayment of the same, as soon as possible after his arrival in Salt Lake City. Parties in Utah, also, wishing their relations brought over, must pay the required amount, before they are sent for, unless in some special cases, where notes are accepted in payment. The sum of £4 10_s._ is required to pay the transportation of each person to the first American port, and the remaining £5 10_s._ thence to Salt Lake City. The emigrants are stowed away like cattle, on the freight cars and on the decks of the boats and vessels, and thus by having them conveyed in the cheapest manner possible, considerable of the amount paid for transportation is saved, making a large sum in the aggregate, all of which goes into that "treasury of the church,"--the pocket of Brigham Young.
Again: as _all_ are obliged to pay their passage-money, either in advance or after their arrival in Utah, and as a large portion of the sum is previously raised by contribution, of course the amount, in thousands of cases, is duplicated, and paid twice into the same treasury.
The transportation across the Plains costs the church nothing at all, except a slight diminution of the tithing-fund _prospective_. The teams are furnished, so many from each ward and settlement, and the owners are given credit for the use of the same in tithing account. Large quantities of provisions are furnished and sent out to meet the incoming saints, but these, although donated and sent by their friends, are all charged to them by the careful priests and elders.
Before starting across the Plains, meetings are held, and the saints are counselled to give up all their money and valuables, so that they may be preserved on their journey. One man, in obedience to this "counsel," gave up his money, together with a valuable gold watch and chain. Afterwards, remembering that he had not provided any tobacco for the journey, he asked for a dollar back, to purchase some, which was refused him.