My Philosophy

If you ask, the typical answer is something like, “It’s a symbol of industry” or “co-operation”. But why, in fact, did the Utah state founders pick the beehive? 

As it turns out, the beehive was the symbol of the cooperative movement in the 1800s. This Quora article goes deep into the history of it all.

Utopian socialist experiments, communism, labor unions, and cooperatives all became big movements in the 1800s. Continued advancements in agriculture and industry were displacing a lot of people from their farms, and putting them into the cities.

Sometimes, as in the case of 1840s England, it got so bad that people literally starved to death. 

More commonly, people endured grueling, abusive manufacturing work, child labor, and barely livable conditions.

The cooperative movement rose up as one response to this. Labor unions were another. These were, and are, movements where everyday people unite together to prosper. 

The founders of Utah, who were members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, faced a lot of persecution and poverty. They decided to do something about it.

From the pulpit, the Church leaders actively encouraged the early Utah settlers to voluntarily form cooperatives for the purposes of buying and selling as a group (to get better prices), and to help each other out in other ways.

They also instituted a generous welfare program to take care of the poor, which is still with the Church today. In some cases, many of the towns formed socialist communes called “United Orders”. 

In these United Orders, people would share all of their surplus income through the local church. Then the property would get shared with the other members of the community, especially with the poor.

Many of my ancestors were among these early Utah settlers in the 1800s. I’m inspired by their hard work, faith, and sharing mentality. 

I think that we need more of this now. 

And in an interesting side note, this historical information explains a lot about modern Utah, and about Mormon culture in the Western United States in general. 

I think that this is why there are so many multi-level marketing companies, tech startups, finance companies, and other group-driven business schemes here.