Topic: War, Matches 16 quotes.

Plagues Which Follow War

One more thought and I have finished. Remembering that throughout all history, dread diseases have followed the devastation of war, when peoples are exhausted and mal-nurtured, remembering what happened at the end of the World War with the flu, reason tells us that if this war drags through years, we must be prepared for a visitation of plagues that will almost surely take a greater human toll than the war itself. These plagues will strike armies not only, but the people back home as well. They will reach America. How much science can do, we have yet to learn. It tardily coped at all with the flu. We have but one sure means toward safety from such plagues—a life lived in accordance with the revelations of the Lord. Careful eating, temperance, chastity, the non-use of things forbidden, sobriety, industry, proper rest and sleep, non-exposure, and in general right living in all things, give us the right to ask the Lord that the destroying angel shall pass us by. He who breaks down his body and his resistance to disease by riotous and wicked living may hardly hope to escape affliction and suffering. It may be that we shall see a time, if this war shall drag into the years, that “except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.” (Matthew 24:22.)

Source: President J. Reuben Clark, Jr.
General Conference, October 1939

Topics: War

Warning Against Unpatriotic Doctrines

We should draw the attention of our children to the fact that there is now a war going on, so to speak, in America. Some years ago we fought a great civil war. It was fought mainly over two issues, whether or not this Government should exist part slave and part free, and also as to whether or not any one state had the right to secede from the Union. To the glory of those gallant men, both on the side of the South and of the North, they fought their battles openly, and we know what the results were and are.

But the warfare we now find isn’t one that is being fought on the battlefield, honorably and openly, but it is a battle being fought behind the names of so-called patriotic societies, names used to shield the activities of those who would have us believe that they are engaged in patriotic endeavor, when in reality they are doing the very things that will undermine the Constitution and the Government of the United States. I think our boys and girls should be advised constantly as to the dangers of these organizations, and what their objectives are. It is a known fact to all of us that the very nations of Europe today that would bathe the world in blood, have their agents in America, promulgating their doctrines. We must ever be on guard, and particularly should we so advise the youth and the leaders of our nation of tomorrow.

Source: Elder Joseph L. Wirthlin
General Conference, October 1939

Topics: Education; War

World War Brought Hope

Twenty-one years ago our fathers, brothers and sons were enlisting in the great struggle of the World War; they were responding to the appeal that we were going to make the world safe for democracy, and we were led to hope and believe that it was the last great war, and the war to end war.

When the war was over we saw nation after nation abandon their monarchial forms of government and become republics, patterned after this nation, and our hearts were full of joy at the prospect that at last democracy and peace were going to reign.

Quick Return To Worse Conditions

Since then we have been greatly disturbed to see nation after nation abandon its democracy and go back to a condition some of us think worse than the condition under the czars, the kaisers, and the rulers, into a dictatorship. Today we witness the nations of the earth spending more money than in any other time in their history in building equipment upon the sea and the land for future wars. It is a sad picture, and yet I suppose that our wish was father to our thought, and we had hoped to see the end of the struggle and strife in this world.

Source: Elder Melvin J. Ballard
General Conference, October 1938

Topics: Freedom, Loss of; War

The gathering together upon the land of Zion, and upon her stakes, may be for a defense, and for a refuge from the storm, and from wrath when it shall be poured out without mixture upon the whole earth.

Here is the place of refuge—America. When I read the story last week of the people leaving London, and Paris to go into the rural districts, digging trenches on their front lawns, and gas chambers being built in every home, everybody being prepared to put on gas masks suddenly, as in a few hours these cities might have been engulfed in a terrible raid such as modern war provides, I said: “Thank God for the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans that separate us, (at least from the immediate danger,) from these perils. There is no place on earth so secure as in these United States, and it is the business of every Latter-day Saint to be loyal to this government.

That is why the Church is undertaking this relief program, to win everybody off from the back of the government and from off the back of the state, who can stand on his own feet. Many of you aged people may feel somewhat offended that you have been asked if you can support yourselves and not be a burden upon the State or the Nation, for we can lie down upon our Government to the extent that we may imperil its credit and produce the very conditions that would bring the same revolutions and the same troubles that engulf the Old World. God bless us that we may not come to that day, and Latter-day Saints, show the way!

Source: Elder Melvin J. Ballard
General Conference, October 1938

Topics: Responsibility; War; Welfare

Our ideals here in America are those that are far aloof from the ideals of conquest and loot. The ideal of American civic liberty has always kept the Government from war for conquest. The Government of the United States has never gone to war except for the protection of her ideals and for the protection of her people.

I do not speak as a Pacifist. The Latter-day Saints are not pacifists as that term is understood today. In the past, our people have protected the flag of their country, and our ancestors took their part in the American Revolution, which resulted in the writing of the Constitution of the United States. The Latter-day Saints will always be found protecting the Constitution of this Government.

Source: Elder Levi Edgar Young
General Conference, April 1938

Topics: US Constitution, Defend; War

The government of the United States has passed through many crises since the adoption of the Constitution in 1787. The one hundred and forty-seven years of our national existence have witnessed times of serious political struggles; periods of social and economic strife and unrest. The World War left the nations of the world with intricate problems. The largest armies of all history had marched to battle, and nations were put to the test of preserving their integrity. Kings and emperors were dethroned; governments were overthrown, and political life came to be anything but the thoughtful study of the science of government. In our own country particularly, laws have been enacted by state legislatures and Congress that have little bearing on the economic and social questions of the day, and as a result, we are lost in a veritable chaos of laws that are never enforced, and which have helped to bring about a disregard for law and order.

Source: Elder Levi Edgar Young
General Conference, April 1936

Topics: Law; War

Perplexing Situations

Our government is now very much in the condition that it was at that early time. Demands are made upon it which are exceedingly difficult to comply with. The soldiers of our country are in an ugly mood because their requests are not granted. The resources of the country are not sufficient to meet the demands made upon it, notwithstanding the great increase in taxes which has recently been levied. The bulletin boards, while this conference has been in session, have announced that the budget of the government is still five hundred million dollars short of balance. What is the result going to be? I do not know; I do not want to assume the responsibility of indicating, but I do know that there are some things which will help. I do know that Elder Richards this afternoon has declared to you in plain terms some of the things that must be accomplished. There is about ten billions of dollars of gold in the world. Our national debt is twenty billions of dollars. What the debt of other nations of the world is I do not now, I have not taken the time to determine, but this I do know, that the World war cost about two hundred billions of dollars, and that does not take into consideration the amount which was paid for the restoration of property destroyed, nor does it take into consideration the fact that I believe nearly ten millions of men, if I remember the figures correctly, were either killed or permanently disabled and taken away from the forces which create the industries of the world. So that altogether I calculate that at least two hundred and fifty billions of dollars was the cost of that great war. Will the debt ever be paid? It never will. That goes without saying. Some part of it may be, I do not know. No one will deny the fact that the government at present is confronted with perplexing situations, questions of great import. How they are to be solved men appear not to know, and I do not know. One thing that I do know, is that the American people are capable of solving these problems if the voice of the people coud be heard. I have faith in the sold of these American people which God has brought to this land. He has said, and I am only repeating his words, that the nation shall persist, that it shall be able to meet any emergency that shall arise if it will only, as I have stated, have faith in the God of the land, who is Jesus Christ.

Source: President Anthony W. Ivins
General Conference, October 1932

Topics: Debt; Taxes; War

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