May 20, 1991
Editor
The Economist
London, England
Dear Sir:
I have written you several times over the past two or three years as you have published articles on Utah or the Mormons which I considered ill-informed or tendentious.
Let me thus hasten to congratulate you on the article in the May 25-31 issue (p. 42) which I found not only informative, but balanced (though I wonder what was implied by the strange title "More Than Mormons").
You cite some interesting statistics which support the view I've been trying to put across to your writers in my several previous letters that Mormons are not the peculiar odd-balls you've at times implied, and that the State of Utah (which because of its high concentration of Mormons can more or less serve as proxy for what Mormonism produces) has an admirable educational system and economy. I enclose for your reference library some additional statistics I've extracted from the current World Almanac, supplemented by a couple of additional factoids not included in the Almanac. I add that President Bush's National Security Advisor General Brent Scocroft is a Mormon, as is his White House Counselor for Domestic Affairs Roger Porter -- on leave as a Harvard Professor.
Harvard-educated business consultant Richard Eyre has just published an exceptionally thoughtful and well-organized book on the Utah economy, its problems, and potential, looking towards the triple Jubilee coming up in 1996-97-98 (Centennial of Statehood, Sesquicentennial of the arrival of the Mormon Pioneers in the Salt Lake Valley, and [hopefully, but yet to be decided] site of the next Winter Olympics. Utah is the United States candidate, it being widely acknowledged by expert skiers that Utah has the best snow in the country -- certainly better than the more widely celebrated Colorado. I'd have liked to send you a copy of the Eyre book for your reference library, but mine has sentimental value being autographed by Dr. Dale Johnson (Harvard Medical School), a lifelong friend, Chief of Pediatric Surgery at Children's Hospital, and current President of the American Pediatric Association, who just visited us here in China as a lecturer to the Chinese Pediatric Association.
If my favorite magazine is to do more writing about Utah and/or the Mormons, which I expect and certainly hope you will, I highly recommend this as a source book for your reference library. Copies may be obtained from Eyre and Associates, 1615 Foothill Drive, Salt Lake City, UT 84108.
Sincerely,.
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