Mormon wealth, though impossible to calculate, is apparent to anyone who studies Salt Lake City commercially. The Church owns The Deseret News, two hotels, two office buildings, the Beneficial Life Insurance Co., and Zion's Cooperative Mercantile Institution (first U. S. department store, 1868). Through the Utah-Idaho Sugar Co., the Church owns 24,539 acres of farm lands and operates numerous beet sugar factories in Utah, Idaho, Washington, Montana, South Dakota. Board chairman of this company is Heber Jedediah Grant, now President of the Mormon Church. But though net current assets are listed at $3,466,860, worldwide oversupply of sugar following upon Wartime excess production has gravely injured this industry, and President Grant says the Church would gladly quit the business, if possible, at a 50% loss. But if it be true that the Mormon Tabernacle rests, among other things, on sugar beets, it is likewise true that the Church's beet-backing has been primarily for the benefit of the farmer. And the Church is not likely to forsake him in his lean years.