Presidents [Lorenzo] Snow and [George Q.] Cannon were at the office. At 2:30 the Rev[erend]. Paden and the Rev[erend]. Mr. Irish, representing a committee appointed by the ministers' association, kept an appointment for the purpose of conferring with the Presidency in regard to closing the bar at Saltair. Mr. Paden remarked that after the newspaper reports of the scene at Saltair on its opening day (Decoration day) the ministers' association discussed the subject, and it was there learned that the Saltair pavilion belonged to the Trustee-in-Trust of the "Mormon" Church. Mr. Paden said that he remarked on that occasion that if that were the case it would not be for them as ministers to make trouble about it, as he was satisfied that President Snow would do all he could to correct the thing when it was brought to his attention. The speaker said the saloon was run illegally, and besides, the pavilion sold privileges for the purpose of running gambling machines; and the ministers' association would want to know if the "Mormon" Church could afford to let the statement go into print and be published abroad that President Snow, as its trustee-in-Trust, was responsible for a saloon being carried on at the Saltair pavilion?
President Cannon explained to these gentlemen that our Church in one sense owned Saltair, but in another it does not. It belonged to a company, and originally it was a private property. When the place was first built the intention was to have no saloon, neither to have trains running on a Sunday; but it was
found afterwards that the resort could not be run--so the management claimed--without a saloon. This was humiliating, but the company had to succumb. ...
[Source: First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve minutes]
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