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Show for those, who, in a period of moral crises, maintain their neutrality." The other day, some of us leglislators were discussing this important impor-tant issue of Urban Renewal which is facing us, and one of them told of how he had single-handedly instituted a "renewal" program in his neighborhood, just by example. He told how he had brought an old run-down hom.e in an old neighborhood. And how he had gone to work on the old place, refurnished it inside and out. Then he went to work on the back yard which was overrun with weeds and refuse. When he had cleaned it up, the neighbor on one side came to him and suggested that they go together on the installation of a new fence. This they did. Then the neighbor on the other side told my friend how embarassed he was about an old broken-down garage and the condition of his yard. The result: the old garage was torn down, a new one built, the yard cleaned up, and that neighbor too cooperated on a new fence on that side of my friend's property. All this because one person was willing to do a little bit more! Edmund Burke hit the nail on the head when he said: "Allthat is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." With these three principles in mind a willingness to think and talk affirmatively, willingness to meet and discuss your common problems with others, and willingness to take on your share (and more) of responsibility cooperation can become a reality in your community or your organization if most of the members are willing to practice them. I close with a great quotation from Carl Sandburg's REMEMBRANCE REMEM-BRANCE ROCK. "For we know when a nation goes down and never comes back, when a society or a civilization perishes, one condition may always be found. They forgot where they came from. "They lost sight of what brought them along. The hard beginnings begin-nings were forgotten and the struggles farther along. They became satisfied with themselves. "Unity and common understanding there had been, enough to overcome rot and dissolution, enough to break through their obstacles. "But the mockers came. And the deniers were heard. And vision and hope faded. And the custom of greeting became 'What's the use?' "And men whose forefathers would go anywhere, holding nothing noth-ing impossible in the genius of man, joined the mockers and deniers. They forgot where they came from. They lost sight of what had brought them along." REMEMBRANCE ROCK, Carl Sandburg (1948) D. James Cannon "Cooperation As Practiced In Sugar, House" Talk giren at Utah Vocational Assn. Convention, January 26, 1957 By D. JAMES CANNON Executive Secretary, Sugar House Chamber of Commerce If this talk today is going to be worthwhile, each one of you will have to think along with me on this subject of cooperation, and seek to apply its principles in your own community or organization. We have a motto in Sugar House which goes like this: We must have Unity in the Community ... if we don't get it, we'll have Hysteria in the Area. There is a little humor there, but also a tremendous amount of truth; and so we live by that slogan. Did you ever take the time to look at the history of your community com-munity to see what its beginnings were like? We've done that in Sugar House, and found that our community was founded on the principle of cooperation, and cooperation has been its guiding principle princi-ple ever since. In 1954 we celebrated the Centennial of Sugar House with a big banquet held in "North Sugar House," which in this case was Hotel Utah, and at that time we published a history of the community. com-munity. On April 23, 1854, there was a meeting of LDS members to choose a name for their ward. Margaret T. McMeans "Ma" Smoot, the wife of A. O. Smoot, who later served as mayor of Salt Lake and mayor of Provo, stood up and suggested the name Sugar House, in honor of the sugar mill then being constructed a few rods away on the banks of Parleys Creek. That mill was the first attempt to manufacture beet sugar in America. Now let me tell you a secret: it never did produce sugar only molasses. But it did serve a great purpose. It was the beginning of what is now a great industry in this whole western area. After John Taylor, Philip De La Mare and other pioneer leaders had gone to all the work of buying machinery in Europe, shipping it to New Orleans, up the Mississippi and then over the plains on heavy wagons, and after numerous trials of setting it up in a new building near Parleys Creek, then they couldn't get that factory to produce honest-to-goodness sugarl Out of that initial disappointment, however, history shows us that the cooperative spirit of that enterprise laid the foundation for not only the community of Sugar House, but this great commonwealth. common-wealth. Not only was Sugar House the scene of the first sugar mill, but these other "firsts": flour mill; paper mill; bucket, churn, tub and barrel factory; nail factory; woolen and carding mills; cotton gin; glass button factory; iron foundry; chemical and powder works; match factory; and tannery. All these early enterprises demanded cooperation. Our new governor, George D. Clyde, frequently tells how the pioneers came into this region with only brain and brawn, and a few rough tools, and look what they accomplished with cooperation! And think what we could accomplish with our wonderful technology if we practiced cooperation in the same way. To practice it we must understand that the keynote of cooperation coopera-tion is the individual. Unless each one of us does his part, and a little bit more, willingly, conscientiously, without waiting for the other fellow, cooperation will be merely a byword and not an accomplishment. accom-plishment. Please remember the importance of the individual. A few days ago we heard a talk .on the subject of Urban Renewal, wherein the speaker made the point that "slums are people," peo-ple," in other words, we could take people out of slums and put them in nice new housing, and they would soon make slums out of it. I do not share that speaker's gloomy view about people. I believe human attitudes can be changed. However, his statement points up the importance of the individual so we must begin with him. There are three important elements of cooperation which I have noted many, many times in our Sugar House endeavors. , 1. Willingness to think and talk affirmatively about your community com-munity or organization. Here's a negative example: One. day I was trying to find a certain business in a community here in Salt Lake valley, so I stopped in a store in that community to ask for information. It wasn't more than a few moments of conversation with the store owner that he had convinced me that that community was a terrible place. Because he was so busy telling me about his awful town, I didn't get the information I needed, so I stopped in another store. There, I get the same "pitch." It didn't take me long to see that this was what was wrong with their town. By contrast, I want to show you this small satin bag of Sugar. This little bag, with a label on top, is what we give visitors to our Sugar House Rotary Club each week. The label at the top says: "Sugar House . . . the sweetest place under the sun." That's what I mean when I say we should think and talk affirmatively of our community. com-munity. If each one of us would really get to know our community, we'd find plenty of good in it to talk about. 2. Willingness to put your knees under the table with others to discuss your common problems. We have our failings in Sugar House, but this is one thing we do well. We have learned that nothing succeeds unless we work out our plans around the table, where every person is urged to speak freely, and the emphasis is on ideas, no matter how foolish they may seem sometimes. One day a couple of men stood on a street corner in Sugar House, discussing ways to promote some additional business. They got the kernel of an idea to use sugar as a sales "gimmick" because it tied in naturally with the name of the community. So a meeting was called; more ideas flowed in, and as a result, "Sugar Days in Sugar House" was born. It is one of the most successful retail promotions pro-motions in the United States. 3. Willingness to take on your share of responsibility. Remember what I said about the keynote of cooperation being the individual? And that each individual must do his part, and a little bit more? Dante put it this way: "The hottest places in Hell are reserved |