At the time Andrew became stake president, Church leaders were placing great emphasis on tithing because the Church was suffering financial distress and members’ payments of tithes were lagging. In December 1898 Church leaders issued bonds for $500,000 at 6 percent, payable in eleven years. At the same time the First Presidency sent confidential emissaries Heber J. Grant and Matthias F. Cowley to the various stakes, giving them the charge to raise money needed to save
one of the institutions of Zion [Utah Loan and Trust Co. in Ogden] from bankruptcy. We feel it would be a great calamity to have it fail. . . . The church is in no way responsible to make good the failure of this institution, never having invested a single dollar in it, and the main reason why the presidency have consented to appeal to you and others for aid to prevent a failure is because it has always been known as a Mormon institution.
Its failure would have likely caused the Church’s creditors to call in their loans, which the Church could not then satisfy. The call for help was addressed only to those who could give at least $100. Elder Grant told Andrew that Reed Smoot gave $1,000 and Jesse Knight gave $10,000, though he had been asked for only $5,000.606
In 1899 the Church owed more than $1 million dollars on notes soon to become due. New Church President Lorenzo Snow called a special solemn assembly for stake presidencies and bishops in July 1899 in the Salt Lake Temple. Andrew, his two counselors, and three of his bishops made the trip to Utah. At 10 a.m. more than six hundred men met in the temple, the largest gathering of Church leaders ever assembled. President Snow announced that the subject of the meeting was tithing. Each of the General Authorities spoke, each on the same subject—the need for a new commitment to the faithful payment of tithes. After a break for lunch, which was served in the temple, the meeting continued until 7 p.m. These leaders, many of whom, like Andrew, had come from afar, carried the message home. The results varied, but in the St. Joseph Stake tithing increased 28 percent from 1899 to 1900. However, from 1901 to 1902 tithing declined 11 percent, because of partial failure of the harvest.
Andrew and Ollie taught their children to be faithful contributors of tithing, giving a generous tenth of what they grew or received. Andrew instructed his boys that the tithing load of hay should come off the best part of the field.607 Ollie even tithed the $2,800 she received as an inheritance from her father. People generally paid their tithes in kind, but they also could pay in cash.608 Keeping and disposing of tithing in kind burdened the bishops and proved wasteful because of inefficiencies in the distribution system.
Compensation to ward and stake leaders varied from year to year and from ward to ward. Generally 10 percent of the tithing collected in the ward was given to the bishop and 2 percent of the stake tithing went to the stake tithing clerk, but adjustments might be made between the larger and smaller wards.609 The Presiding Bishop in 1903 instructed Andrew to take 1 percent of the tithing of the two largest wards and give it to the bishops of the two smallest wards.610 The amount and formula for compensation changed frequently.611 In 1898, Andrew received a salary of $500. In 1904 he got $750. The compensation was for time away from employment, expenses of travel, record keeping, and overseeing the tithing yard.
