Self-Improvement

Looked at in this light—oneself as a beneficiary and division of labor as a benefactor—it becomes pertinent to re-examine one’s own behaviors, attitudes, actions. If we would best serve our individual self-interest, we would do well to live in harmony with the facts of life, not in disharmony with them.

Looked at in this light, one should do everything possible to increase his own perceptive and exchange powers. It is only by self-improvement that one can best serve self. And, clearly, it is only by self-improvement that one can better serve others—that is, add to someone else’s well-being.

Source: Leonard E. Read
Unearned Riches, The Freeman, December 1956, p.28

Topics: Responsibility

The Soundness Of Principles Of Self-help

Let us stand together on our own feet. Let us cooperate to accomplish these so-called material objectives. A sound agriculture is vital to the national economy. I like the words of that great Irish pioneer in cooperative effort, Horace Plunket, who labored for many years among the poor, down-ridden farmers of Ireland, when he said:

For the longer I live, the more certain do I become that what the best of governments can do for farmers is of insignificant importance compared with what, by carefully thought out and loyal cooperation, they can do for themselves.

Let us as Latter-day Saints stand on our own feet. Let us not be inclined to run to a paternalistic government for help when every problem arises, but to attack our problems jointly, and through effective cooperative effort, solve our problems at home.

Source: Elder Ezra Taft Benson
General Conference, October 1945

Topics: Government, Domestic Policy; Welfare

Good Government And Good Men

There has been running through my mind a statement by William Penn: “If men be good, government can not be bad.” At first I was inclined to challenge it seriously, as we are inclined to challenge all statements of broad generalization. I challenged it because I thought of all the exceptions to the rule. I thought of all the peoples, historically and also in the present, who had become captive peoples and oppressed peoples quite beyond their choice or their power to resist. I thought of all the straight-thinking minorities who have resisted the popular fallacies in every generation and in every country. But I became convinced, as I thought further through William Penn’s statement, that it had a broad and fundamental truth in it: “If men be good, government can not be bad”—in the long view of things, and admitting all the exceptions.

Source: Elder Richard L. Evans
General Conference, April 1945

Topics: Government, Good; Morality

Some of the Privileges of Citizenship

Some time ago I was in court where there were a number of people being examined as to their qualifications to become citizens of this great country of ours. The judge asked one of the men this question: “What can you receive as a citizen of this country that you cannot receive without being a citizen?” As an alien, a man could reside in our country, could move about in freedom from place to place, could have the advantages of our schools, could have police protection for himself and family and his business, irrespective of the fact that he was not a citizen. But with all these privileges, he was always an alien, having no part in the feeling and enthusiasm and love of country that belong to us as citizens. One all-important thing that he was unable to enjoy was the right of suffrage—the right to vote and to participate in the government, in its laws and regulations. He could not go out and represent or speak officially for the country or for the officers who might be elected. Therefore, he failed to have one of the great things we value so much.

Source: Elder John H. Taylor
General Conference, April 1945

Topics: Citizenship; Voting

On this point may I quote Robert Ingersoll. I do not agree with him on many things, but on this point, he is right. Said he:

In the first place the government does not support the people, the people support the government. The government is a perpetual pauper. It passes ‘round the hat and solicits contributions; but then you must remember that the government has a musket behind the hat. The government produces nothing. It does not plow the land, it does not sow corn, it does not grow trees. The government is a perpetual consumer. We support the government. Now, the idea that the government can make money for you and me to live on—it is the same as though my hired man should issue certificates of my indebtedness to him for me to live on. Some people tell us that the government can impress its sovereignty on a piece of paper, and that is money. Well, if it is, what is the use of wasting it making one dollar bills? It takes no more ink and no more paper—why not make one thousand dollar bills? Why not make a hundred million dollar bills and all be billionaires? How do you get your money? By work. You have to dig it out of the ground.That is where it comes from. Men have always had a kind of hope that something could be made out of nothing.

Source: Elder Joseph L. Wirthlin
General Conference, October 1944

Topics: Economics; Government, Spending

Labor A Sacred Obligation

The only preventive for further decadence in the morals, intelligence, spiritual, and materialistic affairs of man is not less work, but more work, the proper understanding between employee and employer, both of them realizing that they have sacred obligations to one another. He who would hire the laborer should realize that there is imposed upon him a sacred obligation, namely, as stated in Luke that the laborer is worthy of his hire. On the other hand, he who labors with his hands should remember his obligation of an honest day’s labor. It is as the writer of Proverbs declares in 10:4: “He becometh poor that dealeth with a slack hand: but the hand of the diligent maketh rich.”

Source: Elder Joseph L. Wirthlin
General Conference, October 1944

Topics: Responsibility

The power of God which is work, creative work, as I have defined it, is the foundation stone of salvation, temporally, spiritually, and mentally. The cornerstone on which this great republic rests is that of work and free enterprise. Should the cornerstone deteriorate, the national structure will collapse. The cornerstone must be strengthened and reinforced by greater endeavor, for there is now resting upon this nation a burden of debt the like of which the world has never known before, stupendous beyond the imagination and comprehension of the average mind; and its liquidation, if it is liquidated according to just and honest principles, can only be accomplished through the application of godly power, namely, work on the part of its citizens. This statement is sustained by an excerpt taken from a bulletin published by the Tax Foundation in New York City:

The relation between average earning power and the average debt load on the individual is significant. A large part of the debt is held by banks, insurance companies, and other savings and investment institutions. The future welfare of millions of people depends on the continued solvency of these institutions and that depends on maintaining the value of their assets, including government bonds. But the value of the government bonds depends on the labor and earnings of the people and on their capacity to provide enough taxes to pay the interest and redeem the principal of the debt.

Source: Elder Joseph L. Wirthlin
General Conference, October 1944

Topics: Debt; Economics

A Nation Blessed “Whose God Is The Lord”

May a kind Providence give us the vision and courage necessary to stem these dangerous trends. We need, as we need no other thing, a nationwide repentance of our sins. Never before have we needed the blessings of Almighty God more than today. We need his divine favor in the halls of government, in our homes, in the factories and shops, on the farms and on the battlefields of the world.

Source: Elder Ezra Taft Benson
General Conference, October 1944

Topics: Christianity

When foundation principles are discarded, then shifting, vagrant, opportunistic substitutes for principles take control and precisely because they are opportunistic they must shift with the vagaries of changing popular moods. Stability—a steady march forward toward a fixed goal—no longer is found.

It is for us to stand by the tried and proved principles of religion and the tried and proved governmental principles which have so blessed our land.

Source: Elder Albert E. Bowen
General Conference, October 1944

Topics: Freedom, Loss of

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